Album Review: Ultraista - Ultraista

If I had a god-damn dime for all the artists Joey 'I'm no Willy' Waronker has collaborated with, I'd be in America spending all that greasy cash on pretzels and beer. The session drummer and producer who has been a mainstay on most of Beck's albums, played the skins on the About A Boy soundtrack with Badly Drawn Boy and who laid the backbone of the Vines single Get Free has collaborated with vocalist Laura Bettison and some guy named Nigel Godrich to make an album of unhinged, left-of-the-middle sounds and ideas that have been described as 'Krautpop, Afrobeat and electronic' in a 'stripped-back' format. It's all true of the music and held together by Waronker's beat-keeping arrangements.

The music on the band's debut is meant to be experienced holistically, one would think, due to no discernible lead track being present – certainly Bettison has a knack for breathy, playful vocals. But it's not always her voice that's out the front, and at times the removal of the distinct line where one particular element starts and another ends allows the album a lot more breathing space, compared to say Toronto's Purity Ring, who display similarities but with the former having a less adolescent vibe. That said, it's not an album you will ever really tire of, provided it's digested in small chunks. It partly works because the people making it clearly have a love for what they are producing. The lack of a 'this album could make us big' mentality is quite refreshing and rewarding, and it sits as a quiet little triumph overall.