A while ago I reviewed Yutanii’s single ‘Chasing The Dragon’ – which can be found on this EP – and found that it was one of those ‘I love this but for the life of me can’t say exactly why’ tracks. Hopefully the EP will help me decide.
The opening track ‘Bodysnatchers’ is surprisingly groovy, well at least to start off with; after that it gets decidedly dark. There’s that mix of post-hardcore, space-rock, acid rock madness with a hint of Cardiacs. Detuned sounds jar and jerk. It sounds like a cross between a band that might have appeared at a Stonehenge Free Festival and something I can’t define. It is incredibly addictive.
Up next is ‘Chasing The Dragon’. It’s full of grinding sounds that come from the depths of hell, and a vocal that proclaims loudhailer style. This is until, and inexplicably, it breaks out into a passage of extremely tuneful space-rock. But hey, who the fuck cares, it’s all part of the joy.
I am still no further into discovering exactly why I love this music. Let’s keep going.
‘Coven’ surprises with a start that is rock but with a sense of melody. Now there’s still those jerky jarring sounds but they’re toned down. It does the loud/quiet thing; an astoundingly beautiful guitar break that turns into a swirling twirling fairground keyboard that sounds somewhat like ELP (but dirty my friends).
‘The Tesseract’ is like – and please forgive the retro references – a cross between Hawkwind and Here & Now. It’s spacrock but it has more than a touch of psychedelic rock. It shifts, it goes off on weird sonic paths, It’s all quite bewilderingly beautifully chaotic.
And then to the closing track ‘Cosmic Joke’ which for Yutanni could be termed the ‘tasteful ballad’. A gorgeous tune, tasteful guitar. It almost sounds indie. That is until it gets all warped organ. The joke here is this track doesn’t do what you might expect of the band.
I think after hearing the whole EP I am closer to knowing quite why this music is so good. Firstly it’s music made by a band that just take it where they want, there’s no ‘sound of Yutaniii’ beyond what is best described as a broad range. Second, for all the sonic chaos, the quality of playing on these tracks is frankly outstanding. And thirdly, it’s just grin inducing fun, it’s music played for the sheer joy of it, the love of it.
Yutaniii make brilliant and compelling music. This EP intrigues and mesmerises in equal measures.
