By Kavit Sumud | February 8th, 2013
“It doesn’t matter if you have good intentions or not… if somebody else doesn’t, then you’re in their hands.” That seven-second vocal sample at the beginning of Younghoon Beats’ “Take it Slow” inspired an entire playlist for me last year, entitled Death Spirit Can Dance. It floored me in its starkness and the way its post-modernist feel was juxtaposed with the classical throwback of the rest of the song.
Death Spirit Can Dance was a playlist detailing my travails during this really strange job I had in 2011-2012, where I got paid to go to filthy festivals and analyze the goings-on of the sexual cultures for the festival organizers. I only mention that because “Take it Slow” was the perfect soundtrack for a moment that would happen at every festival: these young souls who found themselves here because they sporadically had thrown caution to the wind would reach a point of overload and lay back with half dead eyes and inscrutable faces, like Dixie women on their porch judging the iniquity of the moment with a drink in hand.
During the throwback section on “Take It Slow,” the vocal sample croons, “Young girl, don’t move too fast before you give it all away to another.” Coupled with the dichotomous modern production, this call for the traditional to return to yourself while surrounded by moments of life-altering debauchery was astounding to me.
Younghoon Beats has an uncanny ability to play with multiple emotive eras of music, which he does all throughout his two EPs (which you can download at his website). Be it the sequel to “Take It Slow,” the equally hazy/sequel track “Only You,” or the best use of Dean Blunt‘s “The Narcissist“ that I heard all of last year in “All Alone,” Younghoon is a truly innovative musician.
Younghoon Beats is part of a new group of young, experimental producers (like Kurtis Strange) who I’m keeping my eye on. You should too.