Album Review // Select All Delete Save As – Ultra Cultura
When #srcz was introduced
to this album it was described as one of that is very eccentric. This pricked
our ears up and we decided to check it out. After all, eccentric is never a bad
thing… or is it?
This reviewer's admittedly
broadminded taste didn’t find too much of the eccentric, it has to be said, but
that is not a bad thing. Eccentricity in the music world has many figure heads,
but this album is not one that should thrive under that appellation. Instead,
it’s a collection of songs that evoke a sort of vaudeville madness that is
relatively restrained, possibly more than it should have been, and it changes
the way the music sounds immensely.
There are some obvious
highlights, such as the darkly pessimistic Modern Life Is War or the calmly
religion bashing Nectar Of Instruction, with its speak-vox sensibility going
down well with this reviewer, but it’s all too calm to be genuinely eccentric.
Nor does it need to be, in fact. Descriptions can be a millstone around the
neck on occasion, and SADSA certainly don’t need their computer inspired necks
weighed down by that one.
On The Sun and His
Sunglasses we hear some perfectly surreal prose set over a minimalist beats setting
and it works well. Brief and insightful is the way. Some of the songs, although
not by any means bad are a little too restrained to shine where they would stand
better on their own, Service of the Lord, and with some slight tweaks in the
track listing this would be remedied very quickly.
But as a whole, although
by nature somewhat disjointed, the album is good listening for those sunny
early evenings that will surely be coming our way soon. The songs are high quality,
the cynical undertones are pleasing and there is just enough wit to bring this
music together under a firmly dotty umbrella. Eccentric this is not, but witty and insightful it is.
(Sebastian Gahan)
