BEST NEW EDM: YOUNGR - '93

Listen to the last 24 years in time-lapsed photography in Youngr’s “‘93”!

BEST NEW EDM - YOUNGR - '93

Growing up in an era of digitized memories is a strange, surreal, trippy phenomenon. It’s not uncommon to be able to trace all the way back to the first grade, or even earlier, via social media and personal archives, backtracking throug Facebook profile pics, shared memories, defunct MySpace accounts, and a scarred, scattered battlefield of social media networks that didn’t make it (we remember you, LiveJournal! We still love you, Vine!) Every bowl cut, missing tooth, first heartbreak, embarrassing emo poem, and ill-advised ideologie is preserved in digital amber, for all the world to see.

It’s a strange condition, causing even the youngest of us to experience a kind of nostalgia, with earlier, easier times being available at the flick of a mobile screen. Even if they weren’t easier or even better, in a lot of ways (remember how hard it used to be to find anime?), things were just easier to understand, which seems attractive in these confusing, contradictory times.

This craving for simpler times, and the constant access to random memories, serves as the backdrop for “‘93”, the emotional new electro-pop single from Youngr.

“Thanks to my Mom and Dad for documenting my entire childhood,” Youngr posted on his Facebook page, to announce the video for “‘93”, compiled from recordings of his very own upbringing, while singing in a clear, powerful falsetto of an unrecognizable world.

There is nothing nostalgic about Youngr’s production, luckily - there’s no weak, cheap, Instagram-style faux aging at work here. This is not the auditory version of pre-distressed denim. Youngr’s production is bright, bold, clear, and strong as anything dominating Beatport’s charts, at present, but is infinitely deeper, more real, and more emotional than anything you’re likely to hear on those too-often-generic DJ listings.

Youngr’s “‘93” suggests a future living in harmony with the past; where technology augments our reality instead of replacing it. Knowing our childhoods are out there, somewhere, to be clicked and cherished is kind of nice, as long as we’re not worried about how many likes they’re getting, or trying to present some kind of cultivated, curated arch-persona.

We Are: The Guard sincerely hope to hear more of this futuristic songwriting, blending heart and innovation in equal measure.