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Thirty-four years after initially released, the lone non-cassette LP by experimental industrialist, Philip Johnson, finally receives its first proper reissue.
1982’s Youth In Mourning is a lo-fi collage of tape loops, homemade samples, electronic dissonance and sneering tirades. Where the neurosis of opener “Heart Trouble” and “It Meant Something Once” reveal highly emotional shades of pain, “C81” attacks the critically acclaimed contemporary music scene with the snide disgust of The Fall’s Mark E. Smith and “We Can’t Get What We Want” seemingly mocks Socialist protest with a NON-like chanting slogan buried under rhythmic factory-type sounds while simultaneously expressing the frustration of disaffected youth. “New Age Sewage” blends a grating tone with jazzy touches and psychotic rambling, while the ten-plus minutes of “The Karate Kicking Girl of New Invention” tells a story of outsider romance to a soundtrack of squelch, static and staccato repetition. Imagine very early Cabaret Voltaire stripped down to Throbbing Gristle essentials with the literate quandry of William S. Burroughs’ tape experiments.
As part of the UK’s post-punk “cassette culture,” Philip Johnson self-released over 25 tapes, yet this LP is all that currently remains of his legacy. Hopefully, his catalog will see a resurgence in the near future.
