Ultra Sunn
The Beast In You
Artoffact Records
Ultra Sunn’s new album The Beast In You occupies an interesting if somewhat uncomfortable place in the Belgian duo’s burgeoning discography. Where the duo originally emerged during the explosion of electro-darkwave characterized by Boy Harsher soundalikes, Sam Huge and Gaelle Souflet soon distinguished themselves via their callbacks to their homeland’s classic EBM and new beat sounds, and Huge’s distinctive baritone vocals. Their first proper album, 2024’s US, split the difference between the easy club appeal of their earliest releases, and their larger ambitions. In contrast, that record’s follow-up pushes the Ultra Sunn even further into unfamiliar musical territory, but often without the hooks or the musical ideas to put songs over the top.
It’s a two-fold issue; on the one hand it often feels like the band fall back on their tried and true approaches to sound design and rhythm in ways that don’t necessarily work for their new songs, and on the other there’s simply a lack of easy hooks and memorable melodies, previously one of their great strengths. Take for example a late album cut like “Guardian of Your Dreams”; there are plenty of interesting choices in the use of ghostly background vocals, metallic percussion touches and blocky lead that pops up midway through, but it’s dragged down by an overly forceful bassline that could have been transplanted from any number of their other cuts, and has a chorus that lays flat without providing any change up in dynamics or structure. In contrast, “Fever and Denial” takes their distinctive rhythm programming and weds it to a baroque synthpop number, a promising idea that fizzles due to its half-hearted melody and inability to shift into a more dramatic gear when it counts.
This is not to say that The Beast in You is all bad; there are certainly moments where it feels like Ultra Sunn have dialed in both the songwriting, design and production perfectly. “Fluorescent Sun” does away with Ultra Sunn’s standard bass sound in favour of a gated buzz, accompanied by quavering pads and some effective drum programming, with Huge’s considerable vocal presence punching through the mix. Similarly, “You Came With a Blade” goes hard with a very forward synth hook that the band torture mercilessly via wandering pitch, so when it falls away to allow for Huge to croon along a simple bed of synth strings, the effect is striking, especially when it all comes together for the climactic outro.
The promise of the latter songs suggests that the quick turnaround between albums may be to blame for this record’s lesser moments, although the truth will be on what happens for Ultra Sunn next. Given their prolific output, it may not be long before we find out if the band’s grander ideas and songwriting have aligned, in the interim there’s a handful of solid numbers that should hold the attention of those who have been tracking Ultra Sunn’s progress over recent years.
