Monday 18 April 2016, 8pm
Fantastic double-bill for those skirting around the edges of pop, looking in, with Galaxie 500's Damon & Naomi and the incomparable Richard Youngs.
“A quarter of a century ago, Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang sold the world that pervasive slowcore guitar sound with Galaxie 500, then split to work as a duo with subtler methods. They have been peddling diaphanous acid folk-pop for two decades now, bowing their heads patiently as it billows in and out of fashion, and their ninth album is among their best. The quicksilver guitar of Michio Kurihara, from the Japanese psychedelic collective Ghost, drips magic dust over lightly jazzy drums, arrestingly inexact harmonies and cautious, languid melodies that uncoil like cats in the sun.” – Stewart Lee, The Sunday Times
Born in Cambridge and raised in the Fens, Richard Youngs began making music at the start of the seventies. His early work centred on the family piano. When this was sold in the late seventies, however, the classical guitar and cassette recorder became his instruments of choice, along with anything at hand that made a sound. From then on he has played any number of roles with bands such as Astral Social Club, Concrete Hedge, No Deserts, Jandek and Future Pilot A.K.A. Recent collaborative work with Andrew Paine, Heatsick, Kawabata Makoto and John Clyde-Evans also show him as a highly social musician.
His catalogue of releases wanders into all kinds of zones over a vast array of albums on various labels including his No Fans imprint: they include accapella, guitars, pipes or electronics and come out of solitude and in partnership with atmospheres that range from fragmental folk to all-out fuzz.
“THE iconic figure of the modern UK underground … Richard Youngs evolves in the shadows where most won’t look, but those who do will forever be dazzled and amazed” – The Quietus
Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang started playing music together as the rhythm section, co-songwriters, and sometime singers in Galaxie 500. When that band ended, they continued as a duo, first recording for Shimmy Disc and then on a series of albums for Sub Pop Records. In 2005, they formed their own label (20/20/20) and have since released four further Damon & Naomi albums – The Earth Is Blue, Within These Walls, False Beats and True Hearts, and Fortune – alongside reissues of their own and the Galaxie 500 back catalogue.
In addition to their work as musicians, Damon & Naomi are the publishers of Exact Change, a small press dedicated to avant-garde literature and artists’ writings. Individually, Damon is a writer (books, blog, articles for Pitchfork, Artforum and others), and Naomi is a visual artist (photography, video, and graphic design).
