Artist:
2nd Gen
Title:
Irony Is
Label:
NovaMute
Cat#:
NOMU68
Release Date:
05th March 2001 (original release date)
Format:
vinly, CD, download & streaming
Tracklist:
01.
And / Or
02.
Slowburned
03.
Buried
04.
Black Spring
05.
Vurt
06.
Musicians Are Morons
07.
Scarred
08.
Measurement 9
09.
Schism
10.
Irony Is
Tracklist US CD:
01.
And / Or
02.
Slowburned
03.
Buried
04.
Black Spring
05.
Vurt
06.
Musicians Are Morons
07.
Scarred
08.
Measurement 9
09.
Schism
10.
Irony Is
11.
And / Or
[feat. Dälek]
(Techno Animal Remix)
12.
Black Spring
[feat. Sensational]
Press Info:
biography
‘Irony Is’
“It’s really simple, no rules.” quickly responds Wajid Yaseen, when asked about the aesthetic concerns of his intense, unique musical project, 2nd Gen. “I’ve had engineers come into my studio, have a look at my desk and I see disbelief on their faces ‘You can’t do that’ It’s getting them to unlearn everything they’ve learnt. They’ve become so rigid in their thinking it’s set like cold concrete. I never had a rule book in the first place, so I’m breaking the rules without even knowing I’m breaking them.
For Yaseen, there is no division between his music and his life. The collision of hard, propulsive hip hop beats, incisive blasts of shattering noise and explosive drum patterns that detonate the incendiary Irony Is, his debut 2nd Gen album, is his life. Not a reflection or a metaphor, the emotionally charged sounds of 2nd Gen are the very essence of him at the moment he recorded them.
Yaseen excepts no division between artist disciplines or musical genres. He craves any new experience, good or bad, that ignite his deft talent for shaping thrilling and challenging sonic invention. His philosophy seems to echo Aleistair Crowley’s dictum. “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law”. Defining 2nd Gen’s music using hackneyed musical genre labels is nigh on impossible. Neither ‘purely’ Techno, Electro, Post Rock, Industrial or Hip Hop, 2nd Gen’s Irony Is achieves a distillation of all these musical forms, and more, bending them out of shape to serve Yaseen’s will. His primary desire, as evinced within Irony Is, is to constantly challenge himself, and those who listen to his art. In the true sense of the word, this is soul music, delivered straight from the heart and the head. “It’s a hybrid of sounds and sources, not purely done on computers, not purely done on conventional instruments”, Yaseen eludiates, speaking of the creation of Irony Is. “I’m into tactile stuff, fingers on strings, hardwiring electronics. It’s a lot of regenerated sound, twisting it back around so it almost collapses within itself.”
Deriving strength from both the decadent literature of Huysmans and Nietzschean philosophy, Yaseen abhors any accepted ‘truths’ and conventions. From the seductive rhythmic pull of ‘And Or’ to the cold brutality of ‘Buried’, the intoxicating ‘Slowburn’, through the slow, inexorable kick of ‘Scarred’, the the post-holocaust urban funeral blues of ‘Black Spring’ (featuring the spontaneous fractured guitar, harmonica and vocals of Gallon Drunk’s James Johnston), Irony Is confounds expectations. Instead it offers exciting new possibilities. “I’ll try everything. I’ll attempt everything and when the fruits are good, they’re good.”
Eager to challenge any preconceptions, musical or otherwise, Yaseen’s contempt for the artistic cowardice and vacuous aspirations of most of his contemporaries is spelt out in ‘Musicians are Morons’. “I see through their guises, their masks and their interfaces”. 2nd Gen is the direct product of Yaseen’s existence to date. Born in Manchester Wajid, at the age of 7, and his brothers provided backing vocals for their father, an Indian devotional singer. Immersed in the influence of his parent’s culture, mid eighties electro, hip hop and later on, the punk thrash of the The Boredoms and Sonic Youth, Wajid began his voyage of musical self discovery. Forming his own thrash punk band in Sweden, then playing bass with the politically astute band Fun-da-mental, later experimenting with guitar pedals to produce innovative walls of white noise and discovering the uncompromising sounds of Einstürzende Neubauten and Non while working at Mute Records, all fuelled his progress.
Forged in isolation, the extremity of 2nd Gen was developed to vent his frustrations as the perpetual outsider. The vision sharpened and a 2nd Gen EP entitled ‘Noise Sculptures’ was released on the Flo label. Inspired by this work, the daring maverick label novamute offered an alliance with 2nd Gen in 1998, providing Wajid with the support to realise his musical aspirations on a larger scale. Released that year, the dramatic 2nd Gen EP entitled ‘Against Nature’, gave notice that a radical musical force had been unleashed. Savage, arresting and bold, ‘Against Nature’ shot the listener with its lacerating sonic attack.
Having deployed the vitriolic assault that is ‘Against Nature’, Wajid has devised a more beguiling and challenging mode of assault for his first album, Irony Is. “It’s far too easy to kosh people sonically,” reflects the man who plans to bring Chuck D and John Lydon together on a future 2nd Gen track. “This time’s a bit more insidious, more a case of shaking them by the hand first.”
You have been warned. Listen with caution. Irony Is follows no rules.
release
Artwork by 2nd Gen Photos by Steve Gullick Layout by Angela Hayward
2nd Gen, aka Wajid Yaseen, born Manchester, releases his debut LP, Irony Is, through novamute on 5th March, his debut album for the label following 1998’s ferocious Against Nature EP.
A truly unique artist, Yaseen began his musical exploration at the age of 7 providing backing vocals for his father, an Indian devotional singer. By the time he had reached his teens he had begun to tutor himself in the aesthetics of noise via a new wave of US artists such as Sonic Youth and The Butthole Surfers. Forming a thrash punk band in Sweden eventually led to a link up with Fun-Da-Mental, with whom he played bass in the mid-nineties.
By 1997 he had begun to hone the extreme sound that would later define his work. Manipulating shards of white noise by looping sounds back and forth through an armoury of effects pedals, Yaseen was soon able to harness and direct his musical experiments into focused and often caustic slices of sound. By the end of 1997 he had linked up the Flo label through which he released his debut EP, Noise Sculptures in the same year.
WajidSigning to novamute in 1998, Yaseen released the frighteningly brutal Against Nature EP. An intense barrage of white-knuckle industrial strength hip hop beats and claustrophobic soundscapes, the EP signalled his intent to delve deeper into the uncharted territories of noise.
Re-entering Schism Studios in 1999, Yaseen began work on what would later become his debut LP, Irony Is. Initially working alone, and with a single minded agenda to operate outside the accepted boundaries of style and genre, he fused together beats, sounds and moments of harsh intensity to create a truly mesmerising piece of work.
With an almost arrogant rejection of convention, Yaseen has moulded an album of startling originality. Opening with the single, And / Or, released on 12th February and featuring vocalist Mau the album unfolds itself in a most unconventional style. Slowburn, sounds like a barbarous clash between Mark E Smith, Stockhausen and Public Enemy. The swamp fed Black Spring featuring James Johnston from Gallon Drunk on guitar, harmonica and vocals gives way to the languid yet ruthless Scarred, while the fabulously titled Musicians Are Morons propels itself on a tsunami of mordant beats. Ending with the tightly wound hip hop fed title track, Irony Is, Yaseen’s debut long player is a near perfect exploration of the power of noise. Controlled yet wild, Irony Is will stand the test of time and be rightly proclaimed as a pivotal release both now, and in years to come.
Snippets:
soon
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