From the fall of socialism came the rise of Slovakian electro quartet, The Youniverse.


Worshipping dyed-in-the-wool Delta blues, the weird and wonderful world of The Youniverse is drenched in the industrial grit of bands like Nine Inch Nails with a blues-y, stomping juxtaposition like The Kills. This sort of push/pull, pop and grit is apparent across their entire debut LP, CMYK, released by BRUUDER Records in November.

One stand out track for me is “Silver”. This song perfectly captures the complementing binaries mentioned above with an almost indie guitar riff coming out from behind the drum machine post intro. At about a minute and fifty seconds, the guitar disappears for a moment of electro clarity, before dropping off completely in a stoner metal/sludge leaning, tempo change at two minutes and fifteen seconds. An incredible balance few can pull off so minimally.

The Juxtaposition of CMYK

CMYK in its entirety plays on the concepts of the modern world. It’s a meta look in the mirror. The track titles alone play with the different words and names given to shades and colors on the label of an ink cartridge. There’s something both modern and nostalgic about that reference for me. All of these subtleties bring us back to the weird and wonderful juxtaposition that IS The Youniverse.

Since 2015 the group has been setting their self proclaimed “Badass Blues Licks” free. Put on their debut album CMYK next time you’re going for a drive in the dark, or need to be reminded of your own edge. You can’t go wrong with fire like that. They’re guaranteed to be around a while, so you better jump on this bandwagon while they’ve still got that indie/underground cred.


Written by: Carrigan Drallos

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