Ulrika Spacek- The Album Paranoia
The famous Rudyard Kipling poem begins. “Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear, Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair”.
After hearing this record, the word “Fuzzy”, brings on a whole new meaning.
Ulrika Spacek is a new band that was formed in Berlin by Rhys Edwards and Rhys Williams.
The duo returned to London England in 2014 to record this debut album in their home over a long period of time. They spent this time wisely and perfected their original sound. The result is amazing.
Consisting of melodic overtones mixed with insane bursts of dirty guitar distortion, the albums title comes to fruition, generating fits of paranoia in a good way.
Although being compared to the band Sonic Youth, I find Ulrika Spacek more consistent in content and quality, where sometimes Sonic Youth was lacking.
This 10 song offering contains no fluff. From start to finish, the way is should be experienced, the album flows up and down, back to front, and back again. Sounds weird I know, but that’s the best way to describe this thing.
Of the songs, there are a few to devour at more than one sitting. “Beta Male”, with its catchy guitar riff played throughout, only to be broken up temporarily with soft lyrical content is sure to conjure up imagery of the psychedelic ‘60’s.
“Strawberry Glue” includes an interesting mix of fuzzed out guitar and perfectly played piano in an all out, take no prisoners kind of way.
When playing the six minute epic fuzzfest “NK” loudly, it will without a doubt cause the ears of Jimi Hendrix to perk up from the grave and reverberate deep into his LSD fogged up mind and set his foot a tapping.
‘She’s A Cult”, the first single off the album is getting airplay overseas and should result in this brilliant piece of work to become an Indie Rock classic.
“Porcelain” possesses the smooth cool sound that the image of the word displays in your mind. Most of us have experienced the soothing qualities of porcelain after a night of over indulging in fun, this song has that same effect.
If I had to pick a favourite of the bunch, “There’s A Little Passing Cloud In You”, would be it. Clocking in at over six minutes, the only issue I have is I wish it was longer. It’s all here, the remarkably played guitar, intelligent silken draped lyrics that create a mood of impending doom, yet after it’s over you want to experience it again.
I don’t normally like to rate music in a numerical fashion, but this one would be a 10-out- of-10, if I did that sort of thing.
If you want to hear the band and forget about the drivel I just wrote, then check out the band’s website at ulrikaspacek.com. You’re welcome.
