Young Fathers will be your favourite new band before you know it.

Welcome to your new favourite band, Young Fathers, and before long they’ll be your favourite band ever full stop. The Beatles have been around for over 50 years now and its about time someone toppled them from their ‘best band ever’ perch...

Young Fathers @ Leeds Belgrave Music Hall, February 6th 2014

...Well step forward Young Fathers the Edinburgh based alt-hip hop alt-pop and sound manipulators group, who are also creators of a lot of seriously addictive songs over the past few years since their creation in 2007, who are more than ready to step forward and claim that title.
Young Fathers evoke the spirit of Beastie Boys (and I guess The Beatles) too in terms of creativity, and eclecticism, along with a dash of TV On The Radio and Shabazz Palaces and elements of MF Doom and the 3D pop of Gorillaz at times too. But they also have the spontaneity and sheer bloody mindedness to play with and rip apart the pop and hip hop rule book, as evidenced with their short back catalogue of the 2 Eps/mini albums ‘Tape One’, and ‘Tape Two’, and now with their newly released debut full length album ‘Dead’ which came out earlier this week. And tonight in Leeds they simply get all up in the audiences face and blow them away with a stunning performance. But first we’re treated to Ceiling Demons, hailing from North Yorkshire, who seemingly take a leaf out of Young Fathers book with their own brand of dark alt-hip hop, brimming with confidence and enthusiasm as Dan Demon and his 2 band members in Ceiling Demons get lost in their noodly loops and electric beats, and impressive rhymes, with tracks from their recently released album ‘Dual Sides.’ Then we’re treated to Law, who also comes from Edinburgh, or Law Holt to give her full name and to make it easier for people to search for her and her website where you can download her stunning music. Standing on stage in her striking turquoise dress and playing some sort of xylophone type instrument she shines like some futuristic ice warrior even before the spotlight comes on. Then we’re treated to her music which is a mixture of droning noise, glitch-pop, and twisted jazz and electro sounds, which backs her beguiling, bewitching, and at times sinister voice, which at times evokes Nina Simone and Billie Holiday with a darker version of Kelis at times. Law is exciting and intriguing to watch and exciting to look out for in the future too. Then after 20 minutes we get the main event of Young Fathers, who managed to blow Run The Jewels off the stage when I saw them supporting them in London at the end of last year, they come on stage tonight with so much energy its almost frightening, and with their bag of tunes they get many of the audience singing along too, tunes from both ‘Tape One’, and ‘Tape Two’, and the majority of their new album ‘Dead’ is played tonight, with the likes of ‘Deadline’, ‘Rumbling’, ‘Queen Is Dead’, ‘I Heard’, and ‘No Way’ which are both pretty emotional, and the government baiting ‘Low’, and recent single ‘Get Up’, which the audience clap along too as well as singing. There’s very little interaction with the crowd, which keeps up the mystique as well as the menacing intensity, which is already there in their songs and excitement throughout the set, especially when their dance moves are in full flow - which should put the likes of One Direction and other boy bands out of business for having shit songs as well as not being able to dance. At one point Alloysious Massaquoi jumps into the crowd grabs someone's hat and pulls of a very impressive Michael Jackson/Justin Timberlake style dance routine whilst looking extremely cool, and thus even more cool, than usual in the process. Not only do Young Fathers’ Alloysious Massaquoi, Kayus Bankole, and ‘G’ Hasting all rap with impressive ease - and when they rap together in harmony its luxurious. But they can also all sing too - which actually they tend to sing more than they rap - which at times can be pretty emotional as on the aforementioned ’I Heard’, and ’No Way’. They also sing in harmony at times too which is also a luxury. They’re all impressive singers but arguably Alloysious voice stands out the most. But then Kayus Bankole constantly has a mischievous glint behind his popping out eyes like he’s on the verge of creating anarchy before breaking out into his extreme dancing. Their drummer T. London is an impressively athletic drummer and ’G’ Hastings really likes to turn the deep bass sounds to full volume on his synth machine, in fact Young Fathers generally seem to have an obsession with sound, whether through their voices or an instrument, whether singing, rapping, whistling, or distorting the bass they like to see where the sounds will take them and they experiment with it even live on stage. Even when there’s a hitch and they have to restart the song the smooth constant flow of sound and songs from Young Fathers can’t be stopped and people in the audience seemingly can’t stop dancing too. With Young Fathers you won’t find a more menacingly original or fiercely fearsome band in 2014, 2015, or 2016. www.young-fathers.com www.anticon.com www.bigdada.com www.facebook.com/youngfathers www.twitter.com/Youngfathers www.lawholt.com www.twitter.com/LAWHOLT www.facebook.com/CeilingDemons www.twitter.com/CeilingDemons www.Ceilingdemons.bandcamp.com  

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