YOUNG FATHERS

Words by Ben Blackburn

One major online publication (which shall remain anonymous), once said that it was only indie-pop bands that ever came out of Scotland. Now while Scotland has provided it’s fair share of classic indie-pop acts, it’s somewhat reductionist to suggest that this is all that our friends north of the border have to offer. This is made stunningly clear by the emergence of Edinburgh based trio Young Fathers, who engage in forward thinking rap and raw beats that are both filtered through a haze of echoing lo-fi.
 
Young Fathers first came together at under-18 hip hop nights in their native Edinburgh, and in that time the band have visibly matured, both in their appearance and their sound. The release of ‘Straight Back On It’ saw Young Fathers featured by Vice Magazine, and led to a collaboration with electro whizz kids Simian Mobile Disco.

 
However this initial spike in notoriety marked Young Fathers as a young hip hop act that tailored their lyrics to the delights of the youth culture they lived in, and their music was taken as entirely celebratory and jovial. With the release of Tape One, Young Fathers have brought their sound below the surface and offered the listener something much more complex and intriguing.
 
‘Rumbling’ is a fine orchestration of a sound that clearly takes inspiration from African beats and clever lyricism, as the track builds with a communal intensity that absorbs the listener into a frenzied energy. However it is in the context of the whole tape that ‘Rumbling’ gains it’s strength, contrasting its driven nature with the reggae influenced styling’s of ‘Romance’, which ultimately demonstrates the true, and ever present, potential that Young Fathers are ready to reveal in 2012.