Recommended music: 'Greatest It's' by Yong Yong

For their second album Portugese duo Yong Yong have relocated to Glasgow, with interesting results. Swapping the sunshine of Lisbon for Scotland's biggest city has produced a more focused, structured sound that sometimes even strays onto the dancefloor. Sure, there are still woozy, eerie atmospherics and crackly ambience, and bits were you think you've got a duff copy of the record 'cos the sound keeps breaking up, but overall this set hangs together much better than their début album 'Love'.

There are a couple of points on the record that remind me of The KLF's ambient classic 'Chill Out', but to counterbalance that there's disembodied rapping (on 'Sesamstraat'), crunching beats ('Maca Lu-Lu) and spoken-word extracts (The Valley). If you listen to it all the way through in one go (which you should) this is a record that envelops you, packs you up and takes you to its own private universe, full of dark corners and fog, but occasionally shot through with flashes of sunlight.

'Greatest It's' is out now on the ever-interesting Night School Records, from whom you can order you vinyl copy here. Listen to the whole album below.

Track of the Day: 'Maca Lu-Lu' by Yong Yong

I originally wrote about Yong Yong back in April last year, when their first album 'Love' was causing something of a stir (see article here). Since that time the Portuguese due have relocated from Lisbon to Glasgow to make their second record 'Greatest It's'. Due out on Night School Records at the end of January, the new record sees a marked progression in their sound which, if this track is anything to go by, sees them increase both the quality and depth of their sound while retaining a certain other-worldliness. You can pre-order the album here once you've listened to the track below.

New Band of the Day: Yong Yong

Hailing from Lisbon, Portugal, the due of Rodolfo Brito and Francisco Silva, mine a late-night seam of warped electronics, ambient sounds, effects and loops. The overall effect is a bit like going to sleep with the radio on and drifting in and out of consciousness while the radio slowly re-tunes itself. Their album 'Love' initially appeared towards the end of last year on a C60 cassette, and has since been afforded a digital release.

It's hard to pick out specific tracks or key points as it's very much something that should be listened to as one piece, but there are signposts on the journey - like the bit in 'Loboz' that sounds like Wall-E, or the dialogue on 'Bujumann' about Gandhi and Mother Teresa - that reflect just how trippy the destination is.
In part the lo-fi nature of the recordings and occasional dubby feel reminds me of early Peaking Lights stuff, but really the record inhabits a world of its own. Here are a couple of tracks from it, first off you can download 'Helder' here courtesy of the band themselves - let yourself sink into its repetitive vibe...



Next you can listen to 'Spray', which was the track that first brought them to my attention:



And then there's the final track from the album 'Escarnio Popular', which sounds like an Arabic souk from a sci-fi film:



Rodolfo Brito also occasionally post things on Youtube, here's the latest one that he's put up



Finally from their Soundcloud page, 'Material' appears to be the newest thing they've put out:



Plenty for you to get your teeth into there - enjoy!