Richard Youngs (born 29 May 1966) is an English musician based in Glasgow since the early 1990s. His catalogue of solo and collaborative work formally begins with Advent, first issued in 1990. He plays many instruments, most commonly choosing the guitar, but he has been known to use other instruments including the shakuhachi, accordion, theremin, dulcimer, a home-made synthesizer (common on early recordings) and even a motorway bridge. He also released an album which was entirely a cappella.
For many years, live performances were very occasional and almost always in Glasgow; he has stated publicly that he finds live performance "incredibly nerve-racking: stomach cramps, tension headaches...". However, in recent years, he has performed more regularly (including a tour of New Zealand in 2010 and a UK tour in support of Damon and Naomi in 2011) and many of his recent shows have been predominantly vocal - he told The Wire (issue 284) "I went to a laptop concert and decided I was going to sing".
Style
His music has been noted for its diversity, with Dusted saying that he had been "defying strict genre classifications since the early nineties, swapping labels, styles, partners, motifs, and recording techniques as the desire has struck him". He has been recording for most of his life, telling Foxy Digitalis that "I've made music as long as I can remember - ever since I was a child - and recorded the stuff as long as I've had the technology - I began with a cheap cassette player. So, it's strange to think what it'd be like not to make or record music. It seems unnatural!". When reviewing his 1996 CD Festival, Melody Maker described him as "grand-meister of contemporary British improv, spiritual son of Eddie Prevost and Maddy Prior; gentle manipulator of English hymn-notics and religious incantations; protege, challenger and radicaliser of folk, blues, rock, minimalism and improvisation; translator for the sea and the rain and the sky; ambassador to war and peace, to love and anguish".
It could be suggested his musical styles range from folk to progressive rock to improvisation to electronics. Early works were characterized by a somewhat minimalist lo-fi production quality, with Youngs working mostly on a reel-to-reel 4-track machine or recording directly to minidisc. However, he has been using professional standard computer-based recording systems for over a decade.
Collaborations A keen collaborator, he has released albums with Matthew Bower, Brian Lavelle, Neil Campbell, Stephen Todd, Makoto Kawabata, Alex Neilson, Andrew Paine (under their given names and under the group names Ilk and Urban Parable), Telstar Ponies, and his longest standing partner, Simon Wickham-Smith. He has performed live with Heather Leigh Murray, Vibracathedral Orchestra and also with Matthew Bower's groups Sunroof! and Skullflower. He was also a member of the collective A Band.
Jandek Youngs has also gained attention from his live performances for the notoriously reclusive American avant-folk/blues singer-songwriter Jandek. Youngs can be heard on the Glasgow Sunday, Newcastle Sunday and Glasgow Monday albums, which were recorded at Jandek's first 3 (known) live performances. He also appears on Glasgow Friday and Camber Sands Sunday. There was one further show at which Youngs appeared but drummer Alex Neilson (who completed the line-up on all these shows) has advised the Brainwashed website that this performance - at Mono in Glasgow on 18 May 2006 (the day after the performance released as "Bristol Wednesday") - did not record successfully. For some time, this left no further available live performances with Youngs as a participant available for release. However, the trio reunited in Manchester, UK on 21 April 2012 and again in Glasgow on 6 April 2013.
A Jandek studio album was released on Corwood Industries in 2011 titled Where Do You Go From Here. As with all Jandek releases, no performer credits are listed. However, some listeners have claimed that the album was recorded by the trio of Smith, Youngs and Neilson, with Youngs' voice being identified on some tracks.
Labels He has recorded for over a dozen independent record labels, with VHF releasing much of his collaborative work and Jagjaguwar issuing many of his solo albums, their first being a reissue of Sapphie. Other labels have included Dekorder, Fourth Dimension, Freek, Fusetron, Majora, Table of the Elements, Volcanic Tongue and his own labels, beginning with Jabberwok in the 1980s, and then the self-deprecatingly named No Fans Records. In December 2015 the Revived Glass label, Glass Redux, released a new Youngs album Inside the Future on CD & Download.
