Watching Young Hunting at the Echo on Tuesday night was a sweet surprise. I never really expect anything when I randomly go to free shows, what would I? Most of the time, I have never heard of the bands who are playing, but I like the discovery and the surprise. The quintet played a set of seven diverse, but all-velvety and sweet songs, thanks to Hari Rex’s floating croon harmonizing with Ilya Malinsky’s, over textured guitars. Sometimes when I listen to a band that I don’t know, I have the impression that all the songs are kind of the same. Some bands have found a sound and definitively stick with it and there is nothing wrong with that, but Young Hunting managed to have a sound while producing different songs, I mean I was able to find them different personalities right away, and that’s not always the case.
But if I had to find a common ground between their compositions, it may have been the eeriness of the vocals, the slowly expanding and languish melodies, the downer side of the songs, or should I say melancholia? They may have been a lot of things at the same time, sleepy, heartbroken, isolated, bright…
There certainly was sadness but also a real serenity coming from the music, with fuzzy or reverb-soaked guitars, the use of a muted trumpet or a keyboard on some songs and smooth vocals. They were five on stage and I have seen bands of 2 or 3 being much louder than they were, but that was not their point.
‘Into your Mind’ was a slow, peaceful, atmospheric tune with hushed high-pitch vocals creating cinematic visions of sun-drenched relaxing sea, ‘Sweet Bird’ was a sexy number with almost tropical slow rhythms, all-sugar-coated by Hari Rex’s 60s-inspired poignant crooning,… I was probably totally out of my mind but I thought about a cross between Ritchie Valens and Roy Orbison. ‘White Lite’ had more of this melancholia and some Calexico-like spaghetti western ambiance, whereas ‘Maze’ was way more agitated with intricate guitars and keyboard ,and again total sweetness in the vocal harmonies. They closed their set with ‘Rust’ and its ascending pulsing-noisy guitars and soothing harmonies, firing even more emotions right into your amygdala. The shoegaze was becoming climatic and they were pouring tons of emotion in the vocals and melodies without sounding sentimental, and it was music I could understand instantaneously.
They took their moniker from a traditional Scottish folk song made famous by Nick Cave ‘s murder ballad version, so what not to love about them?