Ybenfy? – Who Hurt You?

Ybenfy? – Who Hurt You? – Album Review

Two questions on the inside of one album name/title combination?  Can we get a ruling on that?

Ask yourself not Ybenfy?, but YNOTbenfy?  Did you ever think about it that way?  No.  No, you didn’t.

And that’s on you.  I sleep comfortably knowing that I ask the important questions around here.

So here we are, for the second time on the inside of a month, discussing the music of Ybenfy? as if there was a normal way to go about doing that.  In any event, if you haven’t checked out my previous thoughts on the music from his album People Are Horrible…, then click here to catch up on all that if you’re feeling so inclined.  I’m living that rockstar life that gives me the opportunity to check things out in advance of their release…and as “Opp Of 9” started up his upcoming album called Who Hurt You?, it almost felt for a second like the man was allowing us to get to know him a little better on this first track.  Referring to the voices in his head telling to him to do this or that, while somewhat mimicking what that sense of madness would be like to contend with in the way he’s got the vocals staged with different effects and ideas throughout the song…I mean…it’s a solid idea and a cohesive way to approach making music that ties a concept to the sound.  Obviously, being Ybenfy?, we’re talking about music that would easily be described as non-conformist, and that might still be putting it mildly…it’d be crazy to expect that the masses are just going to ‘get’ what this dude is doing overnight.  “Opp Of 9” is confirmation that he’s more than content to keep things going in his curious and quizzical style, regardless of if any of us get it or not.  As I’m sure I’ve said many times on these pages of ours, when you’ve got uniqueness and you’re doing something different than the rest, sometimes you simply have to stay the course.  If you truly believe that the people will catch on, believe me, they’ll find you eventually – but yeah, it’s probably not going to happen overnight.  You listen to albums like People Are Horrible… and Who Hurt You? and instinctively know that artists like Ybenfy? tend to stay in the trenches to the point of near extinction.  So if you like things that are different…artists that have identity and such…make sure you turn up for this sooner rather than later, because you never know how long uniqueness can afford to stay around without compromise.  “You wouldn’t last a minute being me,” says Ybenfy? on “Opp Of 9,” and I highly suspect that’s completely true.  Dude’s pretty courageous when it comes to his creativity.

I’ll tell you this much…once again, I love the music that he’s choosing to work with.  Vocally, Ybenfy? is likely always going to be polarizing to the audience…some will get what he’s doing, some won’t, and that’s just the reality of how uniqueness works when the masses interact with it…always has been, and it always will be – but the music…the music is damn near universal.  If you dig records like Ambient Works Vol. 2 by Aphex Twin, or anything by Boards Of Canada (who are in the midst of a resurgence right at this very moment), then you’re going to dig what you hear in the music of these songs for sure.  Mind you, if you’re listening to names like that on your playlist, you’re also quite likely to enjoy the experimental, freeform poetry that Ybenfy? adds to songs like “One Time” as well…like, you’re basically predisposed to enjoying the stranger side of music.  I really like moments around the 1:40 mark on this this particular track, where Ybenfy? goes into his Tricky-esque style of low-end vocal delivery, shrouded in the sound and the mystery of the atmosphere surrounding him.  I find it highly interesting that he’s able to use music that’s fairly minimalistic by design, and turn the whole experience into something that feels a whole lot more full.  I might have issues with this or that – and hell, you might too – but I think we should all be able to agree on the fact that Ybenfy?’s solid grip on texture and tone…the art of how to get you to listen…I mean…he really knows how to get you to pay attention to all the details.  I’m not going to say that wouldn’t be exhausting for some of you – it very well could be…I think even some of the most veteran listeners of the oddities in our music scene would agree that uniqueness of often one of the most tiring things to listen to.  Not because you don’t like it, but because it’s sensory overload.  Even in a more chilled-out instance like “One Time” in terms of its sound, it’s the sound selection itself that keeps us fully engaged.  And of course, when you’re fully engaged and locked in, you’ll notice the rest…like how “One Time” might appear to be chill on the surface, but lyrically, it digs way deeper.  By the end, you’re like, WTF just happened?  What did I miss?  How did the story end up HERE?  So you go back, listen again, try to follow along and figure it out.  Maybe you will, maybe you won’t – the point is that Ybenfy? knows how to make music designed to fully engage with you on multiple levels mentally.

