Brilliant patterns

A kaleidoscope of sounds from Young Fathers, and Joe Henry channels Elvis Costello.

HEAVY HEAVY, by Young Fathers

Trying to decode Edinburgh-based trio Young Fathers’ third album is akin to peering into a kaleidoscope and attempting to describe to someone down a faulty phone connection the rotating colour patterns.

Alloysious Massaquoi, Kayus Bankole and Graham Hastings have a broad palette, which includes thumping acoustic funk, the casualness of the Beta Band and early Beck, a touch of glam stomp, African chants and plenty of spontaneous lo-fi soul with whoops, ululations and the echo of their basement studio.

Whatever Young Fathers are doing sounds like a whole lot of fun. But it’s serious, too.

The hefty beat of the urgent I Saw – with the catchy hook “I saw what I saw, I keep walking the line” – belies a message about racist rhetoric. But it does so in language as convoluted as Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues: “Not falling for your charms, no crash into your arms. A handful of coins and a balled-up fist. Picking rubbish, cleaning rubbish. A bad seed, a rotten apple.  Take out the rubbish.”