Volcanic Tongue's Barbed Wire Review

Richard Youngs

Barbed Wire Explosion In The Kingdom Of Atlantis


Sonic Oyster Vinyl (SOV-002
)




"Massively anticipated brand new album from Richard Youngs in an edition of only 250 copies, with all VT copies coming with a lyric sheet individually signed by Richard while stocks last: this one has been gestating for a while. Youngs was a big d-beat fan back in the day and has been working towards a vision of an ultra streamlined hardcore record that would combine the protesting/apocalyptic aesthetic of Discharge/Rude Kids et al with the heavenly song-stylings/‘Church of England’ edge that defines the best of his back catalogue. Well this is it. And it’s a monster. The Rotten Masters EP that he cut with Andrew Paine and that was the debut Sonic Oyster Vinyl release points the way but oddly enough the style is less aggressive than on there while still shadowing the whole early-Public Image Limited ‘feel’, especially in Richard’s vocals, which come over like a home counties take on Lydon circa Metal Box. Drum machines kick in with the classic d-beat rhythm and Richard shreds on lead guitar, playing in a fast amphetamine-metal style that trades technique for tectonics. The lyrics are genre-perfect with classic tracks like “More Fucking Stuff” coming over like a typically textually convoluted yet two-fingers pithy assault on consumerism – “more fucking stuff/high rise wilderness/more fucking stuff/these briars of prefabrication/more fucking stuff/random dystopias of regeneration/more fucking stuff” – and classic choruses like “feeling no feeling/feeling no feeling/feeling no feeling/feeling no feeling/feeling no feeling” that marry the hypnotic, bardic style of tracks like “Summer’s Edge” from Summer Wanderer to urban street-fighting aesthetics. Yet despite the potentially generic trappings this is a classic Richard Youngs album with beautifully rendered songs and some truly stirring vocal performances, with his voice given a new sense of urgent delivery, somehow linking his own particular English DIY tradition to parallel currents like Public Image, Crass, A Flux Of Pink Indians and Rudimentary Peni. With perfect scrabbly/messy DIY cover art and an atmosphere that is a confounding mix of strident avant rock radicalism, hardcore refusal, high energy free metal and nostalgic teenage memorial this is at once a defining Richard Youngs side and a massive step outside. Another amazing instalment in one of the most fascinating and unpredictable trips in underground music. Very highly recommended, you need to hear this one..." (Volcanic Tongue)