Album Review: The Young Punx – All These Things Are Gone

English-based Electronic Dance music duo, The Young Punx, return with third album ‘All These Things Are Gone’. On the new release, Hal Ritson and Nathan Taylor concern themselves with the lost eras of culture and music and destroying the boundaries of genre. Once again, the alternative pair challenge club culture’s standards of the norm.

The album revolves around the ideas and themes of its almost 14-minute title track. The lyrics list lost items of culture, such as: “pagers”, “cigarettes at work”, and “Top Of The Pops”, as well as more personal anecdotes, like “my virginity and “my first wife”. Its words are a poetic and thought-provoking social commentary on things that have passed, but their delivery, ‘90s Dance influence and robotic vocals (not to mention the video!) provide a dry humour that make it quite awkward to listen to and watch. The feeling of uncertainty is exactly what The Young Punx have aimed for – and they’ve succeeded.

Ritson and Taylor delve successfully into the past, taking vintage sounds and mixing them with Electronic beats. Opener, ‘Harlem Breakdown’, is a sample-inspired track playing with elements of ‘70s Jazz Funk, while ‘Kowloon Kickback’, experiments with a 1930s big band and ‘Girls Like Disco’ featuring Los Angeles music man Birdee, explores the ‘80s Disco beat with fast-paced and funky Electronic sweeps.

Still experimenting, but assuring listeners that they know what they’re doing, The Young Punx have brought us a third album with just as much character as the previous two, while daring to bring all sounds from the 1900s to today.