East India Youth - Culture of Volume

East India Youth
Culture of Volume
2015

Culture of Volume is a wall of sound. Regardless of the direction that East India Youth decide to go with this record, and there are many, the one thing that remains is the great vastness that is the music they create. In the ears it goes front to back, side to side, clearly the work of someone who is concerned with creating something epic rather than catchy, important rather than good. That is the feeling that you are left with on Culture of Volume this is an album that takes itself very seriously. Each note is meticulous, the vocals when they are there are impeccably sung with every detail mattering more than the summation. It's almost as if a computer was asked to make a record and this is what came out. The lack of heart or soul on this album is jarring, it doesn't make the album not pretty or well done, it is just hard to hear something devoid of that real sense of feeling. The connection to the music is never there.

I find myself torn when listening to this record. On one hand it is really well done and put together well, but on the other I never find myself clicking with the album. There is not that spark that lets you know you are feeling exactly what the artist wanted to convey. Instead you are left with a sense that perhaps this music is on another level, or just out of your grasp. There is definitely an effort here to make something catchy, but that same wall of sound just gets in the way and the essence of a song is lost in synths and drum machines. Culture of Volume is worth you time to take a listen, however I don't expect these tracks to be popping up on anyone's playlists anytime soon.

5 out of 10