Labels: Gringo
Review by: Andy Malcolm
This is a very spiffing looking cd from a band I have minimal familiarity with, outside of seeing their name crop up on this website’s forum every now and again. One thing I noticed was that the inlay says these songs were recorded in 2003 – seems a long time to wait to release them!!
The album opens with the rambling “Dead Birds”, a jumble of crashing drums, a few guitar notes strummed over and over and very bored sounding vocals. Its unsettling, yet also strangely relaxing at the same time as the sound washes out of the speakers. After that though, the Unit Ama really get their groove flowing, with the lumbering rockage of “Plastique Bertrand” (Ça Plane Pour Moi!) staggering into earshot with a rolling rhythm that’s as tight as a screamo’s jeans. This sets the stage for a sound that the band are able to control for the duration of the album, interspersing the gritted teeth drum and bass guitar power with off-kilter meanderings that have far more in common with records I don’t own than those that I do. And because of that it is impossible for me to say “hey, this sounds like band A, band X and band Q”, which is probably a good thing to be honest. Although now and again they aren’t a million miles from the Moss Icon ballpark, which sits well with me. The tracks impressively merge into each other, further lending weight to the assertion that this band has their shit seriously together, and also showing that they are more than capable of easing off a touch and breaking things down into a laid back sea of shimmering cymbals and eerie guitar repetition such as on the slow burning “How the Mind Works”. I have a feeling that this CD is a perfect representation of how the band are in a live setting too, which is very impressive.
Unit Ama is what I would unhesitatingly refer to as “A Gringo band”, but that doesn’t mean anything outside of the fact that they play genre bending rock that a fairly small percentage of the world can get a handle on. I enjoyed this album, especially as it lurks someway outside of my normal sphere of listening. Good stuff!