Get Lost in Ultramarine’s Downtempo Post-Rave Classic, ‘Every Woman and Man is a Star’

For a long time, casual fans of 1990s British instrumental hip hop, which eventually became known as trip hop, likely only knew the purveyors so-called Bristol Sound: Tricky, Portishead and Massive Attack. Producer-musicians obsessed with dub, hip hop and beat music, members of the Bristol squad ferried between their Bristol home and their friend Neneh Cherry’s West London apartment, where a record collection informed by Cherry’s dad, Don, allowed them access to samples galore.

“They took over the small side bedroom, soon cluttered with reel-to-reels and tape machines, and a record deck on which they would earnestly sift through possible samples,” recalled writer-artist-producer Vivien Goldman in an NPR essay, of Massive Attack’s approach. “A superb chef, my friend Neneh would be in the kitchen concocting feasts in between writing rhymes, with Massive Attack wandering in for cups of tea.” The result was Massive Attack’s landmark 1991 album Blue Lines.

Such confined energy wasn’t limited to Bristol. It was occurring all over the UK. As sampling technology was evolving, young experimenters were constructing beats in spare bedrooms and small studios and sharing the results with roommates and friends. Though eclipsed by the success and popularity of Portishead, Massive Attack and Tricky, production teams including Morcheeba, UNKLE, Nightmares on Wax, and, later Boards of Canada, released beautifully pastoral beat music. Each had a distinctive approach, but the quest was similar: chill-out music of the kind perfectly captured in the title of Nightmares on Wax’s classic, Stoner’s Delight.

In Essex, two friends with a love of beats and new electronic music combined to form Ultramarine. Armed with a Roland 808 and an AKAI sampler, Paul Hammond and Ian Cooper began digging in crates and puzzling together tracks. Asked about the inspiration, Hammond told the site Ban Ban Ton Ton:

Mainly the sampler itself; the fresh concept of reusing audio snippets from other records. We immediately realised that it opened up a infinite palette of new sounds, textures and beats. We’d originally heard sampling on The Young Gods album a few years earlier but it was records like De La Soul’s 3 Feet High and Rising and A Tribe Called Quests People’s Instinctive Travels that really kickstarted our imagination.

They released their first album as Ultramarine, Folk, in 1990. It’s arguably one of the first folktronica records. Around that time they began mining the Canterbury scene for samples. That bore fruit on their second album, the mesmerizing Every Woman and Man is a Star. The track “Kingdom” features Robert Wyatt on vocals.

“Other than Robert Wyatt’s early-80s records for Rough Trade, we weren’t aware of the Canterbury Scene until we started digging for samples around 1990,” Hammond said. “Through that process we discovered a lot of that music; Kevin Ayers, Soft Machine, Robert’s earlier solo records, Hugh Hopper, Lol Coxhill, Richard Sinclair and the various Caravan offshoots. We got heavily into Kevin Ayers in particular, even to the extent that we went to Majorca in the summer of 1992 to see if we could track him down in Deià and ask him if he’d like to collaborate with us.”

Wyatt also joined Ultramarine for “Happy Land,” from their 1993 album United Kingdom.

Those in NYC can go deep with classics of trip hop on Monday, Feb. 26, when we devote our Monday Dedicated Listening Session to classic and contemporary trip hop. Across three hours, we’ll play at proper volume (and proper bass) album sides by artists including Massive Attack, Boards of Canada and Pontiac Streator. Occurring from 2-5 p.m., it’s sure to be a smoker’s (or edible-eater’s) delight.

a.s.o. – s/t
Portishead – Dummy
Massive Attack – Blue Lines
Boards of Canada – Music Has the Right to Children
Poison Girlfriend – Melting Moment
Ultramarine – Every Woman and Man is a Star
Pontiac Streator – Sone Glo
Salamanda – Ashbalkum

Details:
In Sheep’s Clothing Dedicated Listening Session: Trip Hop and Downtempo
When: Monday, Feb. 26, 2-5 p.m.
Where: ISC NYC, 350 Hudson St. (enter on King)