Vinyl edition of this 2005 side from Youngs, with heavily processed computer noise, fuzz bass, psych guitar and the usual hypnotic vocal style contributing to make this the heaviest electric rock record of his career to date. Includes the 16 minute "Summer's Edge 2".

New 'overground' album from Richard, with a focus on *those* vocals that give it the feel of a lusher, more musically arranged take on the minimal hypnotics of the classic Summer Wanderer. Here Richard plays bass guitar, harmonica, organ, percussion, piano and synth across a series of powerful, elementally simple songs that orbit repeated phrases and re-statements of melody. If you’ve see him live recently you’ll recognise “All Day Monday And Tuesday” but the rest of it is all new and it has a stark emotional power bolstered by vocals that situate him firmly within the lineage of classic English voices.

Warehouse find of mint/sealed copies of this all-time classic album, still the best Youngs/Wickham-Smith collaboration. Zoned, higher-minded psych rock, keyboard drones and *those* dual vocals. Some of their greatest ‘songs’: “Song For The Spanish Anarchists”, “Goat”, “I Live In A Big City”, “Overview And Sales Planning”. A classic album and a necessary addition to any shelf dedicated to underground music. Long out of print and never reissued. 

Much-anticipated LP+ 3xCD set celebrating two decades of cracked UK art/pop from the duo of Richard Youngs and Simon Wickham-Smith. The LP presents the duo’s first new recordings in years, consisting of wildly reworked versions of their first ever live performance, “The Very Good Song”. But the real gravy is on the CDs, three unreleased albums from their early-to-mid 90s peak. Smirr consist of a bunch of dilated drone instrumentals, Live!!! is a massively confusing studio cut-up while Songphase presents their legendary unreleased ‘pop’ album for the first time. In a way, Songphase is the duo’s Ultrahits, a series of classic DIY pop songs that at the time Simon claimed were “better than Oasis”. And it still sounds amazing. This is a fantastic testament to two of the most creative and genuinely oddball underground musicians to come out of the UK. Comes with an extended interview with Richard and Simon as well as liner notes from David Keenan, Neil Campbell, Jon Dale and Marc Masters. "20 Years celebrates two decades of music from Richard Youngs and SimonWickham-Smith, featuring four previously unreleased albums. The set includes the first new vinyl edition from the pair in almost 15 years, plus three other projects (presented here on CD) that were all completed and intended for release by the duo in the ’90s, but fell by the wayside for various reasons. 20 Years, the newly recorded LP, is one of the heaviest, most uncompromising records of the duo's long career. It consists of eight electro-acoustic reworkings of their first (unreleased) recording from 1987, and is a blistering set of tracks as wild and weird as anything they’ve ever done. The SMIRR CD features four epic instrumentals in the vein of classics such as LAKE and Asthma and Diabetes, flowing with extended grandeur, mixing drone and eccentric instrumentation in the duo’s immediately identifiable style. Songphase’s ten simple, lovely tunes are a reminder of their considerable ‘trad’ songwriting and performing prowess. While Youngs has worked in this style on his solo efforts, hearing Wickham-Smith match him track for track is a revelation. ‘Dream Song’ is among the former’s most moving pieces. Finally, LIVE!!! is a head-scratcher of an album, recorded live in-studio in full-on Dadaist style, —extended clavinet mania, Casio jams and plenty of outré expression. This set is packaged in a gatefold jacket with essays by David Keenan, Neil Campbell, Marc Masters and Jon Dale and an extended interview with Youngs and Wickham-Smith. The CDs are housed in a custom-binded insert in the pocket opposite the LP, with each disc held snug in its own die-cut pocket, and the audiophile-quality LP was cut by John Golden. Magnificent and ridiculous." – VHF. Very highly recommended! 

A while back we asked Richard Youngs to record an album especially for Volcanic Tongue, bearing in mind VT’s nebulous but still somehow specific musical aesthetic. We didn’t hear anything for a while, until one day Richard turned up at VT HQ with a CD-R in his hand. I’ve recorded the perfect VT album, he said. We took it home and it damn near took our head off. He was right: Inceptor is the perfect Youngs album for VT. Imagine Richard’s feel for soaring Celtic melodies and spontaneous composition married to PSF-style guitar excess and you’re close to Inceptor’s brain-razzing appeal. Indeed, if Youngs hadda cut an album for PSF Inceptor would undoubtedly be it. Scored for vocals and overdriven electric guitar, Youngs tears raging, iconoclastic solos from the guitar, peaking in glorious folk melodies and clouds of thick overtone that at points sounds like a fleet of Aylerised berserkers playing bagpipes. He sings over the top in a style that reconciles the wordless chants of “Goat”-era Youngs/Wickham-Smith with the electric Albion stylings of his Jagjaguwar recordings. Possibly the wildest and most euphorically beautiful album of Richard’s career, Inceptor is a dazzling slab of peaking psychedelic rock and soaring folk-simple melodies. The LP comes in an edition of only 300 copies, with stunning individually silkscreened sleeves from Alan Sherry of Siwa and packaged in high quality Japanese plastic sleeves. Pretty much your dream Richard Youngs release. Highest possible recommendation!

Where do we even begin with this one? Anyone who thinks they might have finally got their head around the prodigious arc of Richard Young’s recent catalogue is gonna have to throw their hands in the air: Urban Parable is a new group project from Richard and Andrew Paine that masquerades as a mysterious unit coming out of the 90s rave scene (?!?) – think Ilk playing the dance tent dressed in white jump suits, sucking on menthol inhalers and waving glo-sticks. Or don’t. Richard’s soaring vocals are married to euphoric techno, brokedown drum and bass, primitive house and block rocking beats in one of the most unlikely recordings of his entire career. If you thought Ultrahits was a bold step into the pop void then this is really going to confuse you, 90s techno completely misconstrued. Obviously, you need to hear it. Edition of only 50 copies though, so better make it quick. Highest possible confusion.