Anyone else into these? I go back with these guys…their ‘Every Man and Woman is a Star’ album was on heavy rotation in the early 90s as was the follow up ‘United Kingdoms’. They were a heady mix of Ambient Dub on similar territory to The Orb but with a very curious swerve into what was (back then) obscure art rock/folk/psychedelic music as well as the early Factory Records/Les Disques Du Crepuscule bands and the Canterbury Scene – they later collaborated with Kevin Ayers and Robert Wyatt. In other words, a world away from their contemporaries like The Prodigy or The Shamen. They’ve been a huge influence on my own music making and listening. They still crop up from time to time and they’re back with a new LP soon – as well as curious little 7″ single which has some suitably atmospheric sounds to accompany photographs, graphics and poetry inspired by a stretch of the Blackwater Estuary in Essex – get it here https://www.stjudesprints.co.uk/products/blackwaterside
Ultramarine
Not one I know of but sounds up my ambient. United Kingdoms is 9p on Amazon marketplace so I think I could stretch to that……..
Yes had their album – green one passed it on which I kind of regret
I have a CD of theirs somewhere. I’ll have to dig it out.
https://www.qthemusic.com/articles/video/every-man-and-woman-is-a-star-a-short-film-about-ultramarine
I always get Ultrasound and Ultramarine mixed up. The keyboardist from one went on to form Minuteman, a sort of lo-fi Badly Drawn Boy, and had a bit of a hit when one of his songs was picked up by a telly football show. I met him once.
Minuteman – Big Boy:
I loved the first album and remember a very enjoyable sunny early Sunday afternoon at Glastonbury, sitting on a hillside listening to their delightfully pastoral electronica wafting upslope towards me. Any album that samples Laurie Anderson is all right by me, though I did find the Bunnymen sample as obvious as PM Dawn or Madonna sampling Spandau Ballet or ABBA.
I didn’t like the second album as much – too much Robert Wyatt ((though I’d probably enjoy that more these days).
A new record referencing the Blackwater Estuary? As I’m in that neck of the woods right now (visiting Maldon on Saturday), that’s another serendipitously good reason to hunt it out.
Thanks for the heads up, Dr V!