YOUNGE, ADRIAN

Adrian Younge, niet bepaald een bekende naam, is een 'self-taught musician' die met Something About April zichzelf zomaar eens op de kaart kan gaan zetten.

Lome, donkere beats gemaakt met een duidelijke voorliefde voor 60's en 70's soundtracks. De echo van Morricone is te horen, maar David Axelrod kan je ook noemen.

Alles met een behoorlijke lo-fi sound geproduceerd, beetje Portishead-achtig (ten tijde van Dummy).

Naast de instrumentale tracks bevat dit project ook nummers met vocalen waardoor het album nog meer tot leven komt. Die tracks lijken wel enigszins op het werk van Lee Fields of Charles Bradley, maar soms ook (met een hoog stemmetje) op dat van Curtis Mayfield. Of een recenter voorbeeld: Mayer Hawthorne. Medewerking op het album is er van o.a. Dennis Coffey, Shawn Lee (Ubiquity) en Rebecca Jordan.

Something About April is een mooi album dat het verdient gehoord te worden!

Featuring guest artists Dennis Coffey (Motown’s Funk Brother fuzz guitarist), Shawn Lee (Ubiquity Records), singer/songwriter Rebecca Jordan, and Italian cinephiles Calibro 35, Something About April is an eclectic mix of heavy, psychedelic soul and soundtrack-ready instrumentals.







Adrian Younge is the next generation of soul music. A self-taught musician and recording engineer who has dedicated his life to the study of classic soul music, Younge finds himself at the center of a new soul renaissance with a vision for pushing the boundaries of the music itself.

The story begins in 1998 as the budding hip-hop producer found himself confined by the limitations of the MPC. He began teaching himself how to play various instruments so he could fully realize his vision. First it was keyboards, then drums, sax, guitar, and bass. Fascinated with the sounds of Italian soundtracks by the likes of Ennio Morricone, Younge begins work on the soundtrack to the fictional film Venice Dawn, recording the album intermittently over the course of the next year. What developed was a sound equal parts Morricone and Air. Self-released in 2000, the moody, synth-drenched album was entirely composed, arranged, played, and recorded by Younge.

Eight years later in 2008, Younge would find himself at the center of the Black Dynamite zeitgeist. Instrumental in the film’s development, Younge not only edited the film, but also composed the original score, which was hailed as a modern blaxploitation masterpiece for authentically capturing the cinematic soul of the 1970s, from Isaac Hayes to Curtis Mayfield. Adrian Younge solidified himself as a force to be reckoned with and soon went to work writing music for the forthcoming Black Dynamite cartoon series on Adult Swim.

For his current solo project, Younge envisioned a new sound that would revisit his earlier, more baroque instrumental work of Venice Dawn and mesh it with the deep, gritty soul of Black Dynamite, eventually deciding to bring everything full circle by releasing the material under the moniker Venice Dawn. This new LP, titled Something About April, is a heavy, dark mix of psychedelic soul and cinematic instrumentals with hip-hop aesthetics, touching on influences from Morricone to King Crimson, Portishead to the Flamingos, Wu-Tang to Otis Redding.

Younge is currently writing and recording material for his next project, a Delfonics album with William Hart, founding singer of the legendary soul group.