New Music: Ummagma- The Road To Lees

Canadian/Ukrainian dream pop duo Ummagma are back with a brand new music video for their song "The Road to Lees". We already know from previous posts that this band has an eclectic sound with splashes of shoegaze, post rock, psychedelica and electronica heard throughout their body of songs. "The Road To Lees" is no exception and is a song that showcases the electronic side of their talent-the mesmerizing track might even be considered trip hop.

The music video for the song is a shimmering kaleidoscope of colours interwoven with scenes of mid  20th century American life. Shauna from the band sees this video as somewhat of a juxtaposition: “unfortunately, apart from that which was familial or community-based, what we knew as the good old days did indeed seem ‘real’, but it was based on a faulty foundation, which we’re only hearing about now. Just the same, this is still a happy place for many”.

Ummagma are also releasing a remix LP on May 16th with several reworkings of their excellent single "Lama". You can preview that LP right now on Soundcloud.

New Music: Ummagma- Rotation + Live and Let Die

After winning the Alternative Eurovision prize earlier this year, Ukrainian-Canadian dream pop band Ummagma are not resting on their laurels and have released a brand new double A-side single titled "Rotation"/"Live and Let Die". "Rotation" is the more electronic of the two songs and features a slow build up of wailing synth lines that leads into fuzzy, textured, grandiose dream pop. Meanwhile, " Live and Let Die" is maybe the funkiest song I have heard from the duo. The rhythmic track has really cool choppy guitar riffs, bombastic drums and I think I am not wrong in comparing this to some of Broadcast's poppier songs. Take a listen below:

The single is just the beginning as Ummagma plans to release more singles in 2014 on German label Emerald & Doreen Recordings. The new single is now available on iTunes, Juno Download, Amazon, Beatport and other major digital platforms. 

Ummagma Wins Alternative Eurovision

Congratulations to our friends in the dream pop band Ummagma.  The band competed against 21 countries in the Alternative Eurovision competition and claimed the prize for Ukraine with their track 1+1=3. The event is held annually on Amazing Radio and is hosted by Dani Charlton. The duo is also marking the second consecutive month with two songs in the Scottish New Music Chart ('Human Factor' at #16 and 'Rotation' at #26, sliding from #10 in April’s chart). Plus the busy band have just released Back To You and River Town as a Split EP with Finnish post-rock fusion band Virta on Italy's Som Non-Label.

Take a listen below to winning entry below:

New Music: Ummagma- Lama (Jane Woodman Remix)

More news coming out of the Ummagma camp as the busy Ukrainian/Canadian dream pop duo have recently released another new music video and have had their beautiful song "Lama" remixed.

The remix comes courtesy of Jane Woodman a post punk musician and multimedia artist out of San Francisco. She has taken the original dreamy "Lama", and added more guitar and vocals that transforms the track into a sexy, industrial tinged beauty. If you wish to know more about Woodman, check out her bandcamp page where she has recorded a cover of the Psychedelic Furs classic song "Sister Europe" with the help of cellist Zoë Keating.

Also check out Ummagma's new music video for "Talk To Her" which was directed by French filmmaker Bulle Plexiglass.

Music Video: Ummagma- Human Factor

Aural Report favourite dream pop couple Ummagma have just released a new video for their track "Human Factor" from their excellent 2012 self titled album.

Since we last posted on the Ukrainian/Canadian couple the pair have had a fair amount of success and even recently went to Number 3 with "Human Factor" on the Scottish New Music charts. They have also been featured in a Rolling Stone Russia article and are collaborating with The Blog That Celebrates Itself Records.

As you may recall Ummagma are influenced by a lot of different music styles and both of their albums that were released last year, Ummagma and Antigravity, have an eclectic mix of sounds that stretch from shoegaze, to prog rock to ambient. "Human Factor" is a good example of variant sounds on the album, as the track has a slight psychedelic feel but does not lose any of the duo's dream pop signature style.

The music video was directed by graphic designer Dimitry Uziel, with the assistance of The Blog That Celebrates Itself, and features some trippy backward footage along with gymnasts performing in silhouette. Check it out above.

For more information on Ummagma you can check them out at their new website ummagma.com and don't forget that their albums are available for streaming on their bandcamp site. As well, watch out for a remix competition from the band in the coming weeks.

New Band- Ummagma

This is an update to an earlier post regarding the band Ummagma.

Last week I write a post about the emerging new Ukranian-Canadian band Ummagma. Admittedly, I wrote the piece after only listening to three songs. I have now found the time to listen to their two albums, and after hearing all of the various influences that their music has, I think that this couple deserve a little more attention.

Ummagma is a Ukranian-Canadian duo comprised of Alexander Kretov and Shauna McLamon. Both Shauna and Alexander share songwriting duties, while Shauna takes care of most of the vocals -with a couple of exceptions-and Alexander is responsible for the instrumentation and recording of the music.

Ummagma began as an affair of love and music in 2003 in Moscow which eventually grew into a musical partnership and loving marriage. They began making music together and set up their own home studio in Kiev, and through the years continued to upgrade their recording and studio equipment until last July when they released two debut albums, Ummagma and Antigravity

Ummagma's music has a lot of different influences including shoegaze, dream pop, indie rock and prog rock. The band are compared to an array of different bands including The Cocteau Twins, Blonde Redhead, Talk Talk, Lush and the Bowery Electric. After listening to the two albums, comparisons to Asobi Seksu (Lama), Peter Gabriel (BFD) and Exitmusic (Beautiful Moment) would not be unwarranted. Listen to all three songs below.

I was initially skeptical of all of the different musical styles on the albums, but came around after hearing how good the song-writing and production is. The songs musical styles run from highly texturized, to euphoric, ethereal, dreamlike and ambient to rhythmic and beat driven.

There a lot of bands that have made albums with varying influences that went on to become classics- I am thinking Girls self titled album and The Clash's London Calling. I am not saying Ummagma's albums are classics, but they are very good.

Listen to their debut albums Ummagma and Antigravity on bandcamp.

Other links for Ummagma:

Facebook
Twitter
Soundcloud
YouTube (which includes four music videos)