About
MillionYoung
Label: Old Flame Records
If the Drums album got the Guardian reviewer in a tizz, we dread to think what he'd make of Million Young, the project name for the none-more-fey vocals and listless dreamscapes of Mike Diaz. Then again, the writer in question recently wrote an article in thrall to Toro Y Moi, so you never know. Electronic whiz Diaz, like Toro Y Moi's Chaz Bundwick and Washed Out's Ernest Greene, is all about etiolated euphoria, using wistful washes of synth and doleful computer melodies, with some electric and acoustic guitar accompaniment, to stir up poignant memories of seasons past.But which season(s)? According to one blogger, this is "perfect music for spring" while another suggested Million Young's Be So True EP was ideal for the icy, barren terrains of winter: "Like snowfall on a quiet winter's night, the songs fall ever so gently, blanketing your ears with blissful enchantment." That feeling was seconded by the journalist who raved about Million Young in terms of the "almost cold, minor-chord feel". And don't get us started on autumnal melancholy. As for Diaz himself, he seems to be luxuriating in his music's power to evoke an ineffable summer sadness, releasing an EP called Sunndreamm and incorporating tribal rhythms, Afrobeat textures and Hawaiian keyboard patterns with the lulling, languorous feel and paradisal piquancy of exotica. "They sound like what you might imagine would result if Beach House went to the islands and decided to make a record," wrote another Million Young fan, which got us wondering what would have happened if New Order had gone to Ibiza and never come back ...
It's chillwave, basically, and we make no apologies for bringing you another chillwave act because a) chillwave is our favourite genre of the last few years and b) Million Young do it so well, perhaps better than any we've heard since Washed Out. Diaz knows he's in hypnagogic pop territory and admits as much on his MySpace, listing his influences as "film scores, the 10th dimension and lucid dreaming". There are five great tracks on the site but we wanted more so we bought the Be So True EP from iTunes (there are sites where you can download his stuff for free) and we weren't disappointed. Weak Ends finds Diaz worshipping, ever so listlessly, at the altar of the young Bernard Sumner. Youthless is dreamy acoustica, with a Caribbean lilt, Diaz raising his soft voice to a shout for the strange lyric about how he can't "bear to witness your love". Cynthia squares the circle between Radio Dept, New Order and Memory Tapes. Pilfer is gorgeously somnolent, like slow-motion techno, while Soft Denial offers an electronic route for the Drums, should they want to take it, out of their trad-indie corner. Altogether now: sing if you're glad to be fey. (http://www.guardian.co.uk)
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Past Events
Venue
28
Feb
2011
20:00
