New YX - Slow Boy EP

Young and reckless. It's just two characteristics that seem to fit well with Amsterdam quartet New YX. They're loud, slightly abrasive and compress a truckload of energy into their live performances. It's artpunk meets shoegaze, coming from the heart of the Amsterdam arty-farty squatter scene. As such, you could say they're barely legal. With their second release, they graduate from the demostage of their musical career and plummet themselves into the higher echelons of the Dutch underground scene. This is reïnforced by the fact that their second EP release, Slow Boy, is released by underground label deluxe Subroutine Records as a 12" vinyl record. Nothing quite says you mean business like a vinyl release. So far, so good.

New YX - Slow Boy cover art

A common problem with explosive live bands is their apparent inability to transpose their energy onto the format of a recording. they can sound either dull and clean or uneven and overly noizy. Either way it results in records that are, well, rubbish. New YX avoided this by hiring the right people for the job. Corno Zwetsloot and Zlaya Hadzich (recording engineer and producer respectively) are two indie-industry dinosaurs. They were able to put the right mould on the band's sound, striking the right balance between fuzz and clarity, space and compression. guitarist Liú Mottes' heavy duty guitarwork is sharp and gritty, a nice contrast to Lili Bos' crisp vocals.

It's not all pretty though. New YX is certainly doing fine in the riff department, but the lack of a real songwriter can't be overlooked. For the most part, these tracks carry themselves well, such as the brooding opening track "Tiny Villains" and violent closer "Crystal Math". These tracks are loaded with friction, compressed energy and drive. In between they're much less focused: "Jersey Shore" sounds sluggish and aimless, while title track "Slow Boy" is too fragmented to stick. These songs may hold up well live when powered by the band's unbridled energy, but on record they get lost in transition.

In the end, it's hard not to sympathise with bands such as New YX. Their enthusiasm and energy are a welcome change from the distant cool applied by so many hipster musicians. There's no lack of ideas on this record. Slow Boy is another big step forward for a band coming into it's own. There's still some baby fat to be trimmed, but with a little more structure to their madness they could come a long way. Plenty of potential to be found here.

Listen to New YX - Slow Boy EP on Bandcamp
New YX on Facebook
Subroutine website