Taken from their forthcoming album, ‘Mount Matsu‘ (out 19 January 2024 on Glitterbeat Records), global psych rockers YĪN YĪN share their shimmering new single and album opener: “The Year of the Rabbit”. They are originally from Holland’s southernmost city of Maastricht (now based in the nearby Belgian countryside), where they grew their expansive outward-looking influences, which heavily incorporated Southeast Asian music. YĪN YĪN is Kees Berkers (drums), Remy Scheren (bass), Robbert Verwijlen (keys) and Erik Bandt (guitar), and the band say that their new album is their first born through a truly democratic process between four befriended musicians.
In 2018, they released their first single, Dion Ysiusk, on Bongo Joe, followed by One Inch Punch the following year, which made it onto their 2019 psych-rock twelve-song debut ‘The Rabbit that Hunts Tigers’, launched at Le Guess Who? the same year.
With a longer gestation, thanks to covid, came their more spiritual and cosmic sounding ‘The Age of Aquarius’, released in 2022.
Their eclectic influences are fed by some serious crate-digging, spanning almost every musical era and genre, especially ’60s and ’70s Southeast Asian music, which justifiably leads to some long musical descriptions. Mount Matsu is no exception, described as a (mostly) instrumental sound, defined by warm and tapey psychedelic disco, fat global funk, retro electronics and tribal experiments, morphing their sound to include pentatonic scales, vintage synthesizers, huge dynamics and a deep dive into Japanese musical motifs.
The band are also announcing their next series of UK dates for February 2024, including stops in Manchester, London, Bristol and Brighton (see below).
Stream The Year of the Rabbit: https://idol-io.ffm.to/theyearoftherabbit
YĪN YĪN UK Tour Dates
Thur 15 Feb 2024 – Manchester, The White Hotel
Fri 16 Feb 2024 – London, Village Underground
Sat 17 Feb 2024 – Bristol, Strange Brew
Sun 18 Feb 2024 – Brighton, Patterns
(on sale 13 Oct)