Holy Youth Movement - The Shock of the Future

Bristol-based Holy Youth Movement will release their new single, ‘The Shock of the Future’ (Ditto Label Services), on Thursday, March 28th. Produced by the Jagz Kooner (Primal Scream, Andrew Weatherall, Sabres Of Paradise), it’s the lead single from their upcoming debut EP of the same name.

Image & artwork courtesy of the band.

In 2023, HYM supported Primal Scream and The Dandy Warhols. Both can be heard on this wild electronic rock ‘n’ roll single. The bugged-eyed glam-rock electronic stomp of ‘Detroit’ and the dirge euphoria of ‘Every Day Should Be Holiday’ link arms with Radio 4’s ‘Party Crashers’ on this breakthrough single.

The 00s was awash with bands with dance music sympathies. The Rapture, Radio 4, White Rose Movement, Kasabian, Keith, and Sunshine Underground are among the finest. Whilst they cut through various scenes, there was a world between the single and the remix. HYM are emerging as the seamless middle ground. Guitars roll into synths and back again whilst frontman Tom Newman sways like Nick Drake fronting Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. For the first time in an age, rock ‘n’ roll’s wheel is being nudged towards invention and it’s utterly intoxicating.

 HYM will release the next single from the EP ‘The Next One’ on Thursday 25th April. On this breathtaking showing, it’s going to agonising wait to see what they do next.

Holy Youth Movement: Shiiine On 2023

“Better, better together / I feel stronger, stronger than ever”

Last week, Bristol’s Holy Youth Movement kicked off the Friday night on Centre Stage at the Shiiine On Weekender.

In the last eighteen months, we’ve seen HYM support Rolla, The Utopiates, and play (but not headline) This Feeling’s stage at Truck Festival. Their short but devastating sets have always left us with the feeling there is more in the tank. At Shiiine, they brought the tank!

What was lacking from those shows was time and grandeur. The longer set and better-rigged stage afforded them at Shiiine laid bare their ability to look like superstars! Epitomised by the intoxicating instrumental ‘Raz’ opening the set. The snarling electronica and thudding basslines hit a groove that demanded full attention.

Enter the stage frontman Tom Newman to the ecstatic synths of ‘You Thought I Was Dead’. Resplendent in his boiler suit and shades, Newman is supercharged on this Primal Scream ‘XTRMNTR’ classic in the making. The guitars fire into the ether like four-minute warning sirens as the synths distort with kaleidoscopic chaos.

Minute by minute, the Shiiine crowd filter into the late-night venue. Ebbing closer to the magnetic power of their early Kasabian trips. During ‘Better Together’, a moment of unification only topped by The Farm’s ‘All Together Now’ crystalises. Although the tempo drops, the intensity burns just as brightly. The spirit of unification conjured by the Primals, and the dearly departed Weatherall and Johnson in ’91 oozes through the room with a soul-enriching blissfulness.

No HYM gig is complete without the blistering ‘Tranquilizer’. Recorded with Andrew Innes and produced by Jagz Kooner, the Bristol quintet have a weapon of mass distraction in their armoury. With the light show coming at the Shiiine crowd like a technicolour blitz, Newman strutted from the crowd to band members like the pied piper of rock ‘n’ roll leading us to salvation.