Younger Brother ‘Vaccine’

Words by Dan Petito

Often defined as “unclassifiable,” the music of Younger Brother takes the shape of varying genres of music and continues strong through their third studio album dubbed Vaccine. Hitting stores the 26 of April, the album was recorded with Younger Brother Live band which includes Simon Posford (Shpongle, Hallucinogen), Benjii Vaughan (Prometheus), Ru Campbell (Leftfield), Marc Brownstein (Disco Biscuits), Tom Hamilton(Brothers Past) and Joe Russo (Furthur, The Duo, Bustle in Your Hedgerow).

The inability to classify this genre of music is a big reason behind it’s popularity and being collectively branded as unique; upon listening it’s increasingly difficult to say with absolute honesty where exactly the band’s influences may be (even knowing of Simon’s pioneership within the electronic music genre). Rock is easily found mixed with brilliant and often spine-tingling songwriting and the atmosphere created within the tracks on Vaccine provide frequent feelings of enchantment and temporary displacement in which frequent volume cranks and playbacks seem undeniably necessary.

“Crystalline” opens the album beautifully, painting the utopian picture of a warm sunny day, and settles interestingly between the two realms of rock and electronica. The album as a whole sounds like an carefully constructed LP, no song specifically straying too far from the overall sound. “Sys700” may be the only song on the album to be considered strange, but when thinking of Simon Posford and some of the music he’s produced in the past lets be serious — some if it is just plain strange.

“Train” highlights the album with some dance-doused beats and multiple moments where you’ll find yourself headbanging (even if it isn’t your thing) and often finding a way to make it seem justified in even the most public of places. If someone looks at you funny just give them your left ear phone and they’ll see what all the fuss is about. You certainly get a big sense of Posford’s presence during most of the tracks’ intros, which set up nicely the sense of atmosphere ever-so-present in a lot of Posford tracks and collaborations.

Younger Brother has come a long way since their first studio album A Flock of Bleeps, which was extremely electronica heavy, and follow up The Last Days of Gravity with this organic sounding album jam-packed with hints of indie rock, minimalism and, while unclassifiable by most, is a true listening pleasure from end to end.