Recursion by Young Hound
At the beginning of 2025 I got a wild hair up my ass to buy a keyboard. I’d like to think that, even in the back of my head, I was getting ready to record something strange. I ended up buying an old Yamaha PSR-F51 out of the back of some dude’s Prius for $40. I’ve never been one for expensive equipment, and I’ve always used the cheapest stuff I could find. Something about that cheapness feels creepy to me, consumer-grade, democratic in its discomfort. I didn’t drink alcohol for Dry January and slowly started reintroducing myself to weed. I also happened to be majorly bummed out in that hazy, inchoate way specific to seasonal depression.
I felt very lonely, isolated and disconnected from the broader world; I think a lot of other people did too. Something about January and February. Something about the holiday season being so definitively over, dying Christmas trees in front windows, plastic bags scattered on dry, bitter winds. The world seems to end at the beginning of the year. The days are short, everything’s cold, everyone’s crabby, everyone’s going through the motions.
Playing music helped me channel that loneliness into something constructive. I’m not a pianist (I’m barely a musician), but these facts seemed more freeing than intimidating. As a result most of the melodies here are simple, pentatonic, the kind of stuff a bored kid would play if he found a piano on the street. You can hear different genres bumping into each other: ambient, vapor wave, IDM, black metal, power electronics, found recordings, ad jingles and podcast rips. The “radio mangles” are a particular favorite of mine, well-known pop hits that seem to melt out of car stereos due to incorrect sample rates or FM lag (“Time After Time” and “Sweet Dreams” being the two most obvious examples).
These records (both Recursion and its B-side companion Autosurveillance) complete an unofficial ambient/drone/noise trilogy I started with Drone Wars in 2012 and followed up with Intimacy (Soft) in 2018. They’re meant to be listened to during the winter. Now that I’m one year removed from their actual recording -- and one year removed from the specific stew of uneasiness that birthed them -- it’s clear these albums are the soundtrack to some kind of horror film. My best friend calls these tracks “dark sci-fi,” also an apt description.
Both records loop on themselves à la Pink Floyd’s The Wall. When I’m depressed that loop feels like a prison, a Nietzschean Samsara I’ll never be able to escape. But when I’m hopeful it reminds me of Grant Morrison’s words: “We die and fade, but the big living thing never dies. It just keeps renewing itself.”
Tracklist
| 1. | French Body Horror and Chill | 3:48 |
| 2. | Portal in the Woods | 5:05 |
| 3. | [ r e c u r s i o n 4 ] | 1:13 |
| 4. | Heaven Has No Human Taste | 4:12 |
| 5. | Drug Takes Itself | 5:04 |
| 6. | [ r e c u r s i o n 1 ] | 2:40 |
| 7. | Really Cozy Video Game | 3:01 |
| 8. | Rewinder | 6:47 |
| 9. | Sugar Cemetery | 3:51 |
| 10. | Just Visiting | 3:48 |
| 11. | [ r e c u r s i o n 3 ] | 1:28 |
| 12. | 3:27 // House with Black Windows // 4:34 | 7:06 |
| 13. | Intimacy (Memento) | 2:20 |
| 14. | [ r e c u r s i o n 2 ] | 1:13 |
| 15. | Bored Altar | 4:53 |
Credits
Colin Keating // Young Hound wrote, performed, recorded, engineered, and mixed this record.
Cover art comes from an r/geek screenshot of an infinite window loop.
Cover design by Colin Keating.
This album was recorded using a Casio CT-X700 keyboard, a Yamaha PSR-F51 keyboard, an electric guitar through a Line 6 amp, the BOSS RC-1 Loop Station pedal, the BOSS MT-2 Metal Zone distortion pedal, the VHS Synth app, the Animoog Z app, the Synth One app, and a J Lab USB microphone.
Thanks to the BBC Sound Archive, free use sound effect libraries, and all the janky YouTube to mp3 converters I used that probably put me on some government watch list.
Some of the lyrics and song titles used for this record come from the Recursion series, a set of experimental poems I wrote during a manic break in 2021. The title "Heaven Has No Human Taste" comes from Clarice Lispector's The Passion According to G.H. The title "Really Cozy Video Game" comes from my roommate Mason description of the (then untitled) song. 3:27 is my favorite time, there's a house on my street with blacked out windows that always creeps me out, and 4:34 is my nod to John Cage. "Intimacy (Memento)" continues the "Intimacy" remix series.
Other inspirations include: David Lynch, Severance, the Undertaker Theme, mall Muzak, Skinamarink, Ethel Cain’s Perverts, Pharmakon, loneliness, hermitage, vaporwave, Can't Help Myself by Sun Yuan & Peng Yu, the System Shock soundtrack, Tarkovsky's Stalker, Tim Hecker, Author and Punisher, Barbarian, Smerz, The Matrix, Dark, Oneohtrix Point Never, Ulrich Schnauss, Stars of the Lid, Aphex Twin, the months of January and February, Godflesh, Deafheaven, and the Second Wave of Norwegian Black Metal.
Special thanks to: B (always), Mason for putting up with all the noise, Alaric, August, Justin, Daylon, Dylan, Jay, Ross, Billie Jane, and Chris.
NO AI WAS USED, FUCK AI // FUCK ICE // FREE PALESTINE
***
Sample Credits
- "French Body Horror and Chill" samples a church organ powering down and initial audience reactions to Irréversible at Cannes.
- "Portal in the Woods" samples a YouTube short by @darkwaterhermit and uses a Singing Cactus Toy for vocals.
- "[recursion 4]" samples TikTok feeds in French, Spanish, and English, as well as a Child Mind Institute round table with Bo Burnham.
- "Heaven Has No Human Taste" uses samples of Milford Graves’ track “March 11, 1976 I,” multiple Billy Graham sermons on hell, and a mangled version of “Sweet Dreams” by Eurythmics.
- "Drug Takes Itself" samples my partner’s broken bathroom fan.
- "Rewinder" samples the Bluey videogame.
- "Just Visiting" samples studio laugh and applause tracks as well as “Dirty Sheets” by Vitamin D.
- "3:27 // House with Black Windows // 4:34" samples Possession.
- "[recursion 2]" samples an interview with Grant Morrison and “I Believe in Miracles” by The Jackson Sisters.
- "Bored Altar" samples three different hour-long easy listening ambient tracks (what streaming companies call Perfect Filler Content) and ends with a sample of “Hockey on TV” by Young Hound.
