NEW BAND CRUSH: Yung debut album ‘A Youthful Dream’ out on 6/5/16

What are the dreams of a youth that never makes time to rest? For 21-year-old 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. Writing and performing songs filled with gritty guitar and driving rhythms that snap like a live wire, he’s been busy channelling 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 (out 6/10 on Fat Possum), such a revelation. Angst makes space for wisdom, youthful exuberance begins channelling 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.

Where the previous releases such as “These Thoughts Are Like Mandatory Chores” found Silkjær masterfully running through buzzsaw riffs, recalling The Replacements and Jay Reatard, A Youthful Dream finds Silkjær reshaping his vocabulary and experimenting with a larger sonic palette. Richer melodies, pianos, and even trumpets made their way into the recording sessions at Sound Studio in Sweden, where Silkjær, Frederik Nybo Veile (drums) and Tobias Guldborg Tarp (bass) decamped with a handful of guest musicians.

After more than a decade of writing songs, he’s grown bored with other people’s perception of what “punk” means, and his ambitions and songwriting have evolved. Always on the move and in the moment, Silkjær has created a musical step forward, while pausing to consider and reflect on the past.

“For me, Yung has always equalled total freedom,” says Mikkel. “I don’t want Yung to be a band that you can put certain labels on. I wish for it to be a project that can principally go in any given direction.”