Yop – In Vile Viciousness (Distro-Y)

12″ | DL

Out Now

Yop are a two-piece from Ballina in the West of Ireland who play synth driven post-punk that bears more than a passing resemblance to Joy Division. Nathan Brown reviews their second darkwave EP.

Post-punk has been making a resurgence in the punk scene. Once neglected chorus and flanger pedals are back in fashion with even Oi! bands like Syndrome 81 incorporating some of these sounds. Why mention them in particular? This EP was mixed by Syndrome 81’s Jackie Cadiou. There has always been a cohort of folks interested in darkwave with its more synth/goth oriented sound. I’m pretty much out of that loop but what I can say is that this EP is very much in the vein of the first bands labelled as post-punk whose sounds eventually got absorbed into goth and synth pop. We’re talking Warsaw/Joy Division, Siouxsie and The Banshees (but not the Siouxsie bit), Bauhaus and Tubeway Army. It’s like 1979 all over again.

The four track 12” EP format was all the rage in the 80s but in latter years, with the rising price of vinyl, has become a less common sight outside of dance music. Culturally this record does seem to fit into the 1980s which is as long ago now as WW2 was in the 80s. The format is justified. At a running time of just over 25 minutes it is longer than some “full length” LPs I’ve bought recently from one-minute-wonder hardcore bands.

Waveless sets the scene by kicking off with drum machine and bass. The simple driving bass riff and the sparseness of the overall sound instantly are evocative of Warsaw/early Joy Division. When the guitar kicks in the deal is sealed. The flanger effect and the way the single notes are played screams Joy Division. Just before the song reaches its conclusion, synth sounds come washing over and it concludes with an echoey finish.

Dialogue 642 starts with a programmed synth and repetitive bass note combining with the drum machine. Whereas on Waveless there was more dynamic range in the vocal performance, here the singing stays in the baritone zone which serves to further reinforce the Joy Division comparison, especially with the guitar’s effect-loaded sound dropping in and out. Having built up the tension, the middle of the song lets rip with the guitar roaring into life and more animated, exuberant singing. It is like the early angry Joy Division tunes that never get enough airplay. The synth solo has the sort of simplicity and richness that made Tubeway Army so distinct.

Onto side B, The Silence continues in the same vein, but with a guitar cutting through that screams The Banshees and The Cure. The slow start and the uplift in momentum sounds so familiar and, again, has a driving effect. This time the song builds to a more heavily distorted sound that pushes it in the direction of industrial while maintaining the post-punk signature. That Tubeway Army style synth reappears and then the song is back to the relentless driving sound.

The guitar playing on Can’t Start Again has an even more Banshee-esque sound to it with descending arpeggios seeping through the atmopsheric effects. It is glorious sounding and a key shift later in the song amplifies this familiarity. The singing on both these B side tracks leans more into early 80s synth pop bands but the drum machine/bass combo keeps this firmly rooted in the dour land of post-punk.

I don’t know if the image of the cosmos on the cover was a deliberate ploy but I can’t unsee the cover of the Joy Division 7 inch Transmission, which features a nebula. Yop execute their craft so well that they have the potential to become fairly big if the post-punk resurgence takes off. This might be one of those “you heard about them from us before they were big” moments.

Links:

Album from Distro-Y

Digital from Yop

Distro-Y on Facebook

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Words by Nathan Brown. You can read more from Nathan on his Louder Than War archive over here.