Isolated Youth (Sweden) – Psykosoma (single/future debut album track)

We don’t get too much in the way of ‘gothic post-punk’ and I didn’t even know what that meant until listening to ‘Psykosoma’, which is Stockholm-based Isolated Youth’s first song for four years as well as an album track on their forthcoming debut album ‘Miserere Mei’, named for Allegri’s interpretation of Psalm 51.

I do now.

Even the band’s name dragged me in. (The album was written during pandemic lockdowns and perhaps that is even what that name arose out of). As soon as I saw it I envisaged some or other forlorn housing estate on the outskirts of Uppsala or Eskilstuna or Västerås where the kids are trying to do something, anything to while away the day with no prospect of any sort of work anytime soon.

Perhaps that’s a bit over the top but Isolated Youth doesn’t really suggest a tribute band to The New Seekers playing at a village fete, does it? It suggests remoteness and rebellion.

Then I read their own comment on it – “Thematically, ‘Psykosoma’ delves into the protagonist’s struggles and the inevitable confrontation with personal demons in perceived safe havens, yet it also embodies an esoteric and hopeful psychedelic essence. This duality traces back to the blues influences in guitar tuning and beyond. The overarching themes of the album draw loose inspiration from Nina Simone’s ‘Sinnerman,’ re-imagined with modern elements like industrial drum patterns and unconventional synthesisers.”

Now that’s interesting. We recently featured another band that had used Nina Simone as a benchmark and it might have been that particular song too, one which deals with trying but failing to escape from God’s wrath.

So there’s a melting pot here of the physical setting – that aforementioned housing state might represent the safe haven – and sonically of punk, and of the blues. The song was even conceived in a studio in a graveyard. In the dead centre of town I presume.

It’s an interesting piece in that they managed to combine rock, punk and psych into a singularity and you don’t often hear that. It is very 1980s, there are some nods to the likes of New Order in there but equally plenty of 60s psych.

It haunts you in the same way a TV drama does when you know the serial killer is hiding in the bushes while the victim approaches and you have no way of warning her. Or perhaps you know what ‘accident’ is coming next in a Final Destination film but your message goes un-received by the poor unfortunate who is next on the Grim Reaper’s list.

They are well known for the innovative supernatural atmosphere they create at gigs. They played a single release gig in London and will return in June for an album release show.

Find them on:

Website: https://www.isolatedyouth.com/