no earplugs

Formed in 2012, The Young Mothers – featuring a super group of heavy-hitters who have helped steer the direction of creative music in New York, Chicago, Texas, and Scandinavia – mean business! The six-piece group grounds itself in brilliant and potent new music while leaving time and space for side trips to the left-of-field, ranging from grindcore injections via free-jazz to visionary hip-hop.

A lot of things happened between 2018 and 2024, not just the lockdown, but also Håker Flaten relocating from Austin to his native Norway. After numerous setbacks in 2022 the band finally got together again and recorded what is now ready as their third album: “Better If You Let It”. The music is unmistakably still The Young Mothers – fans will not be disappointed – but the band now shares the writing credits, a collective approach which makes for an even more diverse and wide palette of material. “Better If You Let It” is one of those albums that keeps you on your toes throughout, you never guess where the music goes next, yet upon repeated listening there clearly is a logic at work, these are not random juxtapositions, and the more time you spend with it the more it grows on you, and there is soon no doubt that “Better If You Let It” is The Young Mothers finest albums to date.

“A band that treat genre distinctions with disdain, nothing is what is first seems on this one-way ticket to jazz’s outer reaches.” —Andy Cowan / MOJO

“It’s one of the finest examples of jazz/hiphop fusion – vocals are succinct, instrumentation subtle and intriguing. Thus the words on the title track are dark, mysterious, subdued, agains an eerily throbbing backdrop. I… Rich, dark and strange.” —Andy Hamilton / The Wire

“There are more than just hints of funk, electronica and free-jazz. Those idioms are crafted into a specific sonic energy that is both original and reminiscent of younger, popular musical collectives coming out of Texas during this era. But if we fall too easily into comparison, we might fail to appreciate the forward direction taken here by a group that continues to feel fresh on the scene.” —Joshua Myers / Downbeat