Dude can be a real trip to listen to, there’s no denying that.  Need proof?  Check out “I Owe You” – I’m sure that’ll be all the confirmation you need that what I’m saying is true.  Stick with this one…I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised if you do.  I look at it this way…being in the experimental realm of music can often be similar to throwing darts at a dart board – you’re not going to hit the bullseye every single time, but maybe that’s not what you needed to do in order to win the game you’re playing, you feel me?  I feel like there’s usually a lot of intention in what Ybenfy? creates…it’s one of his main strengths as an artist if you ask me.  So I don’t really question things like the severe amount of distance that he’s workin’ with on a track like “I Owe You” or how much the vocals sink right into the music to the point where the majority of people won’t even be able to hear what’s being said.  What if I told you that’s all by design?  What if I told you that maybe, just maybe, Ybenfy? is more concerned with getting the words out of him and into the world, but that YOU hearing them isn’t necessarily the priority?  I know, I know…that IS the priority in like, what, 99.8% of all music out there?  Cool things are happening within that other .2%, I assure you.  This is the kind of music that really stimulates the mind, where the voice can be used as an instrument.  This is the kind of music where catharsis can be achieved at the same time as creating ART.  Music doesn’t really need to completely make sense to anyone other than the person creating it, so for whatever reasons as to why Ybenfy? does what he does in the style that he does it, I’m all for it.  I feel like, because I assume so much of what he creates is intentional…when you hear his vocals come through clearer in a moment or two along the way and you catch every word for a second or two…I think we have to assume that’s something he genuinely wants you to hear based on his whole approach.  I can tell you this much with certainty…sometimes you’ve just gotta trust the process.  I went from wondering what he was up to on “I Owe You” to eventually feeling like this was one of my favorite cuts from the record as I listen to it this week.  At the very least, the potency of what breaks through and what connects with you is so strong that it’ll far outweigh any other spots you might be questioning.  The emotional content at the core of “I Owe You,” whether it’s the vibe of the music or the lyrics you’ll catch in fragments as you listen, is as profound as it is authentic…Ybenfy? exceeds expectations here.

For real – did this dude go to music school and take classes directly FROM Boards Of Canada?  Believe me when I tell ya, I ain’t mad about it…I’m loving the music on Who Hurt You? and truly glad that that continues to be a standout element in what Ybenfy? is creating.  Sounding drained from distance, he’s battling his feelings on “Far Away,” and not having the easiest of times in doing that.  I’m here for the sheer sensory vibes that Ybenfy? creates y’all…there’s not a whole lot out there like this when you consider everything it contains in the final results, and I really dig how listening to a record like this is much more about the feeling you get from listening to it, rather than just singling out great songs.  In fact, I’d go as far as to tell you that most of you probably wouldn’t remember the majority of these songs by name…but there’s a really great chance you’ll remember the name of the record you liked from Ybenfy?’s catalog, and an even greater chance of you remembering the name of the artist behind it all.  Look at it this way…some folks are focused on the singles, and in today’s musical sphere of influence, that’s most listeners.  Eventually the pendulum swings the other way though, and artists like Ybenfy? that clearly admire & respect the art of making an album with the cohesion it deserves will be cherished.  Listen to the wild amount of attention to detail he puts into the background of “Far Away,” or the poetry he puts into his words here, or the combination of sincerity & personality he puts into his performance on this song…everything stacks up…it’s artful, it’s intentional, and it’s clearly meaningful to him as well.

I can say all this good stuff and still recognize the massive challenge that it’s going to be in order to get Ybenfy?’s music to the masses…he’s going to have to find some sort of way to be comfortable with that, or be ready and willing to adapt in some way.  The main issue surrounding that, is that in order to pull that off & reach the level of accessibility he’d need to have in order to reach listeners in the mainstream, he’d likely have to compromise the vision he has for his art and music to be able to accomplish that.  Is that worth it?  For some, it is.  For some, it ain’t.  It’s all personal choice.  The only person you don’t want to let down is yourself…the rest of us will do what we do in the ways we’ve always been doin’ it.  I listen to tracks like “Forreal” and I recognize that Ybenfy? isn’t making it any easier on himself to get his music out there in the way he’s choosing to make it, but recognize that he’s not out here pandering to you either.  If he’s going to get followers and fans through his music, it’s because he sincerely earned their attention and won them over by choosing art over artificial, you feel me?  That being said, Ybenfy? is no different than any other artist or band in the sense that you’re going to find tracks you respond to more than others in their catalog.  Do I think “Forreal” is built to win people over?  Not really, no.  I’m pretty on the fence about this track overall.  I think the most positive aspect of “Forreal” is Ybenfy?’s performance on the mic and the way he sounds with his vocals…that part feels like it works well enough, even if he’s once again choosing to duck the kinds of traditional hooks and whatnot that listeners tend to expect when they push play on a record.  Where I think “Forreal” is a bit more problematic than the other tracks surrounding him is that while there have always been spots in most tracks where you might question what he’s doing with his vocals or maybe even frustrated by not being able to catch every word & such, he always had the music to back him up and it’s been really damn extraordinary for the most part.  “Forreal” ain’t that.  The music in “Forreal” is just above a sonic flat-line, from my perspective.  So if you’re not into his vocals & lyrics this time around, there’s not a lot for him to fall back on.  I’m all for minimalism in music, in a variety of different ways even…but I think there still needs to be something for the average everyday listeners to grab hold of, and I don’t think there’s enough here to get’em engaged.

