Underground Youth, The: Décollage (Coloured Vinyl LP)

Berlin-based post-punk band The Underground Youth, led by Blackpool-born musician and author Craig Dyer, return with their twelfth studio album Décollage. Self-written, recorded and produced by Dyer, the album is an exercise in artistic deconstruction in both name and form, marking a decisive musical shift.

“Décollage is the art of creating an image by ripping, tearing away or removing pieces of an original existing work’. My idea was to apply this technique to music”, he explains. “I built walls of static coated hip-hop drum samples, layers of Lee Hazlewood style string arrangements and Serge Gainsbourg inspired mellotron melodies, then I began tearing away at these beautiful, chaotic walls of noise, exposing a new sound for The Underground Youth.”

The result, Dyer says, is “a trip-hop infused soundtrack to a collection of lyrics dealing with adoration, ancestry, originality, hallucinations of revolution and a hope that something better can be born from the ashes of the horror that exists in our world.” From moments of ghostly minimalism to sweeping crescendos of noise and melody, there is a shadowy, dreamlike quality to the songs here. If its predecessor Nostalgia’s Glass (2023) mined a more introspective nostalgia, Décollage feels more hauntological in nature – tearing apart and re-transforming what once was in search of a future left spinning from reel-to-reel on warped and distorted old tape.

Alongside Dyer, The Underground Youth is comprised of drummer and visual artist Olya Dyer, guitarist Leonard Kaage (who also assisted with post-production on the record) and bassist Samira Zahidi. Initially formed as a solo project by Dyer in 2008, the band has sinced released 11 – now 12 – studio albums and 4 EPs, evolving a unique sound that has over the years ranged from cinematic lo-fi psychedelia and raw melancholic post-punk to gothic folk-noir. Throughout they have maintained a devoted global following continuously built upon by the band’s extensive touring through Europe, Asia and North America.

Clear yellow vinyl version.

1. You (The Feral Human Thunderstorm) 
   
2. One Of The Dreamers 
   
3. I Was There
   
4. From The Ashes Of Our Age
   
5. Father
   
6. Calliope
   
7. Your Beloved Hollywood
   
8. Believe In Something