World Unite Lucifer Youth Foundation.

The UK’s biggest mystery. This band has grown to be popular, mainly by not trying to be popular….at least it would seem. WU LYF has gotten lots of recognition for playing few shows, turning down interviews, and remaining kind of anonymous. So maybe it’s all a big scheme. Some sort of reverse psychological marketing plot: the less we know, the more we want to know.

In remaining unknown to most, this band has made their own label, and produced their records themselves. They’re pretty much the Odd Future of……….whatever genre they are.

Now let’s talk about sound.

Emo. Post-rock. Shoegaze.

All these terms could be mixed together somehow, but that would only half describe WU LYF’s sound. One thing to keep in mind is that the band recorded the album themselves in a cathedral in Manchester. So obviously this has a very large, vast reverb to it. Lot’s of guitar melodies as opposed to riffs or chord progression. Very busy and vivid drums and bass that are distinctly synched together like math-rock outfit Maps & Atlases for example. You could kind of say that they’re like a more traditionally structured Explosions in the Sky with vocals. Though the band is self-described as “heavy pop”, I definitely think it’s much more complex than that. In fact, the music is so busy that it could very well be an instrumental project and I would still be interested.

But the vocals. Loud, obnoxious, big, reverb-y, and often times gang vocals and shouting are made into this very unique, passionate sound that seemingly would contradict such cathartic music; but it doesn’t. It’s perfect. Icing on the cake. Brilliant.