“What would you do if you were in my position?” he asks on “Wasteland”…and I think that’s a genuinely great question.  My first, unfiltered reaction was, well…complain less?  Then I started to think about the mechanics behind my own answer and really break down why I felt that way.  I suppose it’s largely because I have spent a great time feeling much like Ybenfy? talks about feeling in his songs.  I too have felt like People Are Horrible… as well.  Been depressed.  Been suicidal.  Been to the darkest places a person can go to…but I’m not there anymore.  Was it as simple as complaining less?  Of course not.  You don’t have that luxury when you feel like the whole world is set up against you…you just feel the constant sting of pain.  The only thing that was able to help me was to get so far down that I eventually came to the conclusion that I didn’t WANT life to feel awful, every single day for the rest of the time I had.  That time is too short for every one of us…and ultimately, it’s up to us to decide how we want to spend our most valuable currency – time.  If you don’t like your circumstances, change them.  If you don’t like the way you feel, change that.  If you don’t see a future for yourself, build one.  If the drugs don’t work anymore, find new ones.  You get the point – nothing changes without changing something, simple as that.  Take all this with a grain of salt – it’s never fair to assume we know what anyone else is going through, or speculate that something can be ‘fixed’ with some magical piece of advice, no matter how insightful it might seem.  Ybenfy? details some pretty hard stuff he’s been through in the lyrics of “Wasteland” – and all of that stuff makes a good case for why he’s felt the way he’s felt for so very long – and I fully understand where he’s coming from.  What’s he’s speaking on would change most people’s world-view for sure.  What most people would miss in listening to “Wasteland” or albums like People Are Horrible… and Who Hurt You?, is that we might very well be listening to him make those essential changes to his life in real-time.  One of the greatest gifts you can give to yourself is to find a creative outlet that allows you to be the real you.  I think he’s found that by making music.  By allowing himself the opportunity to spend more time thinking about making that next track instead of suicide or any of the other shit that might be affecting him mentally, he’ll eventually tunnel out of the dark back into the light.  Finding your own resilience is no easy task when you’re down and drained from just living life.  As far as I can tell, the key is to make sure not everything you do is reactionary…if you’re always letting life punch you in the face first, well…fuck that, right?  Maybe you switch things up and start punching life before it punches you.  Maybe you make small changes that lead you to bigger ones.  Maybe you get to a point where you realize that you don’t want to feel the way you’re feeling every day, but rather than opt out of planet Earth, you dig in and become fiercely determined to carve out a place of your own where you can genuinely feel like you fit…because all that’s in your control.  “Wasteland” will have you thinking about all kinds of things from Ybenfy?’s situation to your own, and I think a lot of people listening to this track will benefit from that.  If anything, it’s comforting to know we’re not alone when what we think & feel becomes as overwhelming as it’s bound to from time to time.  “Wasteland” ponders some important stuff out loud…people will appreciate how raw and vulnerable Ybenfy? is here.

“Solo1” returns the music back to the gear it started with, somewhere between Boards Of Canada and what you’d hear on a Four Tet record…and again, I’m all for it.  The music has played such an essential role in the whole vibe and atmosphere that Ybenfy? creates, and it can be especially crucial when he’s in the grips of despair.  There’s a serenity and calmness that comes along with the music, which in itself is an interesting choice when you consider the contrast it creates with the intensity of his thoughts and feelings.  He’s a very introspective and self-reflective type of guy, and those qualities continually show up all throughout Who Hurt You?.  It’s always going to be tough from the outside listening in, trying to discern exactly what’s got him upset from track to track with so many lyrics and details obscured in different ways, but again, it really feels like you get the sense of where he’s at from what little you can catch clearly, and the sensory aspect of the sound itself.  While something like “Solo1” can appear to be peaceful, and the music on its own would likely be exactly that, when Ybenfy? adds his words to it all, it morphs into a much more mixed environment that presents a variety of emotions he’s going through.  He makes the case for not wanting to go solo on “Solo1,” and stresses the importance of family.  You see?  I might support a lot of what the guy has to say, but I’d never be able to get behind that concept.  If you find yourself needing extra family members Ybenfy?, feel free to take like…ALL of mine brother, you’re more than welcome to’em.  I’m more than happy to rock solo for what little time I can, and the less I have to deal with my family’s special brand of bullshit, the more I get out of every minute I spend.  But hey Ybenfy?, you do you my friend.  I feel where you’re coming from, even if I can’t relate this time.

