MP3: Ultrasound / Floodlit World & Stay Young

Now Ultrasound were a band that I didn't really get into at the time, but that I can now see I probably should have been. Although they were perhaps a little too derivative to stand out from the indie masses, there's something a bit special about the songs i've heard that deserves a second listen.

It seemed pretty unfair that at the time the music pressed seemed to focus on the fact that Ultrasound had a rather large frontperson rather than on their music, which seems to share something of the urban/glam/romantic style that Suede, Marion, early Manics and their countless awful derivatives (see King Adora) excelled at, and yet doesn't let the style overtake the music as some of those bands have often been guilty of doing (see Suede/Electricity. urgh).

Ultrasound's members met at Wakefield College in 1989, but weren't noticed by the music press until they played NME's unsigned showcase in 1997 and started to send out demos. Soon after they released their debut single, Same Band, on Fierce Panda, which was played on both the Evening Session and daytime Radio One. The band then signed to Nude and released the single Best Wishes in 1998 followed by another, Stay Young (one of the mp3s below) which was an NME single of the week and reached No. 30 in the singles chart. The band released another single called I'll Show You Mine before releasing their debut (and only) album, Everything Picture, sometime in 1999. I'm not sure quite what happened after (not being a big fan I didn't take much notice), but suffice to say Ultrasound disappeared pretty quickly. For more info you can check out this rather old (and rather unwieldy) fansite.

Personally I think Stay Young sounds a little too epic for its own good. The Suede-ish production seems to overpower the melody and stop it being a complete success. On the other hand the second MP3, Floodlit World, seems to work a hell of a lot better, and to me sounds pretty damn classic, so its a shame they didn't go any further. I'd like to check out the whole album so if anyone is able to help me find it, please leave a comment on this post so I can get back to you. Hope you like the songs!

Download: Stay Young - MP3 6.45mb (rapidshare)
Download: Floodlit World - MP3 4.92mb (rapidshare)