The Young Gods

just a quick heads-up -

a swiss publishing company just released a monstrous 800 page book of the history of the young gods, told in mostly pictures and a few press clippings etc.
it was put together in collaboration with the band. at the end of the book there is a long and brand new interview with franz treichler.

The Young Gods / Documents 1985–2015 - The Young Gods
Editions La Baconnière | The Young Gods / Documents 1985-2015

 

800 pages?
Good God.

 

I'd love to get that book! Too bad the cost in CAD and shipping will be killer...

Anyways, The Young Gods rock. Their self-titled, L'eau Rouge, Only Heaven, and Second Nature are amazing albums. Interesting to note that they sample some guitar riffs from Voivod's Technocratic Manipulators in "Longue Route".

 

This is a pretty great performance of the band in 2010. It's at the Heitere Open Air festival which, from what I can surmise, is in Switzerland. I'm always amazed that the drummer, Bernard Trontin, plays to samples (and in this case, a bass player or guitarist), but just rips it up. I'm not a 100% certain he's playing everything as the band relies heavily on samples but he seems to be carrying the lion share of the load. He's a really good drummer and the rhythms he's playing are not stock; very impressive.

 

My fave is Only Heaven ...... but they are still producing consistently great albums such as Super Ready/ Fragmente, and Everybody Knows.
Get it all if you can afford it.

 

Only Heaven is great.

These guys will never get the respect they deserve.

 

that is one of the things that make their live shows so special - their music on stage was always driven by the guy who plays the samples - first cesare, then cometo and now cesare again - and the drummers would have to keep up with that, and both üse and bernard did/do that extremely well. no letting up possible on their side!
plus of course bernard comes from jazz. he knows his ****

 

What's going on with The Young Gods lately? I noticed Al Comet is gone and Cesare is back, but they haven't put out any new music since 2010. That's coming up on eight years.

 

well for the past 3 years they have been playing occasional shows, only doing the first two albums. the ones cesare originally played on. lately they have added 3 new songs to the shows.
i think they plan on releasing new music next year. they've always taken a long time with new releases...
also franz is doing various other projects - writing music for a dance group from lausanne for instance.

 

It's about time for a new The young Gods album..... 8 years past from Everybody knows,
I am so waiting for a new studio album.
I thought to go to the Swiss embassy in Tel Aviv and try to convince the ambassador
to contact them and demand a new album,
we deserve it

 

New single and video out now, new album in february:

New single out - Figure sans nom - The Young Gods

 

Great news! thanks for sharing surfling ,

The Single sounds nice but
I would love if the music in the new album will be a combination of powerful music with hypnotic ambient sounds
like in albums like : Only Heaven, second Nature
I miss to these kind of sounds
I also Love TV Sky, The Young Gods, L'Eau Rouge , Play Kurt Weill...
well, I love almost every album in their Discography.

 

My freshy updated rating of the Young Gods studio albums:
1. Only Heaven
2. L'eau rouge
3. T.V. Sky

4. Everybody Knows
5. Data Mirage Tangram
6. Second Nature

7. Play Kurt Weill
8. The Young Gods
9. Super Ready / Fragmenté

And it doesn't mean that the last 3 are bad.

 

The band spent a promo day at Swiss radio station Couleur 3 yesterday;
first they introduced and played some of their favourite tracks in a two hour show you can still listen to here (it's all in French!):
Pony Express - Radio - Play RTS
(starts at 1:01:30) It's a really interesting selection of music!

Later they played a short live sssion on a different show that is still up here:
Calmos - Radio - Play RTS
Session happens in the first 45 minutes of the show.

 

Just finished "Data Mirage Tangram" from vinyl, the first YG album I've heard since "Second Nature" and really enjoyed it. It has a dark pulsating, spherical energy and the "real" drums are quite good!

 

This album is really good. I mean.... it's immediately good but it gets (even) better through repeated plays. Definitely planning to play the - included - cd on shuffle modus to see if the seven tracks can indeed be randomly listened to while still forming a coherent whole. With a lot of these songs I've noticed they could work well as either intro or closer. What's also interesting is that the more explosive parts are still very controlled. Franz doesn't really shout this time around. Something like "Tear Up The Red Sky" would probably have sounded different thirty years ago.

Going to see them live next week!

 

Berlin last night was awesome. At 85 minutes it was impeccably paced, never too much, never outstaying their welcome. They played "Data Mirage Tangram" almost complete - and, yes, that did include the surreal "Moon Above" - and this was unbelievably mesmerising and really pulling the listener in. Franz on guitar all the way through.

For the encore they put the - real - guitar away and rolled out some old warhorses. The "TV Sky" stuff was just like it was 1992. Only back then there were hardly any Fortysomethings in the audience.

That the evening endet on a reflective note with "Everythem" was also a nice touch. So: If you can catch them live, do not hesitate!!!!!!!

 

Lousy mushmouthed singer, interesting idea for a band. Saw them in a pub in Melbourne in the early 90's, they were damn loud: singer drummer and keyboard player.

 

Love Young gods.

L'eau rouge, play Kurt Weill, TV sky and only heaven, are all amazing albuns i listened a lot through my teenage years. Still listen to them.
The self titled has good songs but i can never go past the production.
The ambient albuns are quite enjoyable as the rest of the albuns but i dont think they reach the greatness of the albuns from L'eau rouge to Only heaven.

 

I would agree that those 4 albums constitute the peak of their creativity.
But I would also say that as a live band they were always one of the best and most intense.
Well, as long as they stayed a three-piece. Although I also really enjoyed the acoustic sets as a 4-piece.

So what does everyone make of the new album?
I think it's a step up from the last one, has some excellent songs and of course is perfectly arranged and produced, as almost always.
But I keep struggling with all the 'regular' or 'live' guitar playing.
Having the guitar only played with a sampler is what gave TYG their unique sound, and now they have given up on that. A strange decision.

 

Havent heard yeat the new album, but i agree with you. The sampling sounds was what made Young Gods so unique. Though is hard anyone guess there are no guitars involved without knowing, the truh is there is an strange awkwardness on all those sampled sounds that makes it unique. Always comes to my mind as an exemple Gasoline Man. That sure sounds like a normal guitar playing but once you hear more closely there is a kind of robotic/repetitive feeling onto it that is great.

 

I like your post and I agree with what you wrote regarding L'eau rouge, play Kurt Weill, TV sky and only heaven , they are really Amazing, Glorious albums, but I do like the first album -The Young Gods , there is something Raw in the production that I like

 

How was the Live Show? Did you enjoy it?

 

It was terrific, really intense. I liked the fact that they were mixing real guitars with sampled ones, it's extremely effective.

I remember interviews as early as 1992 in which Franz said, he might play "real" guitar in Young Gods one day. I don't think the sampled guitars were the distinctive element in the Young God's sound and I have zero problems with them giving it a rest from time to time. The new album is very good. It sounds like The Young Gods.

It's not as if The Young Gods have turned into a regular "guitar-drum-bass" outfit, the new album - and shows - still involve a lot of electronics, mixed with "real" (or less obviously sampled) guitar. It's really good, slightly krautrock-y For the encore, when Franz put the guitar away, they sounded almost like they did when I saw them for the first time on the "TV Sky" tour.