Two of the three maestros, Simon Posford and Benji Vaughan, (the Younger Brother puppet masters) are looking to shoot their fans up with a suspicious-sounding musical vaccine this March. The name of this vaccination? Vaccine. (Their latest music album.) Now, you may be scratching your head wondering why they would name their album Vaccine; because I admit, I couldn’t follow their Shpongle-y logic either. In all actuality, I was kind of repulsed by their new album’s moniker. The word “vaccine”, in-and-of-itself, gives off a phonetically unappealing type of vibe; I didn’t understand what they were going for with this overly-sanitized medical title. I remember thinking: what kind of weird shit are these psychos getting themselves into, this time?
The repulsion grew when I noticed they were forming some sort of guitar-based, singer-led band. It seemed as if they were undergoing a repugnant alien transformation; going from the truest form of unclassifiably psyched-out, Goa-rooted trance to an electronically popped-out, vocal-based sham. Then when I first saw their video, “Night Lead Me Astray,” I began to lose all hope. It seemed as if Simon and Benji were both recklessly balance beaming over washed-up land. My first impression might’ve been wrong, but check out the video below.
A Flock of Beeps
Weird on a Monday Night
The Receptive
Evil & Harm
Crumblenaut
Scanner
Even Dwarves Start Small
Monkey Juice
The Finger
Safety Zone
Bedtime Story
Younger Brother- Weird on a Monday Night
Last Days of Gravity
Happy Pills
All I Want
Elephant Machine
Your Friends Are Scary
I Am A Freak
Ribbon On A Branch
Sleepwalker Part 1
Sleepwalker Part 2
Psychic Gibbon
Younger Brother- All I Want
Fortunately, my shifting suspicions began to subside when they released the interview-video below.
YOUNGER BROTHER - VACCINE VIDEO
As Simon and Benji both point out, the word “vaccine” projects a negative medical vibe in today’s overly suspicious environment. But the word, in-and-of-itself, is packed with a squiggly notion of riddling-intrigue.
Consider Benji Vaughan’s take on the word “vaccine” (09:11):
It’s become a strange word, the way people react to it. Something that fundamentally is designed to do you good, to protect you, has become something that people are scared of. And the notion of a vaccine is something where you’re given a small amount of poison, or a small amount of something negative, that in the long run does you good. So it’s quite a strange notion, the idea of a vaccine.
Or as Simon Posford ‘punfully’ puts it (08:08): “the basic concept I really like: a little bit of poison or something that’s maybe not good for your “consciousness”… or immune system, actually is for the Greater God, er… for the greater good. Maybe explain how if you expand the allegory, you can ‘expand your consciousness.’”
It’s quite interesting to make the connection between psychedelics and vaccines. In fact, the more you play with the idea, the more profound the comparison becomes.
When has the idea of a consciousness vaccination ever been seriously considered? A vaccine, not only committed to matters of immunology, but now expanding its etymological properties into the horizons of the psyche (cows and smallpox aside). I can go on and talk about how psychedelic-related studies have proven to mitigate the level of anxiety and fear of death in terminally-ill cancer patients. Or how 70% of subjects in a Johns Hopkins psilocybin study have reported to have a full-blown mystical experience and considered the experience to be in the top five most important moments of their lives. Or even how research indicates that traumatized soldiers suffering from severe PTSD may greatly benefit from MDMA-assisted psycho-therapy. But I'll spare you the long-winded detail.
Instead, I pose this question over to you. Do you think the notion of a psychedelic vaccination is beyond the realm of reason? Is it realistic to ponder these substances as a type of psycho-spiritual vaccination? (Again, vaccine, in the truest sense of the word.) Let’s take “Bad Trips,” for example. “Bad Trips” are generally temporary negative experiences that may help reveal repressed faults, flaws and weaknesses of the individual. In the ideal case, these negative experiences force the individual to want to change for the betterment and development of their selves. In so many words, a “Bad Trip” is a “small amount of something negative that in the long run does you good.” Hm…
But going back to the original matter at hand: The new Younger Brother album, Vaccine. Simon goes on to take us through the Shpongel-y Younger Brother thought process by drawing out the parallels between the notional definition of the word vaccine and the album (09:47):
And we see a parallel of that with the album because the album is a little bit different from what we’ve done in the past. Fans might be a little shocked by it, it might be sort of a little injection of something a little bit different into their system. But I think over time, the end-result will be positive, because it’s a great album. It should bear up to many, many years of listening.
That being said, here is another echo from the future hinting at what’s to come.
I've been listening to this "Shine" track non-stop for about a week, now. Even the video of "Night Lead Me Astray" has swallowed me into its Void. It was produced by Benji Vaughan himself. So when you study the video with a psychedelic glimmer, you'll realize how trip-filled the video is. And take a look at the track-listing below. Trippy, trippy, trippy (Spinning Into Place and Tetris in particular). So, summing it all up, it’s more than safe to say—I'm really looking forward to getting vaccinated… (Puns intended?)
Younger Brother - Shine
1. ‘Crystalline’
2. ‘Shine’
3. ‘Pound A Rhythm’
4. ‘Safety In Numbers’
5. ‘Night Lead Me Astray’
6. ‘Train’
7. ‘Spinning Into Place’
8. ‘System 700’
9. ‘Tetris’