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LP
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DC 947LP
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$23.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 5/30/2025
"Drag City and Yoga Records return to the music of Matthew Young. Following Recurring Dreams (1981, reissued 2014) and Traveler's Advisory (1986, reissued 2010), Undercurrents (2025) collects eight oddly dissimilar pieces that somehow fit together perfectly. Although unique enough to be called outsider, Young's new album occupies a musical world accessible to fans of many genres. Matthew Young, born in 1950, grew up in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. When he showed early musical interest, his parents bought an upright piano, and Matthew began taking lessons. In his teens, he attended concerts by Duke Ellington, Dave Brubeck, and Count Basie, and grew up to discover iconoclasts such as Eric Satie, Charles Ives, John Cage, Harry Partch, Brian Eno, and experimental rock groups such as Can and Harmonia. He also regularly attended and played at folk music gatherings in the nearby New Jersey Pine Barrens. His music began to appear in local theater productions, leading to the 1981 release of Recurring Dreams, through New York distributor NMDS. Later, Young became obsessed with the hammered dulcimer, and in 1986 he released a new album, Traveler's Advisory, which featured the instrument prominently, along with electronics, tape effects, and his first foray into vocals. Composed and recorded over the span of several decades, Undercurrents displays the wide range of Young's various sonic pallets. On the opener 'Reflexion,' a quartet of marimbas twist and turn over each other, while in 'One and All,' a harp melody is overtaken by various electronic effects. The 12-minute title track is an abstract weaving of piano and synthesis, with the six sections named after oceanic currents. 'A Game of Chess, a Game of Chance' consists of sparse electronic tones created on the Princeton University IBM mainframe during his studies in 1976. This all makes way for the second half of Undercurrents, where settings of Marion Lineaweaver's poems, 'The Summer Girls' and 'Her Key is Minor,' showcase Young's honest, fragile vocal approach, conveying a deep sense of soulful longing, and the latter even sweetly approaching something akin to synthpop. The piano on 'Inflexion' calls back to the end of 'Reflexion,' and in the album closer, 'Into the Woods,' Young plays the hammered dulcimer with the disciplined reverence of an alchemist. Simply put, Undercurrents is a triumph across many musical realms."
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LP
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DC 593LP
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2014 release. "Matthew Young's genre-bending, acclaimed 1986 release Traveler's Advisory reappeared as a reissue on Drag City/Yoga in 2010 and quickly sold out. We now return to Young's first effort, Recurring Dreams, dating back to 1981 and the apex of the Eno/Berlin schools' influence over a myriad of American followers. Young created eight EMS/Rhodes pieces solo, subtly weaving in variable-speed Revox manipulation of traditional rock instrumentation with the lightest of touches. As anyone who has heard Traveler's Advisory already knows, Matthew Young could never be a mere imitator. What all too often amounted to predictable schtick in the field of early 80s home electronica, Young made personal, delicate, discreet, and discrete. Wordlessly illustrating its titles -- 'Version, Inversion,' 'The Forest Of Lilacs,' and 'Mistral' (a strong, cold, northwesterly wind), Young conjures vivid, progressive tones of the unknown. Recurring Dreams requires repeat listenings to fully reveal its Bonsai-like qualities. Fans of Erik Satie, JD Emmanuel, private-issue new age or the more placid side of minimal synth should take note of this one."
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LP
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DC 444LP
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"Mixing a hammered dulcimer and a drum machine makes no logical sense. Taking your lyrics from instruction manuals is not a good idea. Covering Michael Hurley in 1986 is about as out of step with the times as you can get. And yet... somehow this 25-year-old '12th-century/folk/electronic album' feels perfectly up to date and dare we say...cooler than anything else you'll hear this year! Drag City and Yoga Records proudly present Matthew Young's Traveler's Advisory. Recorded at home, made and distributed at the end of the first age of vinyl, Traveler's Advisory is a startlingly original work: an utterly unique mix of vocals, dulcimer, banjo, Casio synths, and electronic drums, Matthew played every instrument & recorded every note. A graphic designer by trade, he too created the album artwork. Aside from a few traditionals and one cover version, Young composed everything. The haunting song Young chose to cover, 'Werewolf,' comes from another original, Michael Hurley, approximately 20 years before Hurley came back into fashion with the kids. The striking blend of 'electronic' & 'traditional' should appeal to fans of Arthur Russell; another pioneer responsible for an unlikely wedding of drum machine and cello. Opener 'Objects in Mirror' does indeed evoke Russell's intimate home recordings compiled on the posthumous Calling Out Of Context. So much private press music comes off as the result of some sort of vanity -- 'private press' is often nothing more than code for 'vanity press.' Hearing Traveler's Advisory, one is struck by the vivid image of an artist who is full of ideas and learning how to express them as he goes along out of a sense of necessity. Young is the receiver and transmitter of strange ideas drifting in the ether, and renders them quite understandable to any open-minded listener."
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