Drome strike: Younghusband serve up relentless Krautrock
Photograph: Eleonore de Bonneval
This year’s Glastonbury line-up glistened with sprinklings of psychedelia like technicolour crumbs caught in a crustie’s beard. There was Australian psyche stalwart Tame Impala who produced the debut album of Melody’s Echo Chamber who had the lunchtime set on The Park Stage. The Park Stage in turn was on Friday night headlined by The Horrors and Django Django who in markedly different ways have been busy lacing the cool aid of the musical mainstream.
Nestled somewhere in and amongst this troupe is Younghusband whose output of “droning psyche pop” (according to singer and multi-instrumentalist Euan Hinshelwood, 25, who has lived in Hackney since 2009) has comprised of a trickle of gems rather than a deluge since they formed three years ago after meeting in their hometown outside of Watford.
Now another precious stone is on the horizon: debut album Dromes, recorded over just a fortnight at Chapel Studios in Lincolnshire under the tutelage of producer Nick Vehrnes (Deerhunter, Wild Nothing), which is due to be released in September.
When I meet Euan and Joe Chilton (27-year-old bassist, of Stamford Hill), precisely one half of Younghusband (the other consisting of drummer Pete Baker, 29, and guitarist Adam Beach, 31) they put forward their case for having committed the whole thing to a reel-to-reel tape recorder: “It’s the best way to record the sort of music we play. Arguably any sort of music.”
Title track Dromes has a relentlessly hypnotic Krautrock insistence but this isn’t ambling shoe-gaze self-indulgence: the almost-anthemic vocal line is adorned with sprightly xylophone and vocal harmonies that lend the track its reluctantly bittersweet pop sentiment. Analgesic guitar licks tickle the mid-range of previous single Comets Crossed, which has a similarly unyielding hypnotic force.
Joe explains the underlying tension in the tracks: “We had trouble when we were trying to de-pop ourselves a few years ago. We had the vocals really low, the guitars really loud, and we wanted the drums to be smaller. But I think now we’re accepting that you can still have the more abrasive elements but still show that underneath all the noise there is a song.”
How did the Younghusband sound arrive here?
“When I was growing up I had two older brothers – one was really into dance, one was really into grunge, my parents were really into classic 60s stuff like Crosby, Stills and Nash, Mowtown, Beatles and Beach Boys,” Euan says. “Often all of it was going on all at the same time. That’s had a direct influence on what I’m doing now: the harmonies, the rhythmic consistency, the heavier aspects of it. That’s the basis of it.”
Younghusband have been quietly accruing a small but hard won following. And a triumphant Great Escape show in May could mark something of a sea-change. They got the booking just the week before, but the gig was “unexpectedly amazing” and they managed to pack the Prince Albert. If only Euan had known: “I wish I’d worn something better”.
The gig made for something of a contrast with previous experiences on the South coast. The last time the pair of them were on Brighton beach, Joe was being wheeled into the sea, stark naked, in a children’s push chair, losing a shoe in the process.
Euan explains: “I had no recollection of having gone to Brighton and back in the night. I woke up in Homerton the next morning with sand all over the floor and my clothes soaking wet wondering what the hell had happened.”
Whatever happened that evening, the boys are now visibly excited about the upcoming album release on Sonic Cathedral which has been the culmination of a slow-burning process, but now Euan is confident that Younghusband are “on a really good path”:
“I was sending demos to Sonic Cathedral back in 2005-06. At the time I was massively into Syd Barrett who was a big influence on the aesthetic of label. I got no reply because the demos were probably crap. I’d actually completely forgotten that I’d sent demos to them at all until they got back to me in 2011 and said ‘can we put out your EP?”.
How should people react at the next show at The Social, supporting Happy Families on 14 July?
“I’d love it if people danced. I don’t think they will, but we’ll give them the chance.”