Jagjaguwar
2007
Autumn Response
About This Album
For those who have followed the strange, enigmatic "career" of composer, songwriter, and experimentalist Richard Youngs, Autumn Response will be a bit of a shock. Recording for labels as diverse as VHS and Jagjaguwar, Youngs has employed everything from extended song structures that give way to dissonant improvisation, whether in collaboration or by himself. Even his more conventionally structured recordings are angular, full of tape manipulation and electronic soundscapes washing over and under his vocals, and are given to unexpected moments of howl and yowl in the form of feedback and noise, beautiful though it may be (and it certainly is). And for anyone who hasn't heard him, check out any of the Jagjaguwar albums from May 2002 through 2005's Naive Shaman. Autumn Response places Youngs in the context of his acoustic guitar. Period. There is a digital delay on his voice and guitar so that most every line in every song is repeated immediately, adding a ghost-like mimicry, or his voice is twinned so closely -- without singing in harmony -- that it feels like the mirror slapping back the same images offered in his lines. But there is a space, albeit a very short one, where the listener can place him/herself, in the cracks where the meanings of these words greet, enter, and engage you.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5 and 6)

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