East India Youth - Culture Of Volume (Album Review)
Friday, 10 April 2015
Written by Huw Baines
‘Total Strife Forever’, William Doyle’s debut as East India Youth, revealed itself slowly. It shapeshifted, confounding expectations and leaving hooks adrift like anxious, twitching, half-formed thoughts. ‘Culture Of Volume’ is every bit as sprawling and complex, but unmistakably the work of someone with pop songs on their mind.
The Juddering, the album’s near five minute opening instrumental, could fade in immediately as the final splash of noise from Total Strife Forever IV fades out. It’s a look over the shoulder and a marker set down for the evolutionary steps that follow. Synths pile atop one another as they did on Glitter Recession and songs explode into life as Hinterland did, but there is an added sense of cohesion based around Doyle’s willingness to indulge a more measured sense of melody.
There is a new-found boldness here, a desire to be picked out by the spotlight. Beaming White and Turn Away are prime examples, both of them synth-pop songs of rare quality built around plaintive melodies.
Doyle’s vocals are prominent, alternating between lilting highs and a mannered delivery perhaps stashed away from his indie days. On Carousel, a dreamlike, genuinely beautiful ballad, he truly gives in and soars.
The record’s more straightforward moments are the anchor for its many excursions onto fresh ground. Entirety begins as a piece that would comfortably survive a dust up with The Chemical Brothers before drifting away, only to be hauled back by the seemingly relentless momentum already built up. Hearts That Never builds layer by layer until it appears it might collapse under its own weight. Again, Doyle’s vocals cut through the squall and the chaos fades to a murmur.
Doyle’s reference points are countless and varied: Bowie, Eno, Kraftwerk. The list runs and runs. But, far from being a tiring homage, ‘Culture Of Volume’ marks the emergence of a surprising pop voice. Like his debut, it would take weeks to unpick each constituent part. This time though, that desire is less pressing. Each decision made is in service to a whole, whether that’s a song or the record’s swooping rise and fall. In that sense, this is an old-fashioned album. All the better for it.
East India Youth Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Wed May 27 2015 - MANCHESTER Deaf Institute
Thu May 28 2015 - GLASGOW King Tuts Wah Wah Hut
Sat May 30 2015 - SHEFFIELD Plug, The
Sun May 31 2015 - NORWICH Arts Centre
Tue June 02 2015 - BRISTOL Exchange
Wed June 03 2015 - BRIGHTON Haunt
Thu June 04 2015 - LONDON Village Underground
Fri June 05 2015 - RAMSGATE Music Hall
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