-=- SHGZ -=-
* Shoegaze * Indie * Post-Rock * Grunge * Dream Pop * Psych-Rock * Ethereal *
ARTIST..: Best Youth
ALBUM...: Highway Moon
GENRE...: Indie
STYLE...: Indie Pop, Dream Pop, Indie Rock, Trip-Hop
YEAR....: 2017
LABEL...: Zero Effort
COUNTRY.: Portugal
PLACE...: OPorto
LANGUAGE: English
ENCODER.: FLAC 1.3.1 -8 -V
BITRATE.: 876 kbps avg
QUALITY.: 44.1kHz / 2 channels
SOURCE..: CD
TRACKS..: 14
SIZE....: 371.96 MB
URL..: http://www.facebook.com/wearebestyouth
http://wearebestyouth.com
- TRACKLIST
1 Renaissance 4:08
2 Mirrorball 4:23
3 Red Diamond 4:16
4 Black Eyes 4:00
5 Maybe We Can Still Be Friends 6:03
6 Mouth 3:56
7 When All The Lights Are Down 3:18
8 Fanatic 4:16
9 Sunbird 3:40
10 Infinite Stare 3:33
11 Ride 4:07
12 Melt 4:14
13 Rain On The Windshield 5:53
14 Infinite Stare (Live In Studio) 3:26
Total Playtime: 59:13
Highway Moon Reissued
Best Youth are re-releasing Highway Moon in 2017. Pre-order now for the new
version featuring three brand new tracks. - Pledgemusic 2017
https://web.archive.org/web/20170308052116/www.pledgemusic.com/projects/best-youth-highway-moon
*
Best Youth are an Indie Pop duo from Porto, Portugal formed by Ed Rocha
Gonτalves and Catarina Salinas. Ed and Catarina met during the summer
holidays when they were both teens. Their parents went to the same place for
their vacations so they would see each other every year on the same beach and
eventually became friends.
They ended up forming a 3-piece band called Genius Loki which released 2 EPs
and toured nationally, but later disbanded. After a few years, while working
on a solo album, Ed got back in touch with Catarina for a few recording
sessions and they started officially working together under the name Best
Youth.
Their debut EP, Winterlies, was self-released in 2011 and re-released later
in the year by label Optimus Discos. The first and only single from the EP,
Hang Out, was one of 2012's greatest radio hits in Portugal topping the
charts of two of biggest national radio stations and resulting in the band
being considered by french publication Les Inrocks one of the main
portuguese bands to follow. Still in 2012 they played most of the big summer
festivals like Optimus Primavera Sound, SWTmn, Mexefest, Paredes de Coura,
Optimus Alive.
After the summer tour, they recorded an album together with fellow band We
Trust under the name There Must be a Place. Released on Christmas 2012, the
album included versions of both band's debut works and two new songs from
Best Youth, including the release of the greatly acclaimed single, Nice
Face. It took them both on a tour around the country during 2013, playing a
show that featured both bands on stage at the same time, and saw them open a
show for Father John Misty.
2013 saw the release of a new standalone single, Still your girl (which again
garnered airplay in all the major radio stations) and recognition in Spain
where their were awarded two Cßceres Pop Eye Awards: one for best european
band as Best Youth and one for best European revelation for There Must be a
Place. It was also the year where they played one of their biggest shows yet
at the main stage of the D'bandada festival in Oporto, a free festival in
the heart of town that gathered 150.000 people, and played Glimps festival in
Belgium, a festival specializing in up and coming bands from all of Europe.
Later that year, work began on their first full length album, to be released
in 2015.
In 2014 they released a song co-written with Moullinex for an Asian
compilation record - In the Shade released in the summer of 2014, having
played on the biggest radio stations in Portugal and staying on the charts
for months.
