This Youthful Cult Will Prevail

Very excited about Love Will Prevail, the upcoming record from New York weirdos Cult Of Youth (out September 4, again through Sacred Bones). From the sound of released track 'Man And Man's Ruin', this will be a sunnier yet no less theatrical affair - less dank Pogues on meth and more sunny pagan folk psychedelia. Seth Ragon apparently recorded most of the album himself at his newly-constructed home studio, and the experience certainly appears to be an enlightening one.

Cult Of Youth - Man and Man's Ruin


You can pre-order Love Will Prevail here. A new track off it is 'Garden of Delights' which shows that the woozy swaying darkness that the self-titled predecessor was steeped in hasn't been entirely bleached away - listen to it below. Get excited!!

Avant!

Ive been talking to Andrea over at AVANT! Records, a vinyl label based in Italy. They are relatively new, focusing primarily on post-punk and wave-ish stuff. My interest was fully arrested when I went to the Bandcamp page and saw that a previous Cult Of Youth release was put out by AVANT!, and seeing as Im a COY devotee I delved deeper into their wares. Their last three releases are very interesting.

Contrepoison's Until Next Morning 12" EP is four songs of droning, depressing synth thrown out of whack by the out of tune, off-kilter vocals. Seeings as Contrepoison means antidote in French, then perhaps this is the counterpoint to love - the album to drag you off your heady highs into the heartless darkness?

Contrepoison - To Never, Forever

Lust For Youth is a Swedish duo that dole out a more industrial synth drone, and their album Solar Flare offers twelve tracks of it. The great thing about these songs though is the pop sensibility hiding underneath the static and murk - these are catchy songs, despite the dark hues they are painted with. Think along the lines of a less refined Fuck Buttons and you are getting on the right track. This album really appealed to me after I peeled back the layers.

Lust For Youth - Dreams

Finally we have Scorpion Violente. Ill let the press from AVANT! fill you in on what's in store... "A gay beast from France obsessed with trash electronics and bad sexual habits. Eight long tracks of a sort of sick mix between Giorgio Moroder italo disco and the paranoid minimal wave by Suicide and Cabaret Voltaire." Its funny, because its not as disturbing as that first makes it out to be. Oh, its still pretty twisted, but these beats-infused numbers are damn catchy, and will lurk around your mind for some time - if you can get rid of them at all. Bonus points for a track called 'Christopher Walken' too.

Scorpion Violente - Viol Et Revanche

Expect to hear a lot from AVANT! on Sonic Masala over the next few months. If you like any/all of these releases, you can purchase em here!

Bow Down At The Cult Of Youth

Sacred Bones put out the eponymous LP from Brooklynites Cult Of Youth a couple weeks ago - and it completely blew me away. First of all, its not indicative of the common Brooklyn sound, or even attitude - this is inebriated sea shanty neo folk, very Shane McGowan in its rambunctious charisma and swaying emotion, albeit more clean cut. There is a certain darkness that infuses these songs, thanks in no small part to Swans producer Kevin McMahon behind the mixing desk (especially in tracks like 'Weary'), yet the pure effort put into these songs is mind-meltingly good. Punk-infused punk played in a faux-Irish bar, occasionally imparting archaic knowledge as fair maidens dance around the Maypole, occasionally standing affectedly whilst simultaneously going out of control, occasionally smashing pint glasses into the bored sailors in town for Fleet Week - its one of those albums that seems so out of place that you cant even imagine NOT loving it.
Cult Of Youth is out now. The band are playing SXSW in March, preceding that with a brace of Stateside shows with Pop. 1280 (that would be fucking unbelievable, please get to those shows!), then finish out April with a few US/Canadian shows following in Zola Jesus' wake. The Cult Of Youth is here.

Cult Of Youth - New West
Cult Of Youth - Casting Thorns