News

James Yuill Releases New Single

21st Oct 2010

James Yuill presents ‘First In Line’, the second single to be released from James’s latest album Movement In A Storm (Moshi Moshi) and a song that perfectly encapsulates his unique sound.

A man with a quasi-monastic lifestyle, James Yuill is never happier than when he's making music, alone in his Dalston flat, entirely oblivious to the whims of the east London scene, or the rules and regulations of wider music culture. “I've never followed fashion,” he laughs, which probably explains why, when he first came to London, he took immense pride in his job sourcing music for TV adverts. “If I think track X is a fantastic record it doesn't matter who the singer is, or who wrote it. To me, I have the best of both worlds. I grew up on grunge, so I love hard bass drums and distorted bass lines, and all that heavy Ed Banger electro, Justice and Boys Noize, but I also appreciate the skill in songwriting and pop. And I think the way I bring them together is unique.”

Indeed, in ‘First In Line’ and right across Movement In A Storm, that is demonstrably true. Where James constructs and develops strummed ideas on his acoustic guitar, it’s the way he radically manipulates such outlines that makes him standout. Coloured-in with great neon splashes of data, he upgrades, reboots and digitalises the core of his latest output in a way that only enhances his melancholic tone, heightening the emotional impact immeasurably.

As a lanky, bespectacled self-confessed “music geek”, he may not see himself as a future pop star, but he does see himself as one among a small band of visionary British musicians (people as different as Patrick Wolf, Cinnamon Chasers and Hot Chip), who are trying to alter the way pop music sounds. By writing songs informed by the electronica of, say, Modeselektor or Warp's Chris Clark, such musicians may well catalyse pop's next great leap forward. “Ultimately,” says James, “the Aphex Twin-isation of the charts is inevitable. Computer music is boundless, there's just so much there to explore.”

Others will trail in his wake, but you should get onboard now. It's going to be quite an ear-opener.

JAMES YUILL – LIVE DATES:
MOSHI MOSHI UK TOUR (WITH SILVER COLUMNS)
26th October – Leeds University Mine (Tickets £7.50 advance)
27th October – The Rainbow, Birmingham (Tickets £8 advance)
28th October – XOYO, London (Tickets £10)
30th October – The Other Rooms, Newcastle (Tickets £7.50)
31st October – Fence Records Hallowe’en Party @ Stereo, Glasgow (Tickets £25 – part of an all day event)
1st November – The Shipping Forecast, Liverpool Music Week (Tickets £5)
2nd November – The Ruby Lounge, Manchester (Tickets £8)
3rd November – Thekla, Bristol (Tickets £7)