Founded on the sound of post-rock with hints of dreamy psychedelia, post-punk and prog rock that meander between explosive edges and nostalgic narrative, YNDIAN MYNAH started off by playing tightly packed intimate floor shows and quickly elevated to festival stages across South Africa. One year after the release of their debut album “Velvet Youth’”, the band is back with second new single “RAOK (Random Acts of Kindness)”, which we’re pleased to premiere with an abstract music video above! Dive into it, learn more about the band through their first-hand commentary below and scroll down to get some more inspirations with their special lists of best albums of the year and some noteworthy movies and books to check out in 2020!
Released on December 4th, the track opens at a heart-racing pace, unspooling layers of instrumentation that run through the song in expanding cycles until coming together in a hopeful union.
“RAOK was written about the feeling of being in a constant spiral; about not being able to shake a bad feeling,” says the band. “But, at its heart, it is about the impact that someone showing any form of kindness towards you has – and the immediate sense of belonging that even a random act of this nature instils.” In highly cinematic textures, RAOK depicts a pattern of thinking that we are all familiar with: fixating on every possible angle of a problem that we are facing, until it is the only thing we can think about. But then, just over three-and-a-half minutes into the song, the mood changes and the band’s instruments explode in unison, creating something uplifting and deeply transformative.
In 2019, YNDIAN MYNAH released their debut album ‘Velvet Youth’ – recorded, produced and released through their own independent label, Mount Wave Studio. Singles from the album, including ‘Ridge Forrester’ , “Massimo, Don’t Go” and “Chai Tea”, would go on to represent their dynamic compositions.
Staying away from conventional rock music, Yndian Mynah is not bound by language or genre, allowing for impressive highenergy live shows that focus on a visual and instrumental journey, left wide open for personal interpretation. Expect large guitardriven songs lead by spontaneous structural changes, with a tendency for heavy breakdowns and momentary euphoria.
Yndian Mynah blurs the lines between cinematic and instrumental music. From live stage to experimental floor shows, the attempt is for each show being a completely new experience for both band and listener. Their live shows focus on a visual and instrumental journey that takes the listener from laid-back blues licks to intense prog riffs with hints of dreamy psychedelia, intelligent structural changes and a tendency for heavy breakdowns and occasional euphoric vocals.
Asked about their take on the turbulent year 2020, they offered that it’s been an interesting year for them as a band and individuals.
“From the start of 2020 we were super lucky to complete our tour two weeks before lockdown happened in South Africa.” – they comment. “We did 9 shows across the country in support of our debut album release and the last show was in Durban, which happened to be the first announced COVID case in South Africa.”
“It was a strange feeling to go from playing so many shows to suddenly not seeing each other for 3 months straight. During lockdown we stayed in contact and often sent each other song/riff ideas but it never really felt the same as being in the room together. As a fun experiment, we even tried writing a new song where each member was only sent the last recorded instrument and bpm of a track and had to add his part blindly without knowing what the other instruments were doing – it sounded okay.”
“Looking back over those past months I think it was good for us to take a break from the life hustle and appreciate the smaller things we all take for granted.” – continues theband. “Our 2020 music plans had come to a sudden halt until we got an email from an old time friend Blaise Janichon (South African music scene legend) who had recently moved to the Netherlands and started a new artist booking, event and label management agency called The Good Times Co that specialises in bringing African talent to European audiences.”
“Without any hesitation, we signed with them and it was the bright light at the end of a very dark tunnel, something that gave us a new hope and belief that we could get through all of this. We immediately started talking plans with the objective of releasing our second album with a potential European tour around mid 2021. Since then, we’ve been working extremely hard over with two singles ‘Designasaurs’ (25 September) and ‘RAOK’, which includes music videos for both releases.”
“In retrospect, so much has happened for the band this year and it’s only made us closer as friends which can definitely be heard in the new material that we’re busy writing. We’re also super excited to end off this year with a small tour to promote our new single and music video for ‘RAOK’ – we’re going to be coming in loud!”
Best Albums of the Year, by YNDIAN MYNAH
Rival Consoles – Articulation
Fontaines D.C – A Hero’s Death
Oliver Tree – Ugly is Beautiful
Perfume Genius – Set my heart on fire immediately
Other good mentions, not from 2020:
W.H Lung – Incidental Music
Broncho – Bad Behaviour
Cloudkicker – Unending
Best Movies to check out in 2020, by YNDIAN MYNAH
1917 – Probably one of the best recent war films. We highly recommend checking out the making of this film.
Jurassic Park – The movie that took everything to the next level. There can be no other dinosaur movie!
Prometheus – Although unpopular with some ALIEN fans, we’re huge fans of the progressive storyline and suspense.
The Irishmen – Incredible film with an amazing cast capturing the most gentle and intense characters.
Love Actually – Just a feel-good Christmas movie. Good to watch after The Irishmen…
Best Books to check out in 2020, by YNDIAN MYNAH
Aldous Huxley – Brave New World
