_________________________AUDiOPHiLE Presents:______________________________
....aRTiST...: Yin Yin
....aLBUM....: The Age Of Aquarius
....gENRE....: Fusion
....lABEL....: Glitterbeat
....cATNR....: GBCD124
....lANGUAGE.: English
....yEAR.....: 2022
....sOURCE...: CDDA
....riP.dATE.: 14-02-2026
....sTR.dATE.: 04-03-2022
....uRL......: http://www.discogs.com/release/22439650
....eNCODER..: FLAC 1.3.1
....SeTTiNG. : compression-level-8
....qUALiTY..: 882 kbps Avg 44.1kHz / 2 channels
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01 Satya Yuga 2:10
02 Chong Wang 4:22
03 Shenzhou V 6:08
04 Faiyadansu 2:49
05 Declined By Universe 4:26
06 Nautilus 4:01
07 The Age Of Aquarius 3:34
08 Kali Yuga 3:51
tOTAL siZE.: 8 Files/207.9MB/31:21 min
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"YIn YIn hop and bound along, being whisked up by the pure joy of their
experimentation, unafraid to see how far from home it takes them...eccentric,
boundary-bashing, genre-melding groove." - The Line of Best Fit
YIN YIN's dazzling second album dives even deeper into dancefloor propulsion
and space travel atmospherics than their lauded debut The Rabbit that Hunts
Tigers (2019).
While there is an expanded sonic richness on the new album as samples, drum
computers and otherworldly synthesizers intertwine with the band's taut
playing, more than anything The Age of Aquarius is a simple, direct appeal to
dance. The record's groove manifesto can be put down to YIN YIN's experiences
on the road, where the positive energies picked up from their audiences fed
back into a sound that increasingly "kept people moving."
Funk and disco beats. Electro experimentation. Global retro vibes.
A shimmering, cinematic sweep.
YIN YIN's new long player, The Age of Aquarius, is a simple, direct appeal to
dance. It is also a record blessed with a considerable hinterland; with
cosmic time, long studio hours and a determination to transcend the daily
ennui of living in the Dutch city of Maastricht all playing their part.
YIN YIN see themselves as a bunch of musical dreamers. The track 'Declined by
Universe' references the fact that "we're all kinds of drop outs." The
beautiful, old and somewhat staid city of Maastricht, where the band is
based, isn't really conducive to setting up a bustling music scene: and it's
a place where the outsiders quickly recognize each other. YIN YIN are all
"nightlife people", which meant their friendship initially came about through
co-organizing and deejaying DIY parties. Before the band formed, none had
carved out a conventional career, or done the "very Dutch thing" of
completing their studies. Things started to move for real when Yves Lennertz
and Kees Berkers decided to make a cassette tape that drew on references to
Southern and South East Asian music. Once the idea was formed, Lennertz and
Berkers wasted no time in taking "a lot" of instruments to a rented rehearsal
room in a small village near Maastricht. There the pair set up a couple of
mics and recorded a number of songs in three days flat.
Yves: "When we put it [the recorded session] out on tape, the reactions were
very positive. So we decided to do a live show in Maastricht. We asked our
musical friends to help us out, and from that night on we became a full band:
with Remy Scheren on bass, Robbert Verwijlen on keys and Jerome Cardynaals
and Gino Bombrini on percussion."
This "united against the world" stance is also heard at the end of 'Declined
by Universe', where the band claps their own music, making the track
initially sound like a live track. It's a funny, maybe surreptitious
statement of belief in what they do. YIN YIN also wanted to create an
illusion of strength in other ways: 'Declined by Universe' sounds as if there
is a large group of people playing, not just the core band. This was done by
passing over sampling in favour of live recording multiple layers of
percussion. Yves: "In the end we were getting kind of silly and started
applauding every take. We decided to keep that reaction in. I still visualize
a sort of school building in Thailand where people are playing this when I
hear the recording." Maybe YIN YIN also see their position of a band hiding
in plain sight in their own land reflected in the legend of Chong Wang. Kees:
"Chong Wang is a historical mystical figure. Very little is known about him
and some people even deny his existence. But we wrote a ballad for him on the
first album and now dedicated another track for him."
Regardless of attitude, the new record is bags of fun. Mainly because YIN YIN
make dreamers music, in the sense that everything can happen, sometimes all
at once. The working title was YIN YIN In Space, one that referenced the
band's inner vision of an entity that travels through space, encountering
different planets, aliens, parties and galaxies along the way. Despite the
name change, the music is still the soundtrack for that vision. And the
intergalactic party vibes are strong. Nods to brilliant, invigorating dance
music abound, some of the thumping beats in numbers like 'Chong Wang' the
title track and 'Nautilus' drop some thumping 1990s-style electric boogie and
italo disco chops along the way. Then there is 'Sh?nzhou V.', which plots a
stately course between eastern-inflected pop music, Italo and Harmonia-style
electronic meditations. The record's party vibe can also be put down to YIN
YIN's experiences on the road, where the positive energies picked up from
their audiences fed back into a sound that increasingly "kept people moving".
The expansive richness in sound and feel may also be down to the fact that
more samples, drum computers and synthesizers are used on The Age of Aquarius
than in their previous records, a process that intertwines with real-time
playing in the studio. 'Faiyadansu', for example, started with a sample found
on an old traditional Japanese koto record. Kees: "I first programmed a beat
with 808 drums. Yves recorded guitars over that. Then we found some great
vocal samples from a lady on YouTube who teaches the Thai language. These
phrases and words all have something to do with enjoying food. The last step
was to record some extra percussion on top."
Cosmic appropriations of time also crop up in the titles, which may give the
lie to some of the band members' preoccupations with the state of the world.
The Age of Aquarius is seen as a time when humanity takes control of the
Earth and its own destiny as its rightful heritage, with the destiny of
humanity being the revelation of truth and the expansion of consciousness. An
old trope musically the Age is most famously referenced in the hippie
musical, Hair. For YIN YIN it seems to denote the time when this record first
took shape during the previous January, when the Age was meant to finally
dawn. Other direct references to cosmic times are in the track names 'Kali
Yuga' and 'Satya Yuga': the Kali Yuga, in Hinduism, is the fourth and worst
of the four yugas (world ages) in a Yuga Cycle, preceded by Dvapara Yuga and
followed by the next cycle's Krita (Satya) Yuga. It is believed to be the
present age, which is full of conflict and sin. Who said this was just a
party record?
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new nfo comimg soon