Melbourne underground noise makers YLVA will release their new album M E T A this Friday, November 17 via Pelagic Records.
The band have released the album in FULL to stream now, listen below.
Drawing influences from a deep well of experience in past outfits, YLVA create patient, dark and mysterious pieces of heavy music punctuated with crushing riffs at extreme volumes.
While the first half of this stunning debut album feels very condensed, driven by painfully low riffs and painfully slow drums, YLVA are thinning out their compositions thorughout the 2nd half of the album… making way for the beauty of dark, empty space. Tracks like the 13-minute opus “The Fall” take their time until they reach the breaking point, the moment of collapse of the previously constructed massive sonic building – a collapse that is imminent from the very beginning of the song, or the construction process, if you want.
There is an unmistakably physical quality to YLVA’s craft. One needs to let the frequencies do their work in order to fully grasp and be shaken by the essence of this band. “There is not a wasted note, beat, tone, noise or vocal line, but there’s also a beautiful level of restraint, both regarding how they write in levels of light and shade, but also in how no one in the band ever seemed to overplay”,
The album was recorded at Sing Sing Studios in Melbourne, mixed by Mike Deslandes and mastered by Dav Byrne at Iridium Audio.
META rounds crushing intensity with transcendent movement from end to end. In support of the META release in late 2017, YLVA will share their already revered live show through Australia, Europe and the United States.
YLVA launch their debut record M E T A at the Tote in Melbourne on December 15.
Joining them are fellow Pelagic Records label mates, Sydney’s Lo! who will also be launching their recently released third record Vestigial.
Pre Orders Available Now!
www.nervegas.com.au/YLVA
YLVA’s Mike Deslandes discusses some of the details surrounding M E T A
How did you guys meet and how did you start playing together?
The band started funnily enough it was at a Black Sabbath show. There’d been discussions amongst a few of us from being friends but that was the cement to pave forward.
A couple of us would chat at length on the direction and intent, following more talk than action we decided to get who we knew would suit the projects loose guidelines. We played and played, worked out our musical relationships and ended up with a bunch of songs and directions that filled the initial brief.
Can you detail your writing process?
Entering a new consciousness through music is an important thing I believe we all get, doesn’t matter what genre or if it’s physical or emotional but it’s something we can’t ignore. YLVA’s narrative stems from personal and societal sadness, great loss and misunderstanding but that transcendence isn’t only lyrically deep. This is something we’re lucky enough to feel and express as four individuals presenting our work.
Can you go into detail about what inspired the record?
As far as inspiration for the record, I (Mike Deslandes), lived in the heart of Melbourne when we started the band. There were a bunch of discussions about making the band sound like my front door step, ground zero of a city’s depravity. This sparked a bunch of concepts personally from growing up in a different city and the common thread between that hardened the concept. I recently took my wife for a tour around a place in that city I spent a lot of time, she said it looked like a prison which made me laugh. Being able to see things for what they are is the bigger picture here, complacency makes way for idiocy. I’d like to reinforce that a song is not only lyrical content deep, I feel those who make such assessments miss out on a lot of great work, the physical response of YLVA is as much a part of any concept or direction.
Writing M E T A was no quick process. There was maybe a full record that was scrapped after a night of soul and tuning exploration on an acoustic guitar, post that night M E T A was born.
Some tracks took a while to present what filled the brief and others like Metadata, Lapse and The Fall came very natural. The songs that took time were a great experience in us sharing what would and could be until we arrived at a place that was right for us. All members have varied backgrounds through drum and guitar based music but there’s the common ground of wanting to explore new directions, a big point is less is generally more.
