- Ultra Material are a quintessential shoegaze band. If you like that type of sound -which I sure as hell do- then you will love their new album, Cosmic Anti Stuff.
It’s the band’s second full-length album, so I’d also suggest that if you haven’t previously heard music by Ultra Material, you should also check out their earlier album and the EPs this Brisbane based outfit have putting out since 2015.
All the standard shoegaze adjectives apply: ethereal, reverbing, atmospheric soundscapes, billowing wafts of sound where it is sometimes hard to tell where instrumentation ends and voices begin.
Ultra Material have male-female vocal interplay going on in some of their songs, although bass player Sarah Deasey does most of the singing. Cosmic Anti Stuff is released on vinyl, as well as online through Bandcamp.
The first single from the album is Rhodamine - providing a good example of the dream pop undertone which permeates all nine of the songs on the album. The layered sounds across the album benefit from repeat listenings, as the subtle varieties and complexities of the sound reveal new discoveries with each listen.
Nothing like the frigid space detritus evoked by the title, Cosmic Anti Stuff is warm and wonderful. In fact, it's exactly what shoegaze should be.
- Andrew Bartlett.