説明
英国電子音楽の異端児が到達した、時代の先を行く「隠れた傑作」が待望の復刻！
Paul HammondとIan Cooperによる英国のデュオ、Ultramarine。90年代、電子音とアコースティック楽器を即興的に交差させるオーガニックな手法で名を馳せた彼らが、その名声を投げ打ってまで追求した「別の形」が本作『A User's Guide』だ。1998年の発表当時、所属レーベルの消滅によりヴァイナルでの流通が極端に少なく、長らくファンの間で語り継がれるのみとなっていた幻の一枚である。
本作で彼らが選んだのは、それまでのスタイルを捨て去り、徹底して磨き上げられたエレクトロニクスの質感だ。Tortoiseが提示したポストロックの静謐さや、Basic Channelの煙るダブ・テクノ、さらにはシカゴのディープ・ハウスが持つ包容力までを独自の感性で咀嚼。金属的なフレーズや浮遊するコードが、テクノやドラム＆ベースの文化に根ざしたタイトなリズムと絡み合い、冷徹ながらもどこか人間味を感じさせるフューチャリスティックな響きを獲得した。
「All of a Sudden」で見せる跳ねるようなIDMから、Autechreを彷彿とさせる「Ghost Routine」、そしてミニマリズムとジャズのエッセンスが融合した終曲「What Machines Want」まで、全編が色褪せることのないモダンな輝きを放つ。オリジナルDATからリマスタリングされた2枚組ヴァイナル。
A1. All Of A Sudden
A2. Surfacing
B1. Sucker 4U
B2. On The Brink
B3. Zombie
C1. By Turns
C2. Ambush
C3. 4U Version
D1. Ghost Routine
D2. What Machines Want
WRWTFWW Records is honored to reissue revered UK electronic duo Ultramarine’s best kept secret from their discography, the superb A User’s Guide album, available as a limited double LP housed in a beautiful heavyweight sleeve with inside out printing.
On the rare occasions that Ultramarine’s story is told, the duo’s fifth album, 1998’s A User’s Guide, tends to get omitted from the narrative. Radically different to anything the duo released before or since, it has remained a slept-on, timeless and inherently futurist classic ever since.
Unavailable on vinyl since the year it was released – in part because the label it originally came out on, New Electronica, folded shortly afterwards – A User’s Guide was the result of a conscious decision by Ultramarine members Paul Hammond and Ian Cooper to change their working methods and the “sound palette” that underpinned their work.
Out went the partially improvised hybrid electronic/acoustic sounds and the collaborations with guest musicians they’d become famous for. They were replaced by painstakingly created electronic sounds and textures, metallic motifs, spaced-out chords, rhythms rooted in contemporary techno and drum & bass culture, and nods aplenty to pioneering music of the period, from the post-rock atmospherics of Tortoise, and the hazy dub techno of Basic Channel, to the tech-jazz of Detroit, the minimalism of Berlin, and the musically expansive warmth of Chicago deep house.
It may have taken a year to create – part of which was spent developing this head-spinning new sound – but the results were undeniably unearthly and effortlessly forward-thinking. Over a quarter of a century may have passed since it first appeared in record stores, but A User’s Guide still sounds fresh and modern – a remarkable achievement given the relatively sparse and basic equipment used in the making of the album.
As this first vinyl reissue conclusively proves, the material showcased on A User’s Guide has lost none of its sparkle in the 26 years that have passed since its release. For proof, check the head-nodding IDM bubbliness of opener ‘All of a Sudden’, the queasy, lopsided tech-jazz of ‘Sucker For You’, the locked-in beats and mind-mangling motifs of ‘Zombie’, the ghostly, out-there electro of ‘Ambush’, the Autechre-esque ‘Ghost Routine’ and the triumphant closing cut ‘What Machines Want’, a classic of minimalistic, jazz-flecked techno futurism.
Fully remastered from the original DATs by Jason G at Transition Studios, the 2024 vinyl edition of A User’s Guide thrusts Ultramarine’s most overlooked album back into the spotlight. This WRWTFWW edition also features brand new contextualizing sleeve notes, complete with new quotes on the production process from Ultramarine, by dance music historian Matt Anniss (author of Join The Future: Bleep Techno and the Birth of British Bass Music, and founder of online electronic music platform Jointhefuture.net).