So let’s see here…what can be done to perhaps make the man’s music more palatable for those that wouldn’t normally be into the experimental or artistic side of sound?  From my perspective, there are a couple things he could easily adjust that might make things more engaging and fluid overall.  One would be the metering of his words…we’ve talked a little about that in the previous review of his music, but that’s still a factor here in most of the tunes on Who Hurt You? as well.  Drop a syllable here, add one in there…even it out…these are the kinds of things that listening ears will respond to if you find a way to meet them halfway.  The other thing I’d tell Ybenfy? as I’m listening to “Who1” would be that with the style he’s rocking…that like, half Rap, half Spoken Word he’s got goin’ on…trust me when I tell ya, not everything needs to rhyme.  In fact, I can personally vouch on behalf of things being more interesting when they don’t.  When you’re using short one-syllable words like fight, right, might, that kind of phonic patterning can be both tedious, and also feel like it’s forced.  Look at it this way…we all feel all kinds of different things in life as we’re living it…how many of those things just happen to coincidentally rhyme?  Probably next to none, right?  So when you end up substituting how you really feel about something in order to find a word that’ll rhyme with the one at the end of the line before, listeners notice that kind of stuff and it can feel less genuine.  The flipside of that coin of course, is that rhyming is a massively effective tool when it’s used in the right way…don’t get it twisted, I’m not discounting the relevance of the rhyme y’all.  What I am saying though, is that you’ll find that’s a much more effective tool when it’s being used for the kinds of typical and traditional hooks we’re usually listening to in the music we put on – none of which are featured in any Ybenfy? song that I’ve personally heard to-date.  So why be all too concerned with making things rhyme at all when that’s the case, right?  Say what you really want to say – that’s all that really ever matters, but it’s much easier to do in cases where you don’t have to rely on creating sing-along style hooks and you’re willing to be more experimental and artistic in what you do.  Might just be my two cents, but there you have it all the same.  Costs nothing to take it, costs nothing to leave it as well.  I will say this…regardless of what could potentially be done in different ways on “Who1,” the vibe of this particular track from the vocals to its music as it stands is among the record’s best, full stop.  It’s also among the most unique cuts in the set when you’re looking at the whole lineup.

Like I was saying earlier…we’ve all got something going on, and it’s crucial to remember that.  Ybenfy? will speak on being high for five months straight in his lyrics for “Peppermint”…and that ain’t nothing!  That’s a large chunk of time that would certainly be capable of affecting someone’s mental state.  I did about…twenty eight years straight?  I know how that affected me.  I still miss it after about four or five years clean – and hell, I’m still an advocate FOR the use of drugs…just don’t let’em destroy you or allow them to be destructive to your life.  When that’s the case, find your way the fuck out before it’s too late.  Otherwise, if you’re having fun and you’re not hurting anybody, there are a ton of drugs out there that can verifiably help you sort some shit out in ways that no person ever could.  Everyone has their own individual relationship with how they feel about drugs of all kinds…and it’s definitely important to know where you stand on that, because it’s going to tell you a lot about yourself at the end of the day.  You can hear the frustration in Ybenfy?’s voice as he talks about how shitty it is to feel sick every day – and those of us that have been there, know what he’s on about…doesn’t matter if it’s been five months, five years, or twenty fucking eight of’em.  Who Hurt You? has been a largely confessional album from start to finish…it’s really fitting that one of its most revealing and clear tracks comes right at the end with “Peppermint.”  Creation is catharsis…and it’s the only kind that really works if you ask me.  If Ybenfy? keeps his head down, sticks to the script he’s currently writing for his life, and continues to create, he’ll find his way out of the dark places he feels like he’s been to.  Keep an eye on the metering my brother.  Keep experimenting with the music you’re making.  Throw yourself into the craft with everything you’ve got, because that IS the way out…trust me on that.  I’ve really enjoyed the shocking degree of honesty & art that Ybenfy? has tapped into on Who Hurt You?…and I think he’s really creating the blueprint he needs to follow in order to level up and break out of the cycle of despair he’s been trapped in…which is every reason anybody would ever need to want to keep going on that kind of positive path, right?  Let’s keep our collective fingers crossed that the music continues to help soothe the man’s soul.  Every time someone makes a revealing record like this, they’re helping out the people that listen by providing their wisdom, insight, and experience.  Whether Ybenfy? can help himself might remain to be seen for the time being, but this whole record is undoubtedly a step in the right direction, and he’ll help others in the process of helping himself as he moves forward from here.  Hopefully that’s the motivation he needs to get himself sorted out…and hopefully the music continues to guide him towards the future he deserves.

Find out more about Ybenfy? at Instagram here:  https://www.instagram.com/ybenfy_

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