A Youthful Dream

Vinyl LP pressing. What are the dreams of a youth that never makes time to rest? For Yung frontman Mikkel Holm Silkjær, a Danish DIY figurehead who has left a catalogue of cassettes and self-produced songs in his wake, the goal seemed to be recording, and living, as fast as possible. Since he began to record music as a teenager (his father put him behind a drum set when he was 4), slow hasn't been his preferred speed. Writing and performing songs filled with gritty guitar and driving rhythms that snap like a live wire, he's been busy channeling the electric drive of youth, creating brief, flashing sonic portraits of his life in Aarhus, the country's gritty, industrial second city. That makes the music on the reflective A Youthful Dream, the debut album from Yung, such a revelation. Angst makes space for wisdom, youthful exuberance begins channeling road-tested experience, and a blur of basement shows and self-produced bromides becomes something more. DIY doesn't mean unrefined, it just means personal. And at a point where inertia made way for introspection, Silkjær showcased a new degree of songwriting craft and and sonic experimentation, and a new perspective on everyday life and young adulthood. "I didn't think a lot about what was going to happen with those earlier songs, I just wanted to create and talk about my life," he says. "This time, it was all about the process."