Ultramarine:
This Time Last Year:
Real Soon:
Out 30th September:
8/10
Created using analogue synths, vintage equipment and that old devil called love again, Ultramarine return with their first long-player since 1998's shimmering set A User's Guide. Perhaps more suited to the hazy heatwave of the summertime than the gloomy dark days of September's tail-end, This Time Last Year is a light-headed canter through minimal techno, ambient now-wave and giddy electronica, rounded off with the subtlest of dub and acoustic overlays throughout.
Perhaps less in keeping with their earliest material such as Folk or Every Man and Woman is a Star, This Time is nonetheless trademark Ultramarine right from the off. Fidgety opener Technique continues from where A User's Guide left off with its head-bobbing beats, ankle-deep bass and Carl Craig/Model 500 bubbles in between. A perfect start before the Latin-flavoured single Find My Way appears in its druggy 'version' form followed by the woozy Dugout taking hold with its insistent trip-step and layers of jazzy dub.
The album's two centre-pieces have to be the sprawling Decoy Point, named after an Essex headland and adjoining bliss-out Within Reach. Placing slow gently simmering tracks in the middle of albums can be a no-no but with Ultramarine, we're in safe hands and these two tracks perhaps best reflect the environment where this album was pieced together - an Essex estuary, no less, where times ticks by so slow.
Further highlights can be gleaned towards the end of the album, particularly on the smoky skank of Sidetracked and the pulsating closer Imaginary Letters, which takes an age to build and build before politely taking its leave in a fug of stuttered rhythms and a gradual fade to sunset.
There's no point in hurrying Ultramarine when the pair are in this mood - it's taken Paul Hammond and Ian Cooper this long to serve it up in the first place. Time to savour these flavours - it may be a while before we get any more....
This Time Last Year:
Real Soon:
Out 30th September:
8/10
Perhaps less in keeping with their earliest material such as Folk or Every Man and Woman is a Star, This Time is nonetheless trademark Ultramarine right from the off. Fidgety opener Technique continues from where A User's Guide left off with its head-bobbing beats, ankle-deep bass and Carl Craig/Model 500 bubbles in between. A perfect start before the Latin-flavoured single Find My Way appears in its druggy 'version' form followed by the woozy Dugout taking hold with its insistent trip-step and layers of jazzy dub.
The album's two centre-pieces have to be the sprawling Decoy Point, named after an Essex headland and adjoining bliss-out Within Reach. Placing slow gently simmering tracks in the middle of albums can be a no-no but with Ultramarine, we're in safe hands and these two tracks perhaps best reflect the environment where this album was pieced together - an Essex estuary, no less, where times ticks by so slow.
Further highlights can be gleaned towards the end of the album, particularly on the smoky skank of Sidetracked and the pulsating closer Imaginary Letters, which takes an age to build and build before politely taking its leave in a fug of stuttered rhythms and a gradual fade to sunset.
There's no point in hurrying Ultramarine when the pair are in this mood - it's taken Paul Hammond and Ian Cooper this long to serve it up in the first place. Time to savour these flavours - it may be a while before we get any more....