Ultraísta: Ultraísta

    I'm a few weeks behind this October 2nd release--a self-titled album, Ultraísta--by none other than famed Radiohead producer/Atoms for Peace grease man, Nigel Godrich. Well known for his production of every Radiohead album among numerous others (i.e. select albums by U2, Beck, R.E.M., Paul McCartney, and Air), Godrich has also been a member of Thom Yorke's live solo act since 2009, Atoms for Peace, in which he does keyboards, guitar, backing vocals and percussion. His latest act, Ultraísta, is his project. Formed with singer Laura Bettinson and Joey Waronker (Atoms for Peace drummer), Ultraísta is named after a 20th century group of Spanish writers, the Ultraists. The Ultraists--consisting mainly of Guillermo de Torre, Juan Larrea, Gerardo Diego and Jorge Luis Borges--were a reaction to the prevalent Modernismo poetry of the day in Spain. They, according to NPR: First Listen, "favored a surreal variation on minimalism over more opulent, ornamental styles". Bettinson went on record in an interview on iLikemusic.com as describing how Ultraísta fit their music as follows: "she sees Ultraist poetry--by writers such as Guillermo de Torre and Jorge Luis Borges--as cut-up and surreal, [quote]which worked with the way we made the music; add that bit, add that bit, keep the lyrics quite fluid and abstract[endquote]". Apparently, Ultraist art included doubled images, per say, which added to the available meaning. The First Listen article has such a picture, of the members of Ultraísta, see here.

    Ultraísta's formation was pretty cliché or organic, whatever you want to call it; while Laura Bettinson was performing under her stage name of Dimbleby & Capper, Godrich and Waronker showed up at her show one night looking for someone to fit in with some material they wanted to create (which she knew nothing about). They were impressed with her style, using a simple loop station and voice layering, and asked her to join their crew. The rest could be history. Sound wise, the Radiohead/Thom Yorke style comparisons are obvious, but the members of Ultraísta have actually just put together their strengths, their individual two cents each, to compose something that is unique to them. Besides, the comparisons only exist because those groups contain those same two cents.

    Here's some more information and highlights from Ultraísta: 

The first track, "Bad Insect", has a really cool carefree melody that contrasts swirling synths and rhythmically driving drums (I intentionally packed as much alliteration into that sentence as possible, I promise). Synths in fact are in. But, not in that New Wave-y way, rather, electronic goodness with that tiny bit of waver that makes them sound more Space Rock-ish. Also, rhythmically driving beats are the norm and track three, "Static Lights"; track five, "Our Song", have stellar ones at that. Speaking of "Our Song", there are some awesome melodic notes that are dissonant to the rest of the harmonies, really nice composition. The eighth track, "Party Line", has a nice trip hop feel to it, with static piano chords and an almost dry drum set beat (just the tiniest bit of echo, but extremely tight nonetheless). Also, the final real track [ten], "Your Out", is just a solid song, with excellent use of vocal loops and just has that immersive-ness to it that I love in music. Finally, some solid remixes top off the final two tracks, especially including a Four Tet remix of "Smalltalk".

    You were at one point able to listen to the whole album streaming on NPR: First Listen, but that has passed, and as of yet I do not know of a full legal stream anywhere. There are a few songs on Ultraísta's SoundCloud, however, and I have put "Bad Insect" over by the 'Monthly Sample Tracks'. Go to their SoundCloud, here, and listen as well. You can purchase Ultraísta on iTunes, here. And,download a free three track remix EP at Ultraísta's website, here.