Young Punx Album Review

ukevents.net · Joined: 15 Dec 2003 Posts: 2398

The Young Punx – ‘Your Music Is Killing Me’ Album Review

I have a confession to make. When The Young Punx album ‘Your Music Is Killing Me’ arrived on my doorstep I must admit I was a little adamant about putting it on the stereo. Will a full rota of music students to teach ‘Mary Had A Little Lamb’ to and exams looming (Timothy will pass wont he – he so wants to get into the grammar school) I wasn’t exactly striving to listen to fast, enthusiastic dance tracks. But now The Young Punx has become a permanent fixture to my stereo. Oh my, is it a good album!!

Now dance and house music is great – but I find that I need to be on a night out to appreciate this type of music, but The Young Punk’s album ‘Your Music Is Killing Me’ can be appreciated at any time of day anywhere you go. The tracks are fresh and feisty and not too in your face. Released in 2007 this double album is their first released album and sets them well for future work. What makes the twenty-seven strong album great to listen to is the fact that for dance type music it isn’t just one bloke behind some decks. All of the tracks on this album have been created using live samples – blending together a live band and synthesised music to a wonderful cocktail of shifting styles and groovy samples.

The best way to describe has to be the way the band describes themselves ‘mashpop and punkstep’; a proverbial mash up of a million styles – from pop to rock and classical and everything and anything between. My favourite track has to be ‘Drum and Bacharach’ that begins with a cheeky opening, an almost 70’s TV theme tune show – something like ‘Are You Being Served’- that suddenly turns in to a drum and bass rave that has such an infectious beat. But when Hal Richardson and Cameron Saunders combine the two you are left simply smiling. Music ingenuity that is so refreshing to hear.

All of the tracks have been written by Richardson and Cameron, with others working with them, but when performed they can claim to have some of the best musicians in the band, another element to make the tracks sparkle. The full live band includes guitar virtuoso Guthrie Govan (Guitarist Magazine guitarist of the year) and vocals from Tiffany Gore (Medcab / Kraak en Smaak) and Yolanda Quartey (Bugz in the attic / Deekline / Cuban Brothers). With their highlight of 2007 being playing at Glastonbury and the band playing in Shanghai in March 2008 the band are set for big things.

The second CD to this double album is a limited edition remix disc. Some of the tracks are re-mixes of their own tracks such as ‘Fire’ and ‘You’ve Got To’ but ‘You’ve Got To’ includes a sample written by the great Manu Chau himself!!! This reggae-influenced track is bouncy-happy fun with some great instrumentation and ska’d up keyboard stabs!

Overall this album is my favourite find of 2008 so far and the one that replaces it will have to do some serious work.

For more info on The Young Punx’s go to:

www.myspace.com/theyoungpunx
www.theyoungpunx.com

Written by Rachael for UKEvents.net