Yung – Alter EP
The Alter EP is Danish garage-punk Yung’s international début, its six tracks cherry-picked from last year’s domestic-only and soon-to-be-sought-after Filters LP. Though it follows a familiar trajectory, its all-too-brief running time blighted by tales of dead-end jobs and teenage nihilism, Yung hail from Aarhus rather than Copenhagen and it’s probably for this reason why Mikkel Holm Silkjær and his four-piece sound an ocean away from the various Elias Bender Rønnenfelt projects that most associate with country’s punk scene.
All three opening tracks have been educated at the Cloud Nothings school of post-HC pop-punk, strong melodies an integral part of the the urgent maelstrom. Alter is far from out-and-out misery as a result, its breakneck compositions smeared with youthful optimism and as-yet-untainted enthusiasm. The superb lead single, “Nobody Cares”, for example, mixes up Silkjær’s irresistible nu-grunge growls and Tobias Guldborg Tarp’s spidery bass-lines with jangling acoustic passages – breath markers in the band’s drunken punk hoot – while the closer, “A Stain”, houses classic Girl Group drum patterns and even has ideas of languid garage-surf until the distortion pedal bites.
Yung have a untainted and effortless swagger, sounding like every preening high-school band in shades think they do. Get on board quick before anything corrupts them.
Best track: “Nobody Cares”
~Alter is released on a 100-run of transparent red vinyl March 2nd 2015 on Tough Love Records.~