Album Review: Muzikal Yooth

The Green Door Kids

Muzikal Yooth

The Green Door Music studio opened in Glasgow in 2007 and began running a series of musical workshops sponsored by The Scottish Arts Council and aimed at the young and the unsigned musicians of the community. The recordings on this album are the results of two particular courses - the Youth Music Summer School (10-16yr olds) and their older counterparts from the Song-Crafters Production course. Muzikal Yooth is a collection of discordant cover versions of songs by garage/punk luminaries such as The Stooges, The Cramps and The Monks - unfamiliar territory maybe, for the majority of artists taking part in this record, but that’s surely what such workshops are designed to encourage - the unleashing of creativity in whatever shape, form or sound it might take - and it’s a good thing to hear. ‘Louie Louie’ and ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ are included, as are ‘Funtime’ and ‘The Way I Walk’, all in glorious lo-fi production. There’s even a acoustic cover of the Elvis Presley song ’The Girl Of My Best Friend’.  The only original composition on the whole album is the piano instrumental ‘Metaphysical Circus’ which is rather brilliantly executed and proof of just how important projects like this are if talent is to be nurtured and given the means to blossom. For sure it isn’t the greatest compilation of covers you’ll ever hear but that was never going to be the point of this release anyway. It’s the enthusiasm in which they approach this along with the knowledge they’re clearly gaining in every other aspect of making and producing music that matters, and if it was down to just good old commitment and dedication then this album would shine out forever.