Ultre - The Nest And The Skull [Album]

Audiobulb

Electro-acoustic composition is a very hard genre to get into. The songs are filled with an abundance of complex layers and rhythms that make your brain hurt. Take Autechre and Aphex twin as an example. Songs such as 'Window Licker' and 'Acroyear2' have a silly amount of complexity and rhythm, yet a few listens on and they are very gripping. Finn McNicholas' (Ultre) album 'The Nest and the Skull' is no exception. With guitars, pianos, electronics and homemade beats, each track is full of musical activity that tantalizes the ears. His composition is something else, haunting guitar's, distant piano's and some very strange percussion, of which Finn samples hitting objects round his home, clapping, finger clicking and in a gorrila'esq style of beating on his chest! The album is definitely a grower, upon listening each time you find a new layer or new cool sample hidden within the tracks. Ultre is brought to you by the Audiobulb label, a label that promotes some of the most underground sub genres in the music industry. By selling out the first release 'All the darkness has gone to details' it's obvious that Ultre are here to stay. The records is very good, although the quality doesn't outweigh the fact that this type of eccentric music does not appeal to a mass audience.

Track's such as 'Dead Words', 'Memory Lies', 'Ties', 'Peace Corpse' and 'Ridicule And Self Ridicule' have a heavy similarity to New York electronic music duo Ratatat's work. They are full of harmony and chord cycles overlapping one another into long drawn out synthesized samples. For a full audio exciting experience, the album should be listened too in headphones, this enhances the stereo panning used on beats, individual guitar picks and crazy synthesizers.

Opening track 'Favourite Mammal' features a beat box style of beat enhanced by what sounds like a guitar strumming sample repeated over and over. Just like a CD skipping. There is more to follow as individual plucks are repeated. The production on the record is something to die for, the levels are perfect and everything sounds brilliant. Other influences could be the likes of Boards of Canada and Thom Yorke, especially on the third track 'The Smirks'. Although there is a hell of alot of diversity in all the songs, you can still pin point Ultre's "sound". A glitch-guitar-harmonic-boxy-distant sound. The room acoustics sound mighty fine, sometimes with an old school feel, a sort of grainy effect that works brilliantly. Surprisingly the whole album features no vocals, a purely instrumental masterpiece.

Is that a good thing in this day? .......... I say yes.

The Nest and the Skull is definitely for fans of glitch artist such as Aphex Twin, Autechre & Mouse On Mars and other artists such as Thom Yorke, Bjork and Boards Of Canada.

Ultre - The Nest And The Skull is released on March 9th 2009.

Tracks to definitly check out:
2. Dead Words
3. The Smirks
4. Museum Of Air
6. Ridicule And Self Ridicule
9. Memory Lies

Tracks:
1. Favourite Mammal
2. Dead Words
3. The Smirks
4. Museum Of Air
5. Peace Corpse
6. Ridicule And Self Ridicule
7. Lingers
8. Struggle And Nothing
9. Memory Lies
10. Ties
11. Takas
12. To All The Laughing You Will Never Do
13. A House Under Your Head

Check out Ultre's Myspace

The audiobulb label is definitly worth checking out too