Underskog

SAMARA LUBELSKI
Violinist, singer, and songwriter Samara Lubelski’s experimental indie pop is wispy and web-like, nodding to both classic ‘60s psychedelia and 21st century freak folk aesthetics. She is an avid participant in projects that skirted the lines between folk, pop, Goth, psychedelia, noise and the avant-garde (The Sonora Pine, Hall of Fame, Tall Firs and Thurston Moore’s post-Sonic Youth project Chelsea Light Moving), not to mention a seasoned studio engineer on works by Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, Black Dice and Oneida.
The Gilded Raid (2016), Lubelski’s eighth solo album, builds upon the hallmarks she has set across her previous singer-songwriter efforts, with a breathy, feather-light touch to her vocals and an internal compass guiding her work down the less obvious paths. However, on The Gilded Raid, the edges become crispier, the gravity more delirious, through 15 fragile strains of intoxicatingly unsettled cotton-candy psych. “Driver, In Your Car” draws deep into the wilds of that approach, providing a gently shaken-up narrative that may or may not be about an abduction attempt, its storyteller potentially eager to go, focusing on the fantastical aspects of her surroundings (“Underneath the tower lights/skyscrapers grow at night”).

RICHARD YOUNGS
A multi-instrumentalist from Glasgow, Richard Youngs began releasing albums in the early ‘90s on various independent labels. His music ranges from pure experimental, instrumental, minimal, and avant-garde through to folk-inspired songwriting and progressive rock. In songwriting mode, he is similar to Robert Wyatt, Anthony Moore, and in particular other fine acts from Glasgow John Martyn and the Incredible String Band. In his more experimental projects with Simon Wickham-Smith and Brian Lavelle, the cacophonous roar is closer in style to ’90s noise underground artists such as the Dead C, Sun City Girls, and White Winged Moth.
Youngs’ CDs Advent and Festival were released on Table of the Elements and other indie labels. Majora and VHF released his solo efforts and collaborations with like-minded musicians such as Stephen Todd and (most commonly) Wickham-Smith. Youngs has produced an expansive body of work and his recordings are diverse and cover many different areas of musical interest. There is a common thread in his material that links his recordings, however, an uplifting defiant and playful attitude giving the albums a common charm, in that they expose the artist as joyously indulging in the delights of a hermetic and musical world. That is not to say that his music is obscure by any means; he has a network of publishers and followers the world over. (Bio from allmusic.com)