DENNIS YOUNG BIO

　

An influential figure on the New York City scene since the early '80s, Dennis Young has helped shape the soundtrack of the city while inspiring musicians and music lovers all around the globe.

　

Dennis started playing drums at a very early age and over time became an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, completely self-taught, with the exception of a few youthful lessons. In the late '70s, while a student at Rutgers University, he began jamming with a loose conglomeration of musicians known variously as the Idiot Orchestra, Liquid Idiot, and, eventually, Liquid Liquid. Settling on this final name, the quartet of Dennis, college friend Richard MacGuire, Sal Principato and Scott Hartley became the seventh act to release a record on the now-legendary 99 Records, their self-titled effort heavily featuring Young's marimba and timpani-like tuned Rototoms. His percussion was a major factor in the band's success in the nightclub scene, where it helped DJs like Larry Levan mix cuts like Liquid Liquid's "Bell Head" seamlessly with heavy dance tracks. In 1983, the band's catchy "Cavern" proved irresistible to Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel, who used it as the inspiration for their international chart-topper "White Lines."

　

Recordings also continued at his home studio in Edison, New Jersey, with a collection of analog synthesizers and a basic Tascam Portastudio. He started making music that was constrained only by his imagination—cosmic excursions that, as Young says of his song "Ancient Vision," "if you listen to it with headphones in a dark place it'll really take you on a trip!" These first solo projects were released in small numbers on his self-founded label, Daylight Music. The label eventually released six full recordings of Dennis's compositions between 1984 and 1991, all invoking spiritual thoughts and soundscapes.

Focused on atmospheric, ambient and meditative sounds fully composed with analog synthesizers, the label was active until the early '90s, although the limited cassette-tape runs it subsisted on have made these albums and this particular period of time in Dennis' career still mostly underexposed until recently as labels "Bureau B", "Staubgold" and "Another Small Planet" have started re issuing these lost gems to the general public.

　

In recent years Dennis has explored other types of music styles that has included world music with "Old Dog, New Tricks" and after that a singer songwriter recording called "Shadow".