Ultramarine play legendary London venue, The Water Rats, on Saturday July 27th. I’ve interviewed the pioneering electronica duo three times so far. Attempting to map their more than 30 year career, from post-punk 5-piece A Primary Industry, through “folktronica” to where they are now. A sonic space that seems to blur, blend dub, house, and jazz. I’ve talked to them for Test Pressing, for Ban Ban Ton Ton, and for Electronic Sound. Paul Hammond in particular has been a big supporter of BBTT, so I thought I’d try do something toward repaying the favour, and run through a handful of my own Ultramarine favourites, with the aim of hoping to help promote the upcoming gig.

ANTISEPTIC / 1990

Antiseptic is a terrific track from Ultramarine’s debut LP, Folk. Having slimmed down slightly from a 5 to a 4 piece, in 1989 Ultramarine decamped to Belgium to record an album for cool, cult label, Les Disques Du Crépuscule. In the process they discovered the pleasures of sampling – via the 2 second capacity of a BEL BD80 Delay. This in turn led to their eventual evolution into just a duo. Antiseptic was one of the first experiments on that journey, away from 23 Skidoo inspired post-punk funk and into the machine. Rattling go-go rips are used to create a half-cut groove. Kinda chaotic, behind clarinet, melodica, brass punches, and squalls of unruly rock guitar. Like Happy Mondays meeting label mates, Lavvi Ebbel. Its release kinda coinciding with “Madchester” and the Mancunian band’s Rave On. Foreshadowing the indie / dance crossover, “baggy”, and big “Balearic” moments like Andrew Weatherall and Hugo Nicolson’s remix of The Impossibles’ The Drum. In my opinion it should have been released as a single.

STELLA / 1990

Stella originally appeared on a Les Disques Du Crépuscule sub-label, Dancyclopaedia. Again recorded in Brussels, with input from Dutch DJ, Eddy De Clerq and Colin James, who was a member of Meat Beat Manifesto. It was Colin who owned the 808 and 303. With Colin the track was re-recorded in London for Brainiak, the imprint that span out of Sean McClusky and Tim Fielding’s Soho club, The Brain. It was at The Brain that Ultramarine played their first live gig.

The music for Stella was made under the influence of bleep and Soul II Soul. With the able assistance of an Akai S900, the pair produced an irresistible, smiling-including slice of funky breakbeat-driven sunshine, peppered with fragments of fretwork, laidback acid licks, and pinched piano. Dancer, therapist, Gabrielle Roth was the guest vocalist, sampled from a TV interview. Gifting us with gems, like “Dancing is sacred… a way to connect to the deepest part of the self.”

Edited down from its slightly more lysergic near 10 minute 12” mix and reissued, Stella became a huge hit. Too poppy to be techno, and too techno to be “Balearic”, the tune fell between these 2 purist camps and instead was championed by “normal” people, crossing over all over. While hardcore snobs might claim they were only listening to Aphex Twin and Black Dog it’s Stella, frankly, that for most folks signposts those dayze and helped set the template for “chill out”. Paul told me that he remembers 1990 as “a really joyous time” and on Stella it certainly shows.

BRITISH SUMMERTIME / 1991

Peaking with possibilities offered by new technology the album Every Man And Woman Is A Star was written really quickly in the wake of Stella. However it took around a year to record, in a number of studios between Brussels and London. The first thing to be released from these sessions was British Summertime: A moody house moment with congas, cowbell, and E-d up pads… rolling piano, skanking melodica and a magnificent B-line… spinning, spiralling breakbeats and snatches of strange vocals and campfire guitar.

HOOTER / 1993

Ultramarine’s third album United Kingdoms was in part tribute to the late 1960s / 1970s Canterbury prog / jazz scene. It featured guest spots from Soft Machine / Matching Mole’s Robert Wyatt and Jimmy Hastings, formerly of Caravan and Hatfield & The North. A couple of the tracks were subsequently remixed by Film Brazilia and Carl Craig. Hooter finds Mr. Craig at the peak of his innovative powers. Chopping up the OG to create crazy counter rhythms, sort of scratching in the serrated samples, in what sounds like a live mix, he layers heavy breathing, chimes, and computerised hand claps. Topping off the resulting restless energy with some tasty trumpet.

MISSING / 1994

Everyone knows Todd Terry’s brilliant, chart topping remix of Everything But The Girl’s Missing. It was once of those tunes that – quite rightly – was everywhere. Inescapable. One that got so rinsed heavily you probably can’t listen to it anymore. My advancing years mean that it’s also a bit too banging for me these days, but the mellower, more “nuanced” Ultramarine version still gets plays. Ian and Paul set Tracey Thorn`s infectious, heartbroken melancholy, and snippets of Ben Watt’s acoustic strum to old school Chicago house drums. Doffing their caps a tad to Bobby Konders and also adding a little acidic gurgling. It’s the line, “I must confess, I’ve been hanging about your old address” that haunts me. Boy, I’ve been there. The nostalgic stalker, retracing steps, and memories, decades later, down streets where friends and lovers are long, long gone. Still hoping for a miracle and a chance meeting.

FIND A WAY / 2011

In 2011 Ultramarine released Find A Way, without fanfare, on a limited 45. It marked the two friends’ comeback, the end of a hiatus that had followed the 1998 album, A User’s Guide. A collage of loose conga loops it’s most definitely deep house derived. A strange sunset / sunrise groove that borrows melodic elements, and soulful cries, from `80s electronic Brit-funkers I-Level, imagine if A.R. Kane held a Nyahbingi groundation. It was Golf Channel’s Phil South who alerted me to its existence.

DAWN / 2023

Dawn is the final track on Send And Return, Ultramarine’s latest album. Part of the Blackwaterslide multi-media project, which takes The Blackwater Estuary – located in the duo’s native Essex – as its source of inspiration. The track is named after a barge moored on the estuary, where it was recorded. Beginning with jazzy, modal flute, and singing, ringing, modular tones, that together weave a trippy trance-inducing tapestry, 5 minutes in a propulsive percussive beat, directs this wistful, thoughtful float straight to the dancefloor.

Ultramarine play their sole London gig at King Cross’ The Water Rats, on Saturday July 27th. You can purchase tickets here.