Ulterior - Wild In Wildlife FLAC album

As Reviewed by 'Maisey' for 'Dominion' on 22-Feb-2011

".. last single, Sex War Sex Cars Sex, is an excellent choice of opening track. This motorised mini-overture launches us headfirst into the record proper; Ulterior like to come up fast it seems.

Early Ulterior records were markedly more electronic than their later, rockier singles. Wild In Wildlife appears to have found the comfortable balance of sound that they seemed to be after, with some seriously dark electronics pulsing along to grind relentless rhythms howling guitars. Catherine combines a throbbing electronic backbone steadily and cleverly overlaid by increasing sleek layers of melody.

Despite the inherent nastiness in the overall sound of the album, the improvement in production compared to earlier releases is immediately noticeable. Although on the whole this stands the album in good stead, it might occasionally leave the listener missing the lo-fi, garage rock edge of previous records (particularly the reworked version of Sister Speed).

Clocking in at just over seven minutes, Dream Dream is veritable pile driver of a track. A deceptively fragile keyboard intro lures you out onto the tracks, right before delivering the sonic equivalent of being hit in the face by a freight train. Nothing they’ve released previously really prepares you for this; the album has suddenly hit a seemingly unstoppable stride.

Big City Black Rain, Too In Love To Fuck and The Emptiness We Share are all solid, hard hitting tracks that maintain the high induced by the album’s start. Although the band chose Big City as their second single, any one of these three would have done an equally good job. The Emptiness We Share possibly lacks a little something compared to its live incarnation, the vocal performance feeling slightly less acerbic.

Tarantula is a definite change of tone, bringing the listener back to Earth with a short, sharp and discordant crash. As many veterans of the rock and roll lifestyle will attest, the crash is inevitably followed by an extended period of abject misery and bitterness. The album’s title track, Wild In Wildlife, provides this in the form of ten minutes of protracted musical devastation.

After a moment of silence the closing track, Shallow Brown, gently glides in. Completely different in atmosphere, the melancholy, almost folky, melody is accompanied by nothing more than a lonely harmonica and some sparse synth work (reminiscent of Bowie and Eno’s doom laden Berlin-era instrumentals). It doesn’t really feel like the final chapter, the title track provides that, Shallow Brown is more like an epilogue.

It’d be nice to say this record ends on a high, but it in actual fact it ends on a crushing low. None the less, this feels exactly right – a keen reminder that living life like you have a chemical death wish will inevitably burn you out. Wild In Wildlife is not an easy record, in fact it’s not even a very pleasant record. It’s fast and dirty, initially uplifting but ultimately crushing.

Ulterior have been tipped as rising stars for some time now, this album raises them to ever more dizzying heights."