Music Review// Us Baby Bear Bones – Ursari

As goodbyes go, Us Baby Bear Bones second and final E.P is one of the best you could wish for. Released in a very limited edition run of physical copies, but thankfully available digitally as well, this is one record that we’d been looking forward too.

Opening with the industrial strength beats of Only One, a gloomy soundtrack to the anger of lyrics, best summed with their snarling exclamation of ‘Am I the only one getting shit done?’. A strong introduction then, to the claustrophobic micro-climate of this particular release’s sonic brush…

Next up is the similarly dark, but no less beautiful, DNA and it’s around this point the full force of the record hits you. Once we enter the more subtle, key-tingles imbued She Is the pressure drops a little but the lyrics still bite like a sharp word in the jugular. The titular she is apparently ‘not a tender lover’ and that seems to echo the brutal themes of the songs thus far. DNA references the presence of ‘DNA on my sheets’ and taken with the erotically charged sleeve on the physical release it makes for a darkly sexual analogy.

Even the sonic textures here are not as knowingly Dream Pop inspired as previous release WSWAYEIAI and although there is a surface glitter, it’s a darker, dirtier sound that suits the band perfectly. When Old is heard for the first time, it’s so intriguing as to be impossible to resist, with the production and arrangement as beautiful as the music here is deceptively grey in tone.

Overall, this is certainly a bang to go out on rather than a whimper and whatever projects the band produce once their self-described ‘regeneration’ has finished Ursari is something that will surely impress many years from now.

To answer the question put to us on opener Only One, Us Baby Bear Bones and producer Steven Ansell (Blood Red Shoes) certainly get shit done on this fine EP.

(#SRCZ)