Richard Youngs & Simon Wickham Smith - 20 Years

20 Years celebrates two decades of music from Richard Youngs and Simon Wickham-Smith, featuring four previously unreleased albums. The set includes the first new vinyl from the pair in almost 15 years, plus three other projects (presented here on CD) that were all completed and intended forrelease by the duo in the 90s, but fell by the wayside for various reasons.20 Years, the newly recorded LP, is one of the heaviest, most uncompromising records of the duo's long career. It consists of eight electro-acoustic reworkings of their first (unreleased) recording from 1987, and is a blistering set of tracks as wild and weird as anything they've ever done. The SMIRRCD features four epic instrumentals in the vein of classics such as LAKE and Asthma and Diabetes, flowing with extended grandeur, mixing drone andeccentric instrumentation in the duo's immediately identifiable style. Songphase sten simple, lovely tunes are a reminder of their considerable trad songwriting and performing prowess. While Youngs has worked in this style on his solo efforts, hearing Wickham-Smith match him track for track is a revelation. Dream Song is among the former's most moving pieces. Finally, LIVE!!! is a head-scratcher of an album, recorded live in-studio in full-on Dadaist style extended clavinet mania, Casio jams and plenty of outré expression. This set is packaged in a gatefold jacket with essays by Dave Keenan, Neil Campbell, Marc Masters and Jon Dale and an extended interview withYoungs and Wickham-Smith. The CDs are housed in a custom-binded insert in the pocket opposite the LP, with each disc held snug in its own die-cutpocket, and the audiophile -quality LP was cut by John Golden. Magnificent and ridiculous. Neil Campbell In its own way, 20 Years is a testament to another form of resistance, one that is polite, well-behaved, English-eccentric but still as bloody-minded, anti-corporate and determinedly individual as the most radical punk rock. Davis Keenan Call 20 Years a film shot on wax, a book printed on plastic, an uncontainablecareer folded inside a hairless gate. I think you better turn off your cellphone-addled brain and clamp your fists to your chair for this one. Marc Masters: Massive four-disc release features the pair sfirst new vinyl in almost 15 years, plus three unreleased works recorded in the 90s

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