No Fans Records Richard founded No Fans Records 1990 and he releases only his own solo and collaborative work through the imprint with some items released in very small numbers. A number of No Fans releases have been reissued in larger editions by other labels.
NFR discography
NFR01 - Advent LP - (300 copies pressed, 1990) NFR03 - New Angloid Sound LP (co-release with Forced Exposure, 300 copies pressed, 1993) NFC02 - Tape Hiss cassette (by Tape Hiss, a trio of Youngs, Neil Campbell and Stewart Walden) (1994) NFR04 - Zenith CD (with Ilk, 500 copies pressed, 1998) NFR05 - Nova Scotia Breakout CDR (very limited, as few as 5 copies exist, 2005) NFR06 - Summer Wanderer CDR (1st edition limited to around 10-20 copies, all given away by Richard - 2005, 2nd edition in alternate packaging available commercially, quantity unknown - 2006) NFR07 - Garden of Stones CDR (limited to around 35 copies, sold at concerts in Portugal, 2005) NFR08 - The Wood Is Barren, My Mountain Is Lonely CDR (with Andrew Paine, limited to 10 copies, 2005) NFR09 - Multi-Tracked Shakuhachi CDR (initially limited to around 30 copies but later repressed with an amended back cover, 2006) NFR10 - No Home Like Place CDR (distributor Volcanic Tongue stated that there were just 18 copies, 2006) nb - released after NFR11 NFR11 - (untitled) CDR (no formal title, edition unknown, 2006) NFR12 - 20th Century Jams CDR (disc states "recorded during the 1980s and 1990s in Glasgow, Harpenden and St. Albans", edition unknown, 2007) NFR13 - 21st Century Jams CDR (companion volume to the above with material from 2000, 2001 and 2007, c. 60 copies, 2007) NFR14 - Somerled CDR (recorded April–May 2007, all copies come with a "No Fans" sew-on patch, edition unknown, 2007) NFR15 - Three Handed Star CDR (limited to 50 copies, only available through Volcanic Tongue, 2008. Was listed as "Three Headed Star". No information on packaging; titles encoded on disc using CD Text) NFR16 - Nerston Surface/First Voice To Earth CDR (limited to 50 copies in hand-painted sleeves, only available through Volcanic Tongue, no information on packaging, 2008) NFR17 - Live in Salford CDR (limited to 50 copies, only available through Volcanic Tongue, 2008) NFR18 - Stormcrash LP (all copies come in a "No Fans" tote bag, 2012) NFR19 - Library Assistants cassette (by Library Assistants - a collaboration between Richard and Liam Stefani, limited to 50 copies, 2012)
Recent work In recent years, Youngs has performed live more often, including shows in the UK, Canada and Italy. He toured New Zealand in late 2010 and the US in 2013. His release schedule is as prolific as ever, releasing 5 new albums in 2013. He now records for Ba Da Bing Records, his first album for the label being Summer Through My Mind, and Glass Records Redux in the UK, the first Glass release being Inside the Future in December 2015.
Discography
Early recordings
Youngs's 1980s recordings were mostly as Omming For Woks - principally Youngs and Andrew Trussler with Barry Lamb joining them for the Show Me A Sane Man EP. Several privately issued cassettes on their own Jabberwok label exist, including Living in Harmony (1984) and Shouting The Silent Slogan (1986) and a clutch of compilation appearances including Sympathy on "Time And Time Again" with Assorted Artists (Fragment 1985) and Marjorie Daw on Sensationnel N°5 - All with voices (Illusion Productions 1987).
Jabberwok issued several cassette compilations which featured OFW material including Fugitive Pieces (1984), The Great Difficult Music Swindle (1985), and Cars and T-Shirts (1985). There was also a 1985 collaboration - Rock and Roll Should Have Stopped With Bill Haley - with The Strolling Ones.
