New York, NY (Top40 Charts / Dirty Water Records) Copenhagen's The Youth are the next big thing in R&B…no, not
Rhianna and her ilk's modern 'R&B'; real R&B, the R&B of Bo Diddley, Jimmy Reed and Chuck Berry. The foundation, along with the Blues, upon which rock'n'roll was founded.
These four young Danes are known all over
Europe for their incendiary live shows, and their debut album Nothing But … perfectly meets that standard. It was recorded live at one of the world's top analogue studios (Estudios Circo Perrotti in Gijón, Spain) no sterile, soulless overdubbing for The Youth. They don't want that, and they don't need that because they can actually play their instruments and sing without an autotuner! And they have a live drummer! And they write their own songs! A real band playing real music, in other words.
As promoter/musician/reviewer Phil Moore wrote recently in an article on The Youth in Shindig! Magazine, "Forming a garage band in Denmark is not easy. It takes time." "There's not a lot of people playing this kind of music," The Youth's bassist
David Peter Jorgensen attests. The Youth are your typical begat-from-school act, where singer-guitarist Lasse Tarp hooked up with lead guitarist Jesper Agerbæk, then recruited drummer Sune Christian Thomsen and finally Jorgensen. Inspired by various garage 45s and the beat collection of Jorgensen they tuned into the Medway bands (The Masonics, The Milkshakes), '60s UK beat and US garage, '80s revival (Tell-Tale Hearts, the Paisley Underground, The Crawdaddys) plus of course the '60s 'pigtråd' ('barbed wire') beat scene of their native Denmark (Sir Henry & His Butlers,
Peter Belli, The Defenders).
Anyone can paint, or write, or play music by the numbers; there's all too much of that in today's music, especially if one's sound is based on a traditional music genre. But as Jason Hobart wrote in a recent review of The Youth in Shindig! Magazine "…it's a testament to this fabulous band's vitality and chops that they manage to pull off the rare coup of sticking so closely to the template while still sounding relevant and fresh."
Pete RingMaster from RingMaster Review hears the same thing from The Youth: "Merging a raw and hungry sound with an assured swagger, Danish band The Youth provides one of those refreshing adventures which merges nostalgia and modern endeavour into one vivacious party."
Nothing But... is out on 6 October on Dirty Water Records. The Copenhagen album launch is Saturday 30 August at Underhuset on Vesterbro from 9 p.m. with DJs until 5 a.m. including Dirty Water's own Dirty PJ on the decks.
Nothing But… by The Youth on Dirty Water Records. Available on vinyl/CD/download.
Distribution
Cargo Records UK, Redeye (US), Popstock (Spain), Differ-Ant (France),
Cargo Germany (Germany), Disk Union (Japan), etc.
The Dirty Water Club started in October 1996 in the Tufnell Park neighbourhood of North London, at a venue called The Boston. The club's name is derived from The Standells' 1966 hit 'Dirty Water' which glorifies the US city of Boston, Massachusetts.
Past performers have included The
White Stripes (voted by Q Magazine as one of the top 10 gigs of all time, Mojo one of the top 30 and Kerrang one of the top 100!), NOBUNNY, Kid Congo Powers (from the Cramps), The Fleshtones, Billy Childish, The Von Bondies, The Dirtbombs, Thee Michelle Gun Elephant, The 5.6.7.8's, The Horrors and The Brian Jonestown
Massacre to name just a few. The club has also seen some original 60s performers, such as The Monks, ? and the Mysterians, Kim Fowley, Sky Saxon, GONN, Michael Davis of the MC5 and more grace its stage and their in-house record label, Dirty Water Records, is one of the leading garage/beat/(real) R&B labels in the world.
Facebook: dirtywaterrecords
Twitter: @dirtywaterrecs
Instagram: dirtywaterrecords
