YYU – “Kiss As We Walk” & “When We Are Old”

YYU – “Kiss As We Walk” & “When We Are Old”

You’re likely going to be hearing a great deal more about YYU as the year progresses, but all you really need to know now is the mysterious Texan singer, producer, and songwriter is something extremely special. In 2012 he put out TIMETIMETIME&TIME, one of the most promising debuts I’ve heard this decade, and this summer he’ll begin work on the follow-up. Before getting started on that though, he’s dropping a single that nicely shows the range of his music. On one side you’ve got the dizzying “Kiss As We Walk,” where he scrambles the idea of Chicago footwork and comes out with something deeply romantic. It’s a sound that brings to mind the earliest EPs of James Blake, but YYU makes it completely his own with trance-like repetitions that bloom into spiritual mantras.

Then, on the flip is the late-night sigh of “When We Are Old.” Compared to the dense electronic manipulation of “Kiss,” “Old” is overwhelmingly organic and natural, built on intricately strummed acoustic guitar, recordings of birds, handclaps, and multi-tracked but mostly untouched vocals. The fact that it has the intimacy of Phil Elverum or the sunny psychedelia of Sung Tongs would be impressive enough on its own, but paired with the tightly wound electronic first side, it’s absolutely remarkable. They’re two sides of the same artist, and that artist is going places. Listen below.

(via Tiny Mix Tapes)

“Kiss As We Walk”/”When We Are Old” is out now via RAMP Recordings.

more from News