Ready for a drive? Well, too late — we’ve strapped you in anyway. Don’t worry, though, your driver this evening is none other than Matthew Borland, a.k.a. Yung Matthew, and he knows these roads like the back of his hand. Before modifying his moniker from TheyungMatthew, he eased us upward into the infinite universe; more recently, he’s played backseat pilot to WAKE’s exploratory hip-hop excursions with his brew of ambient matter.
But don’t expect another smooth trip from this man of many hats. Even through the sublime wash of synths, the dayglo-lit road to “Yana” winds round funky turns and over head-bobbing bumps into some real crunchy territory. This isn’t the first time Borland has shared the wheel with his brother CHYES! of Natural Selektion, but they’ve clearly steered away from the brisker jams of their past — those meaty sledgehammer riffs and the cruising beat suggest the sun-warped world of Tobacco more than any of Borland’s other projects. Still, even at this steady pace, your head might still spin from the flashing dots and neon lines that dart across the windshield, which nicely convey the wobbly electronics that percolate underneath.
All right, time to crank up the engine. You still look nervous, though. Look, you’ll be fine. Your sense of reality might not quite be the same afterwards, but trust us, you’ll be fine.
“Yana” is the first single from Yung Matthew’s upcoming LP, Auroras, out May 6 via Underground Field Recordings. The video was compiled and stitched together by Borland’s WAKE compatriot, Alexa Lima.
More Info
Bandcamp: yungmatthew.bandcamp.com
Facebook: @TheyungMatthew
SoundCloud: @theyungmatthew
Twitter: @TheyungMatthew