MAMMOTH ULTHANA eponymous CD (Zoruhum and Huta Artzine release, Poland, 2013)
Call me ungrateful, but I don’t think there is nearly enough shamanic-folk-electro which makes you feel like you’ve been zapped through a monolith, to witness the dawn of man. So thank the druids for Mammoth Ulthana – two men who have taken it upon themselves to combine electronics and all manner of traditional tribal instruments to make a concept album about the ancient tribe of Mammoth Ulthana.
Obviously, we have no way of telling if the tribe would have approved. But anything which sounds like a blissed-out Four Tet, wrapped in a goat skin rug is alright by me. Across eight tracks with tastefully oblique names like ‘Ballade’ and ‘Interludium’ we’re treated to a stereo of chimes, scrapes and reverberating horns – all kept in time with neat little beats which bounce around like a light, tropical rain shower.
If you had a video of a white toothed Californian doing Thai Chi, you could probably flog this as some sort of healing DVD. Fortunately, it doesn’t. And it really doesn’t matter if the idea of ‘tribal’ music makes you want to set fire to yourself in your local organic café – the fact is, you probably won’t find a more experimental electro album with such tight grip on melody.
(MD)
