Tuesday 14 February 2012

Natural Law

Ultramarine make dance music best listened to lying down.
And that's how I came across them.

Stretched out within an enclosed area of a Cornish field, staring up at a canvas roof on a rainy summer afternoon, ambient sounds, mostly from the natural world, synthetic melodies peppered with litotic beats, all made for the perfect accompaniment to my extreeemely mellow mood.

And on the back of that pleasing experience, I bought this.
Like their live performance, the natural world is well represented: field recordings making up the majority of the sampled ambiance.
Voices also play a part, Robert Wyatt's among them; but there's no dissonance: nothing dark; nothing frightening: it's all very pleasant; very aaah.

So lie yourself down, relax, and have a little float to this.

Ultramarine - Every Man and Woman is a Star (1991)

Discovery
Weird Gear
Pansy
Honey
British Summertime
Geezer
Panther
Stella
Lights in my Brain
Canoe Trip
Skyclad

Nice vinyl rip @320kbs
Float away here

8 comments:

teifidancer said...

ah..... yes, a favourite of mine.... I do a lot of lying down.... happy valentines.

roy rocket said...

Let's all stand up for lying down!
Returns

OLDNIK said...

Great Album!
I was lucky enough to see them 4 times in the early to mid 90's, they were fantastic live, real instruments, real organic sounding dance music, should have been massive.... brings back memories of Megadog (on a string!) and the Sheffield Leadmill

Jake Sniper said...

Yes such a great album, they released a version of it as well called "Companion (Every Man And Woman Is A Star Versions)" & it for me it is a good version but not as good as the original but that has a lot of happy memories attached to it. You should check out the "United Kingdoms" album

roy rocket said...

I do know 'United Kingdoms', have thought of posting it, but, it's not as good.
I have posted the Wyatt sung single from that album, and for me, that is really its highlight.

Anyway, glad to hear I may have encouraged a few good memories; and glad for your comment.
Shanti, roy

Jake Sniper said...

I agree it's not as good as "every man & ..." & the Wyatt single is the best thing on it, but i was surprised by how much i enjoyed companion even though i usually expect the worst when they release a new version of a favourite

roy rocket said...

I must check it out.
Put off originally for the very reason you state; yes, very unusual for something released later that surpasses the original; can't think of many other examples.... roy

Anonymous said...

i was busy looking for a copy of the versions release (i'd prefer to check it before shelling out)& your post was one of the first to pop up. i love this album, always manages to work it's way to the front of a pile, especially after a late night. i seen them play a few times at megadog but can't remember much(tho i'm sure they were bloody fantastic) xx