Youthmovies

Youthmovies

Andrew Mears and Stephen Hammond of Youthmovie Soundtrack Strategies on stage at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, in July 2004
Background information
Also known as Youthmovie Soundtrack Strategies, YMSS, Youm
Origin Oxford, England, United Kingdom
Genres Math rock (early years)
Post-rock
Progressive rock
Years active 2002–2010
Labels Blast First Petite
Drowned in Sound
Try Harder
Fierce Panda
Vacuous Pop
Quickfix
Associated acts Pet Moon, Vertical Montanas, Jonquil, Hamm, Traktors, Hold My Hand I'm Dying, Foals, Bins Are For Bombs
Website http://www.myspace.com/whyyoum
Past members Andrew Mears
Al English
Stephen Hammond
Samuel Hudson Scott
Simon Jones
Graeme Murray

Youthmovies (previously known as YMSS or Youthmovie Soundtrack Strategies) were an English rock quintet active from 2002 to 2010. They comprised Andrew Mears (guitar and vocals), Al English (guitar), Graeme Murray (drums), Stephen Hammond (bass) and Sam Scott (brass and keys).

Simon Jones, drummer from the band Hope of the States, originally played drums in Youthmovies. However, just prior to Hope of the States being signed to Sony BMG in 2004, Jones was replaced by Graeme Murray.

Their early sound touched upon noise, brooding soundscapes, samples, feedback and drone, though their mini-album Hurrah! Another Year, Surely This One Will Be Better Than the Last; The Inexorable March of Progress Will Lead Us All to Happiness and the subsequent single "Ores" suggested they were moving into a more ambitious and musically accomplished sound.

The band toured extensively with Hope of the States, Adam Gnade, 65daysofstatic and ¡Forward, Russia!. They also played at the Truck Festival,[1][2] Latitude Festival, All Tomorrow's Parties,[3] Bestival, Cambridge Film Festival[4] and the Reading and Leeds festivals.

The band developed a reputation as a compelling live act, touring regularly as well as playing improvisations, collaborations and live film soundtracks in art galleries, theatres and forests.

In October 2007 the band released a 5-track CD EP in collaboration with Adam Gnade entitled Honey Slides on guitarist Al English's label Try Harder.

Between April and June 2007 the band recorded their first full-length album, Good Nature, at the Seamus Wong studio in Leicester, released on Drowned in Sound Recordings on 17 March 2008. Ant Theaker, former guitarist with Hope of the States, produced the album, which was mixed at the Strongroom Studios in east London, and mastered in Chicago by Bob Weston of Shellac. The album introduced "a new attention to melody"[5] and was the first recording to feature the trumpet playing of Sam Scott.

Biography

Forming in 2002 at university, Youthmovies (née Youthmovie Soundtrack Strategies) began as a two-person affair, utilising tape decks and delay pedals to flesh-out a fledgling sound. Founders English and Mears - attracted to one another’s abilities by a shared fondness for left-of-centre alternative music; the pair would book shows for the likes of Kid606 and Part Chimp while at university - soon sought assistance, and Hammond’s arrival and the employment of Simon Jones on drums, later to commit full-time to Hope Of The States, formed a temporarily finished article.

Jones’ departure in 2003 freed the drummer’s stool up for Murray - a debut EP, ‘Let’s Get Going… You’re Fracturing Me With This Misery’, soon followed - and since then the core four have pursued a very singular creative path, recalling inventors past while always keeping an eye on widening future horizons. Press Youthmovies and they’ll cite King Crimson, Steve Reich and Sonic Youth as cornerstone influences, but their own reach is indicative of their individuality and status in the contemporary indie-rock scene. Sometime tourmates ¡Forward, Russia! can trace their formation back the initial inspiration of witnessing Youthmovies live; 65daysofstatic are regular co-conspirators, remixing Youthmovies’ ‘…spooks the horse’ and sharing a number of tours; and Foals were initially formed, and named, by Mears before the vocalist elected to concentrate 100 per cent on Youthmovies.

