Andrew Lyster runs the Manchester-based YOUTH label, one of the few audacious recording phenomena still being produced by an industrial city once known as one of the most exalted and fertile benchmarks of popular art. The uncompromising principle of innovation is the driving force behind a dynamic and varied catalogue produced on cassette, CD, vinyl or digital and always supported by a meticulous graphic design. In his records, the use of electronic dance music techniques is never obvious or confined to a specific genre; on the contrary, rhythms, timbres and melodies are twisted and blurred, broken and destroyed through an oblique and abstract arrangement of elements, so that the listener often finds himself on the threshold of the dance floor, or directly outside it.

Lyster’s sessions and his sporadic radio appearances share the same exploratory spirit, searching through the cracks for sounds, artists and moods that other selectors miss. He has previously produced mixtapes for Cav Empt, Collapsing Market, The Wire, Blowing Up The Workshop and Left Alone.

> theyouthlabel.bandcamp

> soundcloud