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Saturday November 23rd 2024ADRA promotions and Puzzle Hall Inn present …
Ultimate Thunder
Post-everything learning disability-forward avant space rock a la Hawkwind, The Fall, PiL
https://ultimatethunder.bandcamp.com/
Lands & Body
Former That Fucking Tank men making loud instrumental guitar and drums un-rock
8pm (prompt start) - 10pm
FREE ENTRY with donations for bands gratefully accepted. Done in time for trains back to Leeds / Manc. Supported using public funding from Arts Council England.
--Further Info-----
Ultimate Thunder
Ultimate Thunder are the Leeds learning-disabled / neuro-divergent band who made the news recently when their funding was cut. This is their second album collaborating with producer/ musician James Mabbett (Napoleon IIIrd). ‘The Fall meets Hawkwind’ description still fits but there is so much more to this band and it’s a great punk/experimental album in its own right, says Ged Babey.
This is not a novelty record.
This is just a great album full stop. One of the best of the year.
Behind the scenes at Louder Than War I’ve been fighting for it to be the coveted ‘Album of The Week’ only to be over-ruled by dictatorial middle-management as supposedly Big Special and Arab Strap are deemed more important and of wider-interest to our hipster readership. I threatened to resign, hinted at blackmail, intimated violence, the lot, but there was no swaying them….
If this isn’t the most immediate, exciting and original 2020’s slice of dance-punk since ‘Jobseeker’ and ‘We Live Here’ I don’t know what is….
Yeah, it’s like it’s sung in a surreal kind of Nadsat or Esperanto with a rap-like braggadocio and that bass-line is very like Psychedelic Furs debut single ‘We Love You’, but it’s got such a great offbeat upbeat feel to it. It’s not a word I use – but I believe it’s what is known as ‘a banger’.
And the rest of the album is just as good…
So, anyway, without permission I’ve invented a new category -‘Album of The Month’ – just so that Ultimate Thunder can get the recognition they rightfully deserve.
A Spider Will Come To Eat Your Flesh is an album that is just irresistible and unique – yet has a familiarity and immediacy.
I guess that you do have to like English Experimental Eccentricity though, and that fabulous clash of repetition and zigzag-ing, stuttering unpredictability and a charismatic, untutored vocalist as ring-master.
Forget the fact they are ‘Special Needs’ adults – this is an off-the-wall, post-punk, punk as experimental, space-rock album. Simple and natural, funny and free-wheeling. No verse/chorus structure, it’s six jam sessions skilfully condensed into songs.
Ultimate Thunder are often compared to The Fall – due to the repetition and hectoring / indecipherable / Northern vocal. There is a Krautrock vibe too and a space-rock feel. Brilliant punk-rock play-in-a-day basslines. A hint of Sleaford Mods twitch. It’s a very English, very natural kind of experimental – from untutored punk to the free-form self-expression of th’ Faith Healers, PIL, even IDLES. The press release describes the music as sounding like ‘ an FM radio stuck somewhere between afrobeat and musique concrète’. But too me, it’s just a fantastic album that as a fan of The Fall, Sleaford Mods, Swell Maps and PIL is a return to unpretentious, enjoyable experimentation you can dance to – and that brings a smile to your face.
In the video for ‘I’ve Got No Bees In Your House’, you’ll see that vocalist Matthew Watson vaguely resembles Ivor Cutler and the synth-sonics player John Densley seems to dress in a similar way to Lee Scratch Perry. This just makes Ultimate Thunder the coolest band in the world. And ‘Bees’ is not even the best track on the album….
I asked James Mabbett if he had a transcript of the lyrics. I was very pleased when he sent me them. They include: fly like a bird / make no sound, and I’ll not compromise you / I’ll compromise them /Tell me you’re certain of your fascinations as well as a random shout of Back to the future! The poetry and vocabulary is surprising perhaps and proves that there is more to the ‘stream of consciousness’ vocal than you might think.
Thanks to TV programmes like Chris Packhams Inside Our Autistic Minds and The Assembly – with Michael Sheen there is a growing awareness of how people with Learning Difficulties/complex needs are all very different and cover a wide spectrum. And, that they include people who are very lovely, funny and charismatic, with varying degrees of articulacy. One thing many of them seem to share is a love of music.
Vocalist Matthew Watson who as frontman, like any group, becomes the focus – and he is quite a character. There is a great mini-Doc video about him. His gentleness is at odds with the harshness of his vocals.
The track called 100 Dollars is in particular, a deeply romantic and sensitive lyric despite the manner in which it is delivered.
I change in you�A dream come true�I never change your life�For a moment or two�I’ve chosen you�To be my girlfriend�I’ve chosen you�With My heart�Lift up your heart
Come on over�Talk about you�Talk about me�Come on over�Make me find me
But, Ultimate Thunder are a band and a team and everyone plays a vital part. Kenneth Stainburns bass playing is simple but hugely effective. Drummer Scott Anderson has a natural, untutored way with a beat.
It’s the way the songs rumble along but build, speed up and become more sonically chaotic as they go along is what appeals. Alex Sykes provides melodic hooks and John Densley unleashes cacophonic synth-noises from Outer Space which I swear at one point sound like saxophones on the Stooges Funhouse doing battle with the Death Star.
James Heselwood, the only band member who isn’t learning disabled is credited with – guitar and production – but follows rather than leads and very subtly enhances the sound. That said his Keith Levene-style playing on Bees is fantastic.
James Mabbett said: “This new album is a real progression, it was incredible to get back into the studio again after the pandemic and record the band live. These tracks are drawn from improvisations and are wonderfully raw, they really capture an exciting band, a band like no other!”.
The final track, Moon, OK is a fifteen minute sci-fi instrumental epic which is an utter delight as it’s like a necessary come-down from the slightly manic other songs. It’s how the Orb should sound had they not fallen asleep on the job decades back. Genuinely hypnotic you can almost levitate to it if you really try.
Matthew Watson does emerge as Ultimate Thunders figurehead because of his vocal style and improvised lyrics. One of the themes that emerges does seem to be wildlife: birds, bats, monkeys, spiders, bees and even a crocodile all make appearances. Spiders and bees representing his fears. Two songs mention money and two include references to ‘love’ – but it’s his casual asides, addressing either the band, an imaginary audience or characters in his head that give the songs their character. All of you! ‘What’s going on here? Bing! C’mon Burgers. Everybody!
It has always annoyed me when idle, arty-farty business types call themselves ‘creatives’ -when basically they are selling a product. Ultimate Thunder are true creatives. Unhindered by rules, expectations, fashion, trends, commerce and bull. They are great artists; enabled and empowered by Mabbett, Heselwood and Pyramid Arts – whom deserve our thanks from bringing them together and releasing this fabulous album.
Album of the week, album of the month and quite possibly my favourite album of the year.
https://louderthanwar.com/ultimate-thunder-a-spider-will-come-to-eat-your-flesh-album-review-album-of-the-month/
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Puzzle Hall Community Pub, 21 Hollins Mill Lane,Halifax, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom
