From lwtcdi Sent Sun, Feb 22nd 1998, 00:10
From lwtcdi Sent Sun, Feb 22nd 1998, 00:10
>> Yes, the LP is called "A Users Guide" and I'm dying to hear it. I really >> really rate their stuff - the last LP was excellent and Every Man and >> Woman is probably my favourite record full stop. As a band they should >> be up there with Orbital, Black Dog, Aphex etc but instead they remain >> criminally underrated. > I've been a bit put off by them from the start. The track on "Excursions > In Ambience 1", with the bEAGLES sample from "One Of These Nights" was my > first exposure, and it left quite a bad taste. Which track was this, just so I know what you're talking about. I'm not familiar with the sample... > Nothing I've heard since has changed my opinion. Well, what have you heard? It's hard for me to tell you what I think you're missing about them if I don't know what you've heard! > There's just something a bid too middle-of-the-road about them... Well, I agree that United Kingdoms was maybe a little too clean and tasteful for some people, but I think Every Man and Woman Is A Star sounds like nothing else before or since, and Bel Air is probably the best IDM record since Bytes. In fact the new Plaid LP reminds me of Bel Air a bit with the female vocal tracks and the clean product. As much as I like Not For Threes, I think Bel Air is stronger as an album. The other thing I admire about Ultramarine is their ability to change their style considerably between albums and still create something good at the same time. Their albums are very well considered and they never saturate the market with a billion of their releases and remixes, like some other artists. They concentrate on putting out a good LP every couple of years and pretty much leave it at that when it would probably be easy for them to put out below par stuff just to make money. Solenoid <xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.xxxxxx.xxx> > I think "Everybody is a Star.." has some of the happiest bleepy, filtery > lines on it that I've yet to hear. It is happy and funky without being > sappy or just insipid or disposable rave-crap, at least the 6 tracks on > that LP that I like. I think the whole LP really works. There were two versions about on vinyl at least, the single and double vinyl. I have the double which I think has extra tracks, but it still doesn't pale at any point for me. > I wasn't too interested in the green LP that came > after it. I remember when the 12" with [?old Soft MAchine lead singer] > came out (94?), I thought they lost a lot of their originality. I thought this was great stuff also, but I think the LP is a grower and takes quite a while to sink in. Bel Air is totally different, IMO. Shades of their former styles, but less organic but still has plenty of feeling, and is probably the most IDM-ish they've done. gb.