Colour Box – S.T.

Brothers Martyn and Steven Young are probably most known for their one-off sampledelic smash hit “Pump Up the Volume,” which was produced in collaboration with pioneering British dream pop group A.R. Kane. Prior to that project, the Young brothers released music under the name Colour Box. The group’s debut mini-album on 4AD is a powerful purpose statement of the group’s idiosyncratic sound: soulful R&B vocals, bizarre samples spliced within chaotic arrangements (A1 “Shotgun” includes a sped-up sample of David Bowie saying, “I’ve never really considered myself as [sic] a musician …”), heavy dubwise basslines, and club-ready drum machine grooves. We also highly recommend listening to the EP that preceded this mini-album, Breakdown, which includes the hauntingly dystopian “Tarantula,” later made popular by This Mortal Coil.

Recommended – Full Listen