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

Yonatan Gat Yonatan Gat () is an Israeli American 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'' magazi ...

released in 2018 on

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

. 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 Hoboken, New Jersey, formed in 1989 by David Berman (musician), David Berman alongside Pavement (band), Pavement members Stephen Malkmus and Bob Nastanovich. Berman was the only constant band me ...

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 professional football player who was a wide receiver for nine seasons with the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL). Nicknamed "Megatron" after the ''Transforme ...

(

Beat Happening Beat Happening was an American indie pop band formed in Olympia, Washington, in 1982. Calvin Johnson, Heather Lewis, and Bret Lunsford have been the band's continual members. Beat Happening were early leaders in the American indie pop and lo-f ...

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, Li ...

(

Swans Swans are birds of the genus ''Cygnus'' within the family Anatidae. 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. Sometim ...

) 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 Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spin (physics) or particle spin, a fundamental property of elementary particles * Spin quantum number, a number which defines the value of a particle's spin * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thr ...

describing it as: "''an ambitious, sprawling record, a catalog of fever dreams, where styles and sounds dovetail in transparent sheafs of blotter paper...''." 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 record producer, saxophonist, and composer. He was a producer at Columbia Records for twenty years. Macero produced Miles Davis' ''Bitches Brew'' and Dave B ...

(

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

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

Yeezus ''Yeezus'' is the sixth studio album by the American rapper 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, includi ...

'' 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 Filmmaking, 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 char ...

e, a French Documentary Film-Maker. At

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

, 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