Two further cassettes came to light through being offered on eBay. Both are primarily solo Youngs and appear under the artist name The Creation Room - Dark Shadow Breath b/w Roog Confetti and Apricot Tree & Will To Tedium b/w 19 Used Postage Stamps (the latter being explicitly referred to by Youngs in The Wire, issue 259 and reissued on the limited edition 20th Century Jams CDR in 2007). The former features a number of collaborators, including Trussler. A further Creation Room cassette Music that Undid Him in a Japanese Minute (1985) has been listed on Discogs; again, this is primarily solo Youngs with a contribution from Simon Batley on two tracks. Other recordings issued under this name include the cassette Music From the Creation Room (1984) and a compilation song entitled "Sometimes For Him".
Solo recordings Advent - LP (No Fans, 1990), CD (Table of the Elements 1997), CD reissue (Jagjaguwar 2004), LP reissue (Jagjaguwar 2006) Mundanity - cassette - one side only, other side by Neil Campbell (Cakehole 1993) New Angloid Sound - LP (Forced Exposure/No Fans, 1993) Motorway - cassette (Chocolate Monk 1995 - some copies run out during the final track) Festival - CD (Table of the Elements 1996) Sapphie - CD (Oblique 1998) CD reissue (Jagjaguwar 2000), LP (Jagjaguwar 2006) House Music - CD (Meme 1998) Making Paper - CD (Jagjaguwar 2001) May - CD (Jagjaguwar 2002) Airs of the Ear CD (Jagjaguwar 2003) 171 Used Train Tickets - one sided 10-inch; a spoken word piece from 1990 (Fusetron 2004) River Through Howling Sky - CD (Jagjaguwar 2004) The Naïve Shaman - LP/CD (Jagjaguwar 2005) Nova Scotia Breakout CDR (No Fans 2005) Summer Wanderer - CDR (private edition - No Fans 2005), CDR reissue (No Fans 2006), LP (Gipsy Sphinx 2007) Garden of Stones- CDR (No Fans 2005, reissued as a download by The Wire to coincide with their cover story on Youngs later the same year) Multi-Tracked Shakuhachi - CDR (No Fans 2006) (Untitled) - CDR (No Fans 2006) No Home Like Place - CDR (No Fans 2006) 20th Century Jams - CDR (No Fans 2007) 21st Century Jams - CDR (No Fans 2007) Somerled - CDR (No Fans 2007) Autumn Response - LP/CD (Jagjaguwar 2007) Three Handed Star - CDR (No Fans 2008) Nerston Surface/First Voice To Earth - CDR (No Fans 2008) Live in Salford - CDR (No Fans 2008) High Sun Energy/States of Time - 7-inch, limited to 300 (Dull Knife 2009) Sleep Deprivation Single - lathe cut 7-inch in deluxe packaging, limited to 100 (Five Minute Association 2009) Beyond the Valley of Ultrahits - CDR (2 editions, each of 100 numbered copies - Sonic Oyster Records 2009), LP (Jagjaguwar 2010) Like A Neuron - LP (Dekorder 2009) Under Stellar Stream - LP (Jagjaguwar 2009) Fen Flowers - 7-inch - split with Valet, part of the 4 single "Tsuki No Seika" series (Root Strata 2010) Inceptor - LP (300 copies, "art edition" of 10 with additional packaging and handwritten message from Richard - Volcanic Tongue 2010) Atlas of Hearts - LP (Apollolaan 2011) Be Brave, This World - 10-inch (Split with Annelies Monseré - Three:four Records 2011) I Dream of Mezzanine/Cloudplanes - LP (The Spring Press 2011) Amplifying Host - LP (Jagjaguwar 2011) Long White Cloud - LP (Grapefruit 2011) Amaranthine - LP (MIE Music, 2012) Core to the Brave - LP (Root Strata, 2012) Rurtain - LP (Alter, 2012 - original material by Youngs on Side 1, remixes by others on Side 2) Chasing the Apocalypse/Quiet the Loud World- lathe cut 7-inch, limited to 40. (MIE Music, 2013) Barbed Wire Explosion in the Kingdom of Atlantis - LP (Sonic Oyster Vinyl, 2013)