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Album Review

Yppah
Eighty One Ninja Tune

Article written by James S - Apr 12, 2012

Yppah - Eighty One

For a country that provided many of the pioneers of the genre, the USA has never really got to grips with this 'dance music' malarkey. Texas native Joe Corrales Jr, aka Yppah, has been attempting to redress the balance for the past half decade with his uncannily Anglophile melding of trip hop, big beat, drum n bass and, rather surprisingly, more than a soupçon of shoegaze.

Sadly, 'Eighty One' is named after the year Coralles was born, rather than a premonition of Adele's difficult forty-second album at her present rate of titles. It opens with the sound of laughing children and twinkling keyboards before the beats crash in on Blue Schwinn, A few songs later, Never Mess With Sunday has an acoustic intro which heralds in some Fischerspooner synths – and then the beats crash in. You might begin to spot a theme here.

Another common thread are the intriguing but almost entirely incomprehensible vocals provided by Anomie Belle on four tracks. Her involvement on D. Song amounts to little more than an enigmatic two line refrain but Film Burn is more substantial and nods quite heavily to the Bristol cream of Portishead and Tricky back in the day. Three Portraits sees Belle provide the hitherto missing link between the Cocteau Twins, One Dove and Curve, which is undoubtedly a good thing for those of us of a certain vintage.

The comparisons keep coming thick and fast. Paper Knife quickens the pulse with some understated but driving guitar and thudding percussion before suddenly going all DJ Shadow towards the end, whilst Happy To See You is the latest in the long line of songs that will be said to sound 'a bit like My Bloody Valentine'.

Album closer Some Have Said sums it all up in many ways. It's a decent tune and well-crafted for sure, but there's a nagging sense of familiarity to it which threatens to teeter into downright derivative. 'Eighty One' is far from being a bad record – it just won't live on in the memory nearly as long as the ones which seem to have inspired it.

Links:
http://www.ninjatune.net/artist/yppah
http://www.myspace.com/yppah