Youthmovies’ acclaimed ‘Hurrah!’ EP was released in 2004 on much-lauded indie label Fierce Panda; a re-release a year later incorporated a standalone single, ‘Ores’, the video for which was created by directors Type2Error, whose credits also include Bloc Party and Manic Street Preachers. Since then Youthmovies’ time has rarely been their own for rest and recuperation.

Touring commitments have come thick and fast, with the band supporting Biffy Clyro, Death Cab For Cutie, Mission Of Burma and many more. Festival appearances - including a memorable improvised set with NYC rapper and poet Saul Williams at the 2005 Leeds Festival and bill-topping appearances at All Tomorrow’s Parties and Truck Festival in 2007 - have been welcome distractions. Special one-off events like the live sound-tracking of films at London’s ICA and the Cambridge Film Festival have attracted new audiences to the band’s idiosyncrasies. A special collaborative EP with two-time tourmate Adam Gnade, ‘Honey Slides’, was released via Try Harder, the label co-founded by English, in 2006. (Try Harder has also released material by Jonquil, Tired Irie, Blood Red Shoes and Foals among others). Now, though, Youthmovies are ready to reveal their debut album, ‘Good Nature’.

Produced alongside Ant Theaker, who also manned the desk for ‘Hurrah!’, Youthmovies’ first long-play release proper is the culmination of more than five years’ hard work. With Scott a full-time member of the Youthmovies unit, the progress from the band’s preceding EP couldn’t be clearer: this is fiery ambition committed to digital disc, the sound of five hungry souls realising all their potential in a blinding flourish of compositional extravagance and exemplary musicianship.

But do not let such on-paper hyperbole for time signature hysteria put you, the potential newcomer, off: ‘elitism’ is a word unknown to Youthmovies, and there’s nothing pretentious about the ten songs that comprise ‘Good Nature’. Immediacy is key, and from the outset onwards this album balances the affecting and accessible with the beguiling and bombastic. It is an album to awaken a mainstream to the talents of five young musicians already enjoying an incredible groundswell of support at a comparative underground level. It is an album to put to bed expectations of impenetrable fret-work and preconceptions of ‘progressive’ being a dirty word.

‘Let’s Get Going…’ were their own words five years ago; with ‘Good Nature’, Youthmovies have well and truly arrived.

(Mike Diver, February 2008)

Split

It was announced via their Myspace blog on Tuesday, December 29, 2009 that they had split.

In March 2010 the band toured one last time in England and Scotland along with regular collaborator Adam Gnade.

Discography

Albums

Mini-albums

Singles

CDRs

References

  1. ↑ Hughes, Tim (10 July 2007). "Line-up for truck festival revealed". Oxford Mail (Newsquest (Oxfordshire & Wiltshire) Ltd). Retrieved 16 April 2013.
  2. ↑ Hughes, Tim (21 July 2008). "6,000 enjoy Truck Festival". Oxford Mail.
  3. ↑ "ATP VS THE FANS - LINE UP". All Tomorrow's Parties website. ATP Festivals. Retrieved 16 April 2013.
  4. ↑ Hawkett, Becky. "Interview: Youthmovies". Cambridge Film Trust. Retrieved 16 April 2013.
  5. ↑ Mears, Andrew (2008-03-31). "Band Notes - Youthmovies". SUPERSWEET. Retrieved 2008-03-31.
  6. ↑ Good Nature at MusicBrainz
  7. ↑ Let's Get Going... You're Fracturing Me With This Misery at MusicBrainz
  8. ↑ Hurrah! Another Year, Surely This One Will Be Better Than the Last; The Inexorable March of Progress Will Lead Us All to Happiness at MusicBrainz
  9. ↑ Hurrah! Another Year, Surely This One Will Be Better Than the Last; The Inexorable March of Progress Will Lead Us All to Happiness (2005 repress) at MusicBrainz
  10. ↑ Honey Slides at MusicBrainz
  11. ↑ Polyp at MusicBrainz
  12. ↑ "Ores" at MusicBrainz
  13. ↑ Homeless Musics at MusicBrainz
  14. ↑ Homeless Musics II at MusicBrainz
  15. ↑ Homeless Musics III at MusicBrainz

External links

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