Ume "Urgent Sea" CD
[Pretty Activity]
Hmmm, I'm not sure how I feel about this trio.  It's rather uncommonly open and sparse music driven by a warm rhythm section and angular guitars that deliver choppy rhythms, weird clean passages, and lightly caustic fare - fronted by extremely unique female vocals that kind of bounce around between bits and pieces of hoarse speaking, singing, and a near shout/scream.  There's a strained and throaty rasp to all of the vocals that's somewhat of an acquired taste, but I actually find the feel of the vocals to be the most interesting aspect of the disc.  Don't get me wrong, some of the music is interesting as well, but I think the vocalist would sound more at home in some sort of Swans-esque band or something like that - working with music that would be darker, and a little more ominous without necessarily being literally heavy per se.  Some of the thicker dissonant chords used herein are quite nice, but I'm not really into the simpler and more repetitious riffing for whatever reason, especially when they ease up on the distortion and get sort of choppy with the playing.  Sans the mildly obnoxious fits of quick shrieking, "Hive-Mind" is among my favorite tracks, coming across as more intense and linear in structure, whereas some of the songs sort of come and go without that consistent sense of transitioning that helps this one along.  The intensity is something that I miss in many of the other songs as well, though.  That sense of power suits the vocals very well - probably better than any other moment on the disc.  A few tracks alternately switch over to some male vocals that are a good match for the lead vocalist's sound, though her voice definitely carries with it more character, so...  There are a few noisier pieces too, namely "Shake Down" and "Umergency", both of which are honestly on the irritating side, but the latter's intro work is actually very interesting in its use of looped guitar noises and such.  The recording is very natural and dense, which I enjoy.  I think it's a bit too muddy, but they're not far from the mark at all.  The bass presence is my favorite aspect of the musical backbone simply because the bass fills the space well and plays a very dominant role in driving the material forward.  Giving it a little more definition would allow the basslines to better keep up with the noisy edge of the guitars, and the percussion could use a touch of brightness as well, but I like how the vocals rest deep in against the instruments.  The layout looks pretty damn nice for the most part.  The inner spread is a little bland, using just a small batch of band photos and minimal text (no lyrics or anything are included), but the colorful outer artwork with paintings of sharks and such is all quite strong and definitely catches the eye.  In the end this isn't my thing, but I have to give them credit for having a different sort of sound.  You could definitely tie elements of this to certain facets of the indie or noise rock scenes, but the end result when combined with the uniqueness of the vocals definitely stands on its own.  The more I listen to it the more I really dig certain qualities of the vocal performance, but I just can't get into the songwriting very much. (5/10)
Running time - 36:11, Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: Hive-Mind, Manic, Baby Xie-Xie]
Pretty Activity - http://www.prettyactivity.com

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