The Fat Angel Sings

Olden Yolk’s debut ruminates on questions surrounding love, self-doubt, and locating autonomy amidst burgeoning unrest. Wrought with hazy melancholy and halcyon joy, Butler and Shaffer’s lilting vocals play off one another through a devotional dialogue, taking form in haunting choral melodies and candid rock n’ roll. These songs are ecstatic odes to the life of the city; to the subway platforms, kiosks, and monuments which enliven and encompass our collectivity, elevating into an urban-psychedelia.

On the album, Butler and Shaffer are joined by drummer Dan Drohan (Tei Shi, Uni Ika Ai) and guitarist Jesse DeFrancesco who round out the studio sessions and live-band. Drohan’s deep passion for jazz, hip-hop, and experimental percussion come to fore while Defrancesco’s minimal yet powerful guitar ambiences are heard swelling in the peripheries of each song. The album was recorded at Gary’s Electric in NYC by Jarvis Taveniere (Woods) with co-production, electronics, and mixing by Jon Nellen (Ginla, Terrible Records). Other guests, such as multi-instrumentalist John Andrews (Woods, Quilt, The Yawns) and violinist Jake Falby (Mutual Benefit, Julie Byrne), add to the mercurial nature of the record, creating a landscape tinged with beatific songwriting and transgressive underpinnings.

From their eponymous debut album, out February 23rd, 2018 via Trouble In Mind Records 

from the band:
“Vital Sign” represents two sides of a coin. It references feelings of isolation and paranoia felt during periods of illness and confinement, as well as the emergence from such an experience, in recognition of the trials that bind us (“it could have been you too”). The song begins with a reflective moment which quickly reaches a breaking point, accentuated by screeching strings and bellowing background vocals.

Olden Yolk is a New York-based group whose penchant for dystopian folk, abstract poeticism, and motorik rhythms have enveloped them in a sound uniquely of-the-moment yet simultaneously time-tested. The project is led by songwriters, vocalists, and multi-instrumentalists Shane Butler and Caity Shaffer, whose interlaced vocals are found guiding each composition on their enlivening self-titled debut. The project was initially conceived in 2012 by Butler as an outlet for one-off songs and visual art while touring and releasing albums with the band Quilt (Mexican Summer). Following the release of a split-record with Weyes Blood in 2014, Olden Yolk became a collaborative entity.

On the album, Butler and Shaffer are joined by drummer Dan Drohan (Tei Shi, Uni Ika Ai) and guitarist Jesse DeFrancesco who round out the studio sessions and live-band. Drohan’s deep passion for jazz, hip-hop, and experimental percussion come to fore while Defrancesco’s minimal yet powerful guitar ambiences are heard swelling in the peripheries of each song. The album was recorded at Gary’s Electric in NYC by Jarvis Taveniere (Woods) with co-production, electronics, and mixing by Jon Nellen (Ginla, Terrible Records). Other guests, such as multi-instrumentalist John Andrews (Woods, Quilt, The Yawns) and violinist Jake Falby (Mutual Benefit, Julie Byrne), add to the mercurial nature of the record, creating a landscape tinged with beatific songwriting and transgressive underpinnings.

From debut album out February 24th, 2018 on Trouble In Mind Records

Olden Yolk are a New York based group built around songwriters, vocalists and multi-instrumentalist Shane Butler who was also a member of, the psych-rock band, Quilt and Caity Shaffer. The band is set to release their self-titled debut album in February, on the ever excellent psych-and-more label, Trouble In Mind Records.

The band have suggested the tracks on their debut album are a series of odes to city living, resulting in a genre they coin as “urban psychedelia”. Olden Yolk are a band who seem to constantly reinvent themselves, even over the course of a single record: a fascinating album that’s set to take the coming year by storm.

Olden Yolk’s sound is intriguing; the band citing, “a penchant for dystopian folk, abstract poeticism, and motorik rhythms”. The resultant record is one that seems to flitter through genres, drifting from the hazy-kraut driven, Takes One To Know One, to the angular Cate Le Bon-like, Vital Sign and the psych-folk of Gamblers On A Dime.