Has the melting pot of indie rock overflowed? Are all future mixtures poisonous? It would seem so, listening to Five Sunsets in Four Days, the Too Pure debut EP from L.A. duo Young People (the band released its self-titled debut on 5RC in 2002 and the follow-up War Prayers on Dimmak in 2003). Like labelmates Scout Niblett, Young People mixes an eclectic range of sounds - soft Cat Power-ish vocals, heavily distorted and discordant guitars, dancing bass rhythms. But unlike Niblett, the result on Five Sunsets is far less than the sum of its parts.
Opener "Hot Horse" is straightforward enough, and near the end of "Stay Awake" the music is cohesive and pushes toward a dynamic goal. But it's anyone's guess what the band is trying to accomplish by burying singer Katie Eastburn's vocals under rudimentary guitar noise and a frankly annoying drum beat. It should come as no surprise that Eastburn and multi-instrumentalist Jeff Rosenberg collaborated on scores for modern dance companies. Think of this as the soundtrack, and all the cracks on the absurdity of modern dance might start to make sense.
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