Yves Tumor Downbeat | Electronica | Leftfield 5 Items

Just over eighteen months on from the visionary success of 2018's Safe In The Hands Of Love, Yves Tumor pushes visceral sonic boundaries with his new full-length studio album Heaven To A Tortured Mind.
In a sense, Heaven To A Tortured Mind occupies the anthemic soundworld of the androgynous underworld that was explored in Safe In The Hands Of Love. Offering up a dozen pieces of vivid avant-pop (the days when he would fill an album with painterly, semi-concrete ambiences, as he did on 2017’s Experiencing The Deposit Of Faith, appear to have passed).

Co-produced by Justin Raisen (Sky Ferreira, Ariel Pink, Charli XCX) this selection also comes off as slicker than its predecessor, less prone to rupture and seemingly more comfortable with its poppier impulses. There are even moments here which present as a kind of variation on the neo-soul sound that has been turned murky and swampy at Tumor’s mephistophelian hand. As such, along with Tumor’s disruptive contemporaries like Dean Blunt.

Heaven To A Tortured Mind finds Yves Tumor growing into his position as an outsider popstar. The result is a beautiful, forthright LP from a supremely unique talent.

Praise A Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds) takes us beneath all the bedazzled glam stardom as Yves journeys through the limbo of life and love, escaping toxicity to get higher and holier. From the raw, unapologetic drawl of 'God Is a Circle' comes a mercurially shifting tracklist where Yves picks apart their psyche, discerning lovers and enemies both spiritually devoted to. 'Lovely Sewer' captures the incendiary spark of love, heart racing to the red flags under sunset coloured new wave guitars; a total flipside to the later sultry sighs and strong shuffles of 'Echolalia', where heat rises from the spiralling synths and funky dance grooves.

Praise A Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds) takes us beneath all the bedazzled glam stardom as Yves journeys through the limbo of life and love, escaping toxicity to get higher and holier. From the raw, unapologetic drawl of 'God Is a Circle' comes a mercurially shifting tracklist where Yves picks apart their psyche, discerning lovers and enemies both spiritually devoted to. 'Lovely Sewer' captures the incendiary spark of love, heart racing to the red flags under sunset coloured new wave guitars; a total flipside to the later sultry sighs and strong shuffles of 'Echolalia', where heat rises from the spiralling synths and funky dance grooves.

Yves Tumor shows the world that it's Safe In The Hands Of Love with his debut album for Warp.

Released into the wild with no fanfare or prior warning, Yves Tumor makes good on the audience following astonishing singles 'Noid', 'Licking An Orchid (feat. James K)' and 'Lifetime'. Whereas each of these showed a different side to his sound, one that arguably wasn't afraid to immerse itself in the close running interests of skinny-jeans 'n' all indie, heartfelt romantic ballads and soulful RNB bangers, Yves Tumor's seeming refusal to be creatively pigeonholed is the most vital and compelling cog within his musical identity. Walking a tightrope between being on the one hand, one of the most seductive, soulful musicians of modern times, while also being a serious aficionado of harsh n0!se, as made evident with his recent years' live sets which have become something of a legendary experience/assault for each audience that has entered into the high-intensity sound-field that his on-stage presence creates.

Safe In The Hands Of Love captures each and every side of Yves Tumor's musicianship with an elegant mix of pop numbers and more "experimental" de-constructions. With the spirit of Danish noise/synth/punk/tekno institution Posh Isolation running through the lifeblood of the music, so much so that in a perfect bonding two of the Posh Isolation crew's finest Loke Rahbek and Frederikke Hoffmeier both appear on the album in solidarity with Yves' vision. The recordings are uncharacterizable as anything other than Yves Tumor music. From the gothic cloak 'n' dagger cyberpunk punishment of 'Hope In Suffering (Escaping Oblivion & Overcoming Powerlessness)' featuring Oxhy & Puce Mary, through to the 'Economy of Freedom' produced with Croation Amor and moving along with all the sludgy heaviness of a thousand broken hearts, the feelings explored upon offer a kaleidoscopic union of classic songwriting and lobotomized sound experiments. Chapters like 'Recognizing The Enemy' and 'Licking An Orchid' capture a sense of near blissful introspective blues, sounding like Yves is rushing into the deepest moments of winter while his words that are seemingly spun out of tears, begin to freeze in the cold night air. Before 'Let The Lioness In You Flow Freely' could be the Whitehouse and Steve Albini post-rock record that never materialized back in the 1990's, while 'Recognizing The Enemy' further explores the gothic soundscape rock 'n' roll (original and authentic shades, slick back and leather jacket) of 'Noid', ensuring that his stadium-sized approach to crafting earworms is well and truly represented.

Repeatedly carving out a new path within the diamond cut musical trajectory of Klein, Dean Blunt, Radiohead, Coil and Kevin Shields, Yves Tumor's Safe In The Hands Of Love builds upon his recordings for PAN while setting the stage and informing anyone still unsure that Yves Tumor is truly one of the most visionary and singular artists of his generation.

Praise A Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds) takes us beneath all the bedazzled glam stardom as Yves journeys through the limbo of life and love, escaping toxicity to get higher and holier. From the raw, unapologetic drawl of 'God Is a Circle' comes a mercurially shifting tracklist where Yves picks apart their psyche, discerning lovers and enemies both spiritually devoted to. 'Lovely Sewer' captures the incendiary spark of love, heart racing to the red flags under sunset coloured new wave guitars; a total flipside to the later sultry sighs and strong shuffles of 'Echolalia', where heat rises from the spiralling synths and funky dance grooves.

As Yves explores the pulchritude of purgatory, they move through electrifying rock strains. The technicolour acoustic guitars of 'Meteora Blues' evolve into a high voltage headbanger as they plead, "I'll always pray to an empty sky," sauntering into a falsetto-powered, scathing examination of the popstar on 'Parody' and the cold wave-meets-emo thrashes of 'In Spite of War'. 'Purified By the Fire' is a plunderphonic gauntlet of alchemical transmutation, with shredded loops and cataclysmic beats leading up to the anthemic and heavenly last hurrah of 'Ebony Eye', where Yves Tumor finds glory and salvation, sitting on the throne as the righteous leader of rock music’s contemporary revolution.

The world needed a new rockstar, and Yves Tumor has the answer. From the chameleonic kaleidoscope Safe In The Hands Of Love, to the visceral fusions of Heaven To A Tortured Mind, and the theatrical power jams of The Asymptotical World, Yves Tumor has proved their prowess in any sound their punk spirit inhabits. Hot Between Worlds distills all of this into a masterclass of pop songwriting and rock captivation, with songs that carry a stadium shaking energy having been teased and refined with their band live across the globe.