Zomby: Ultra review – electronic moodscapes that sometimes cover familiar ground

(Hyperdub)

Zomby’s 2008 debut, Where Were U in ’92, was one of the more interesting releases of the last decade. With its ghostly, fragmented echoes of the early rave scene, it toyed with nostalgia and memory to create a unique dancefloor palette from sounds you’d half heard before. Since then, the mysterious producer has moved towards creating electronic moodscapes of the kind captured on this fourth album. Ultra showcases some of his best work: the anxiety-stricken gasps that form Banshee collaboration Fly 2; the dreamy, nebulous HER; the way E.S.P. conjures an unnerving sense of urban menace similar to his dubstep peer Burial (who turns up later on Sweetz). It also has a tendency to buzz and bleep away without really connecting. Freeze and Yeti are not without invention, but sound like they’re covering familiar sonic territory – and this time without intending to.

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by Tim Jonze via Electronic music | The Guardian