2015 marked the release of their first LP, Highway Moon, on March 30th. The
first 3 singles from the album Red Diamond, Mirrorball and Black Eyes
reached the number 1 spot on National Radio Antena 3 and the album has
received glowing reviews nationally and internationally, as well as features
in all the relevant best album of the year lists in the country, Best Youth
are currently touring in support of their latest album which has included
shows in SuperBock SuperRock Festival , Mexefest Festival, sold out shows
round Portugal in rooms such as Hard Club, Theatro Circo shows in the UK and
Hungary and playing the main stage at Paredes de Coura 2016 FestivaI.
They started off 2017 by playing Eurosonic Festival and were considered by
International Media as one of the 10 acts to watch. Their new single
Renaissance , out on 01/25/2017 was listed as one of 8 videos of the week on
Les InRockuptibles.
*
Four years into an ascendant career, Portuguese duo Best Youth - vocalist
Catarina Salinas and multi-instrumentalist Ed Rocha Gonτalves - are starting
to make international inroads. Even before the release of this, their first
long player, they've grown to become an established act in the Iberian
Peninsula: their 2011 debut EP, Winterlies, topped radio playlists in
Portugal, eventually paving the way for a Spanish Cßceres Pop Eye Award
("Best European Band", since you ask) and a support slot for sometime Fleet
Foxes man Father John Misty.
Best Youth's success to-date is no mystery: their sound is an even-handed
confluence of influences that borrows elements of acclaimed contemporaries
and weaves them together in such a fashion that speaks to pair's thoughtful,
careful approach - and while Highway Moon, as a whole, is accurately
classified as synth-pop, such filing tells only half the story of this
spacey, sultry debut that wears its inspirations as a badge of honour.
Take opener and lead single Red Diamond, which is simplicity itself: bare
percussion and spare keys are gradually augmented by lush synth flourishes,
Salinas' breathy vocals speaking of spurned love. The cumulative effect is
pure Lana Del Rey, all pouting discontent in sun-bleached surroundings. The
gorgeous Black Eyes follows up in similar fashion, its down-tempo sensuality
meandering the short distance from Dead Mellotron-style shoegaze to
Kavinsky's cinematic Nightcall. Originality may be conspicuous by its
absence, but the end result is simply irresistible.
Best Youth take their flattering imitation to even greater heights with
Mirrorball, which, from the tumbling intro to the refrain-repeating ending,
is a thematic and stylistic doppelganger of Arcade Fire's Reflektor. Maybe We
Can Still Be Friends picks up the baton by fusing The Concretes' WYWH with
Daft Punk's Instant Crush. Yet one is not irked by the parallels because
Salinas and Gonτalves don't seem to be trying to pull a fast one; rather,
their musical choices seem to emanate from respectful deference to acts we
can assume to be their idols. Besides, even if this was plagiarism, it's done
with such style that Best Youth's magpie-like qualities can be easily
overlooked.
Later tracks, in fact, see the pair emerge from under the influence: Infinite
Stare's brazen beat distinguishes it from relatively reigned-in trackmates -
its real instrumentation standing in stark-yet-subtle contrast - while the
sheer darkness of Mouth's pulsating synth and echoing bips is unmatched
anywhere else on Highway Moon. Ride, too, refreshes a familiar retro palette
with cascading, videogame-like keys and what is arguably Salinas' most
accomplished performance.
It is perhaps inevitable that the odd track fails to resonate initially:
Fanatic falls a little flat, feeling like a formulaic fumble through
synth-pop checkboxes, while the album's closing pair, Melt and Rain On The
Windshield, labour to match the established standard, drawing the album to
something of a barren close compared to the deep seam of gold that runs
through its first half. Yet even these relative damp squibs may in time prove
to play their part on what is nevertheless a stunning debut from possibly the
most promising talent out of Portugal since Cristiano Ronaldo.
-=- SHGZ -=-
-=-=-==-=-=-
Dream Pop
is a subgenre of
alternative rock and neo-psychedelia
that emphasizes atmosphere and sonic texture as much as pop
melody. Common characteristics include breathy vocals, dense productions,
and effects such as reverb, echo, tremolo, and chorus. It often
overlaps with the related genre of shoegaze, and the
two genre terms have at times been
used interchangeably.
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