Music, Style & Culture

Listen: Younghusband - Crystal EP

Younghusband give DIY an exclusive stream of their forthcoming 'Crystal' EP, and talk us through it track by track.

Younghusband have given us an exclusive stream of their forthcoming 'Crystal' EP, due out next week (21st November). The four-track release - which was recorded with Jimmy Robertson and The Oscillation’s Demian Castellanos during the summer in a studio in Hackney - is the follow-up to their double A-Side debut single, ‘Carousel’ / ‘Nothing, Nothing’. Check out the stream below and read what the band have to say about their new release in our track by track guide.

1. 'Tropic Of Cancer'
When I wrote this we had just come back from Chatam, Kent where we were mixing 'Constantly In Love'. I thought I was going to bump into Billy Childish in the street, obviously didn't - very disappointed. After listening to that track all day, I wanted to write another track that was based around one chord that builds, gains tension and uses different hard/soft textures. Lyrically I wanted it to be the opposite though. There is a mini 'guitar orchestra' running through the track, which was a nylon/acoustic/electric all playing the same thing in a large room into one mic and we overdubbed that three times. It gives this sort of clear attacking rhythm that is kind of ambient too.

2. 'Constantly In Love'
This was actually the first thing we did together as a band. I was having a fairly languid few months, I felt I was over complicating my approach to certain aspects of music and I wanted to write a sort of simple 60's soul track, just something to get me out of a rut. It changed my whole attitude. We recorded this on pretty basic gear at our drummer's old studio which was in an out-house to a fire station. Most of the sounds and drum machine come from a Casiotone 403. I think we recorded the bass through a modified PA system because we had no bass amp. Things haven't really changed.

3. 'Neon Heartbreak'
I'd written a bunch of songs over a cold snap and this one seemed to fit the mood the best. The heating never came on in the house Joe, Adam and I were living in and I think it comes across on the song. We had just installed a projector in our kitchen and spent the winter watching a lot of films, listening to the soundtracks, and I think that transferred to this song in particular.

4. 'Reunion Message'
I'm not entirely sure where this song came from. I like how it offsets the pop elements in the other three tracks. The ascending keyboard line was a very late addition, but one that I think makes the track. More Casiotone and guitar 'orchestra' on this too. We have more songs like 'Reunion Message'. I think the album will contain more elongated hypnotic tracks like this next to buried pop songs.