This is Sauna Youth ‘Transmitters,’ propelled by high energy indie and jabbing guitars it’s immediately infectious.
Check out the video below, filmed among the ruins of The Crystal Palace Terraces, Transmitters is a playful and poetic ode to desire. Directed, shot and edited by Gary Mcquiggin of Welywyn Garden City, known for his work previously with The Pheromoans,The Bomber Jackets and Deerhoof, the film recalls James Broughton’s surrealist miniature The Pleasure Garden (1957).
Using a number of the same locations, the band appear, disappear and re-appear amongst and against the modern-day remains of the ruins. Mcquiggin ups the ‘pleasurable strangeness’ of Broughton’s original with increasingly splenetic rhythmic cuts and visual non-sequiturs.
Transmitters continues the tradition of ‘the park’ as a place of self-reflection and respite from urban hullabaloo, as well as a space for serious transformative experience – as seen and heard in works by artists diverse as The UV Race (Life Park), The Kinks (Village Green Preservation Society), Gary Numan (Down In The Park) and Prince (Paisley Park).
Having started out in 2009 in Brighton, Sauna Youth ended up moving to London and changing line up to its current constellation in 2011. Attracted to the possibilities apparent within a DIY philosophy, the band self-recorded and self-released their own music until the release of their first LP, Dreamlands on Faux Discx/Gringo Records in 2012, creating a number of seven inches, splits and cassettes.
[youtube width=”640″ height=”360″]https://youtu.be/JgdAoAdwwBI[/youtube]
Comprised of Richard Phoenix (drums, vocals), Lindsay Corstorphine (guitar), Jen Calleja (vocals, sampler) and Christopher Murphy (bass), the band has naturally developed its sound in the three years since Dreamlands and is now in its ultimate form. All four members are also the band Monotony, which they formed while writing Distractions in 2014. Later in the year, they did two sessions over two days as both bands for Marc Riley on BBC 6 Music, and both Sauna Youth and Monotony were invited to play DRILL Festival by Wire. As well as playing in Monotony, members of Sauna Youth are also in the bands Tense Men, Primitive Parts, Feature and Cold Pumas.
They’ve previously played with Pissed Jeans, Thee Oh Sees, Ceremony, Ty Segall and Protomartyr and have played at both Liverpool and Oslo Psych Fests. They have plans for a European and US tour later in the year.
Upcoming shows:
Friday 26 June – Sheffield – Audacious Space
Saturday 27 June – Grimsby – The Matrix
Sunday 28 June – Cardiff – The Undertone
Thursday 2 July – York – The Fulford Arms
Friday 3 July – Leeds – Wharf Chambers with VEXX
Saturday 4 July – Glasgow – Old Hairdresser’s with VEXX
Sunday 5 July – Manchester – Gullivers with VEXX (afternoon show)
