EAST INDIA YOUTH

It’s a given that most songs gleefully skip over brain cells, satisfied enough that they will leave a small though not lasting imprint. In fact, we listeners have a lot to be thankful for. Can you imagine trying to digest one ‘Karma Police’ after another? Poor to average songs inadvertently better the, well, better. So, Mr “sound gardener” William Doyle, AKA East India Youth, you have done it. You have written one of the best songs I’ve heard in ages.

‘Heaven, how long’ tells you it’s going to be one cathartic 6-minute journey the instant those new-age synths simmer at the opening. Doyle’s lonely vocals wrench at your gut, perched as they are on the edge of things. Earth-shattering root notes and motorik rhythms create a strange crossover of the archaic and the modern – like some Celtic lament given the Krautrock once-over.

But the genres don’t stop there. As all the electronics bleed into one another and rhythms surge forward, shoegaze guitars burrow their way in, producing that dazzling and decaying sound My Bloody Valentine so proudly discharge.

Although it’s just a taster from East India Youth’s self-produced Hostel EP (released in March on The Quietus Phonographic Corporation), ‘Heaven, How Long’ is a fine introduction to this extremely gifted musician. Now, to press that repeat button…

Words by Charlotte Krol

Tipped by Shell Zenner and Rob Platts