''Universalists'' is the second full-length studio album by

Yonatan Gat Yonatan Gat is an Israeli music producer, producer, guitarist, and composer based in New York City. His cross-genre work has been called "a vital new music form" by a "legendary live performer" by ''Magnet (magazine), Magnet'' magazine, "melding ...

released in 2018 on

Joyful Noise Recordings Joyful Noise Recordings is an independent record label from Indianapolis, Indiana. The label was founded in 2003 in Bloomington, Indiana by Karl Hofstetter, who also played drums on many of the label's first releases. Joyful Noise maintains an a ...

. Gal Lazer plays drums, and Sergio Sayeg is on bass. The album was produced by David Berman of the

Silver Jews Silver Jews were an American indie rock band from New York City, formed in 1989 by David Berman alongside Pavement members Stephen Malkmus and Bob Nastanovich. Berman was the only constant band member. During the last few albums, Cassie Berman ...

and by Gat himself. Other personnel involved with the album's production included Kevin McMahon,

Calvin Johnson Calvin Johnson Jr., (born September 29, 1985) is an American former football wide receiver who played in the National Football League (NFL) for nine seasons with the Detroit Lions. He played college football at Georgia Tech, where he twice ...

( Beat Happening),

Thor Harris Thor Harris (born February 7, 1965) is an artist, sculptor, musician, painter, carpenter and handyman. He was the percussionist for Swans (2010–2016). He has performed with Shearwater (2001–2010), Bill Callahan, The Angels of Light, Lisa ...

(

Swans Swans are birds of the family Anatidae within the genus ''Cygnus''. The swans' closest relatives include the geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Someti ...

) and many others. Several of the tracks sample Alan Lomax's European field recording from the 1950s. The album is noted for its advanced editing techniques and global musical perspective, with Spin describing it as: "''an ambitious, sprawling record, a catalog of fever dreams, where styles and sounds dovetail in transparent sheafs of

blotter paper Blotting paper, called bibulous paper, is a highly absorbent type of paper or other material. It is used to absorb an excess of liquid substances (such as ink or oil) from the surface of writing paper or objects. Blotting paper referred to as b ...

...''." The album takes its cues from the editing techniques of

Teo Macero Attilio Joseph "Teo" Macero (October 30, 1925 – February 19, 2008) was an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and record producer. He was a producer at Columbia Records for twenty years. Macero produced Miles Davis' '' Bitches Brew'', and ...

(

Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of musi ...

' producer). Kanye West's style of editing and sampling on ''

Yeezus ''Yeezus'' is the sixth studio album by American rapper and producer Kanye West. It was released on June 18, 2013, through Def Jam Recordings and Roc-A-Fella Records. West gathered a number of artists and close collaborators for the production, ...

'' and the '' Life of Pablo'' were also particularly influential to Gat's approach on ''Universalists.'' The music video for "Medicine" was inspired by the visual style of

Jean Rouch Jean Rouch (; 31 May 1917 – 18 February 2004) was a French filmmaker and anthropologist. He is considered one of the founders of cinéma vérité in France. Rouch's practice as a filmmaker, for over 60 years in Africa, was characterized b ...

e, a French Documentary Film-Maker. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, Universalists received an average score of 81, based on 6 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".

Track listing

#Cue the Machines - 3:05 #Post-World - 1:22 #Fading Casino - 2:51 #Cockfight - 2:24 #Medicine - 4:55 #Projections - 2:14 #Sightseer - 3:52 #Dream Sequence - 2:58 #Chronology - 6:38 #The Imaginary - 2:48

References

2018 albums Joyful Noise Recordings albums Yonatan Gat albums {{2010s-rock-album-stub