Youth Code : Yours, With Malice
The electronic body music (EBM) movement is a decidedly un-American affair, in that most notable EBM has come from artists and countries outside of the United States. With Nine Inch Nails having graduated to superstar status from their industrial beginnings, and other bands like clipping. and HEALTH incorporating genre elements under other designations like hip-hop and noise rock, respectively, it’s fallen to acts like New York’s FGFC820 and Youth Code of Los Angeles to act in the nation’s interest.
Based on the catalog and relationships they’ve curated since 2012, Sara Taylor and Ryan George’s efforts as Youth Code have been admirably front-of-mind. Their new EP Yours, With Malice, the duo’s first independent release since 2016’s Commitment to Complications, is a short, focused burst of energy reminding us of their EBM skill and their punk roots. They’re rejoined in the production room by King Yosef, the metallic noisemaker from Portland who collaborated with them on 2021’s A Skeleton Key in the Doors of Depression.
It’s unclear if Yosef’s mere presence lit the same fire under Youth Code as it did four years ago, but this music does more in five songs and 17 minutes than most albums do given three times the content. Yours, With Malice pulls from musical ideas the duo had developed prior to the COVID pandemic, and patiently teased out and toyed with during and after lockdown. They turn out the euphoric racing-game crush of “In Search of Tomorrow,” and we hear static like crawling bugs plastered throughout the menacing bass synth lines and Wilhelm screams of “Wishing Well,” all to keep up with the Haujobbs and Suicide Commandos of the world.
This might sound to casuals like yelling wrapped up in sampled and looped malevolence. In reality it’s a bracing hybrid of hardcore sensibilities and dark electronic production that belies Taylor’s energy in particular. She’s a rare forceful female voice in this space, dropping (mal?) bon mots like “What I’ve done to be loved some find debilitating” in “I’m Sorry,” the EP’s strongest evidence of melody amidst the madness. Yours, With Malice finds Youth Code covering the fertile ground of self-loathing and information overload like a runaway lawnmower, maintaining and mauling the landscape in the same moment.
Label: Sumerian
Year: 2025
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