East India Youth - Total Strife Forever

William Doyle, or the one-man electronic act East India Youth, is a London-based artist who literally seems to have quietly inundated the music world with his entrancing and mesmerising songs. His debut album was released mid-January without much noise-making or pan-bashing, but those in the know have heralded it as a definite jewel.

His clever use of harmonies combined with a driving drum beat (and, in the case of Looking For Someone, sleigh bells) make his songs not too hardcore indie electronica, but just on the verge of being edgy without being white noise. The rate of change in each of the songs is chilled, relaxed, as though Doyle's ambling along Brick Lane of a Saturday afternoon. His songs seem to wear the same flowery shirts and mop of hair that he does.

Source: Wikimedia

Heaven, How Long is a particularly stand-out track, the opening of which makes it slightly cinematic, even orchestral. It's one example of how simple nuances, like the gradual shifting from soft to hard synth, creates the difference between something that's boring and something that's interesting as fuck. The soft blow of synth about two minutes in, to the lyrics "I scrape my head against the grey sky", lets us feel as though we're nearing a goal, we're getting out of the everyday synthesiser music that we're used to into something with a twist. As ever, the shift between this in the song is unassuming and modest, simply dropping the drums and adding some more harmonies recorded in Doyle's kinda nerdy, nasal voice. The changes are so minimal that they're almost undetectable until a minute later. Whatever it is he does on that computer of his, it's bloody working.

Everything is very clever with East India Youth. Even the name harks back to the East India Trading Company, made defunct in 1874; it adds him to the haul of Bright Young Things dominating the music industry, all of whom are very intellectually aware. For Doyle, it pays off. The subtlety and trickiness of his music is intensified as a result, which paradoxically makes it easier to access. He's not so overtly hipster as to be repelling, but the touch is just gentle enough to intrigue you. My advice? Let it.


Rating: 7/10

Recommended Tracks:
Dripping Down
Looking For Someone
Glitter Recession