The Generation of Lift
by Conner Youngblood
Release Date: October 9th 2015
Tracklist: The Birds of Finland / Stockholm / T X T N / Diamonds. / The Badlands //
All of these stunning EPs just keep
finding their way to me, from Axel
Flóvent's Forest Fires, Harrison Storm's Sense Of Home. and now to Conner Youngblood's EP The Generation of Lift. The Generation of Lift is
his second release to date after his debut, Sketches,
in 2012.
The introduction to The Birds of Finland is
effortless giving a sneak-peak to the experimentalism and the intricacies of
his instrumentation and arrangements; with lots of elements and phrases that
are played throughout the EP placed delicately and mesmerisingly into one
minute and twenty seconds. Three quarters of the way through that introduction,
there's this harp motif that's so brilliantly placed and delicate that you'll
also find littered throughout the second track Stockholm. These moments
of overlapping motifs becomes apparent as you listen to the EP, always having
senses of familiarity through each track, while the instrumentation slowly
develops and adds other instruments and parts in.
The instrumentation ranges from sparse to
dense and never feels over-done, consisting of vocals, guitar, banjo,
percussion, harp and many others that are introduced as the EP plays through.
However well-thought out the tracks may feel, there's still this simplicity and
minimalism to them that lures you into the mindfulness of the soundscape. The Birds Of Finland laments
a melancholic beauty that draws the listener in to get lost in: "I
doubt you will ever notice / I know I've got my stubborn ways / The shovelers
soon fly away / While this winter moon will disavow / All the time we've wasted
now." This wistful feeling moves through to the final track, The Badlands, which
sports very different instrumentation to The
Birds of Finland where it incorporates piano and brass. The
instrumentation, although very different to the first track, slowly changes and
gives this nostalgia into the soundscape as it changes and develops making its
way through the EP.
The combination of and shaping of the
tracks through the instrumentation, arrangements, genres and themes is a
spectacle of the illustrations of Youngblood's perspective. The
Generation of Lift feels cared of and looked after, and however
effortless the final work may feel it seems as though a lot of hard work went
into creating these intricacies and elements littered in the EP. Have a listen to the amazing EP below.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Tell us what you think!