The Savage Young Taterbug - River Mortis
The Savage Young Taterbug is an alternative indie-psychedelic band from Los Angeles, California. Released independently in 2009, River Mortis was an album that captured the spirit of the early underground movement incredibly well.
The album was split into two tracks; If He Was A River And I Was A Duck, I'd Swim To The Bottom And Never Come Up and Not Know In My Youthful Bloom I'd Be So Close To My Fatal Doom, I Do See, though the entire album is more a collection of sparse recordings and loose samples. While there is repetition, it’s always alluring. The juxtaposition of abrasive noise and jovial compositions is fascinating. More impressive is the beautiful flow from one idea to the next; its noise is equivalent to Spirit They’re Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished by Animal Collective. The album starts off quite standardly with the first half, though eventually degrades into the more abstract and distorted second half. The progression from the start of the tape to the finale is beautiful.
It’s important to judge River Mortis for its time. While sample use is overdone in underground music, here it’s the overall palate that’s commendable. The samples are unrecognisable outside their melodies thanks to the clear, coherent vision and demented injection of raw, low-fi folk. Furthermore, it catches the liveliness of the early Bandcamp era in the same way Car Seat Headrest did with Twin Fantasy. It’s sad to see the artist replicate the formula more than a decade later. I strongly suggest beginning with his earlier catalogue in the meantime; especially this record.
Great
Listen to it here:
The Savage Young Taterbug - River Mortis
