U → Life Isn't A Fountain // Hollow Earth

Life Isn’t A Fountain? is the debut EP on Lex Records from the music based concept artist U. Out November 22nd.

New track “Hollow Earth” is the closest thing to a ballad on the cohesive set of recordings that make up Life Isn’t A Fountain?. With a skyward reaching vocal that yearns and stretches to soar over the shape shifting musical cosmos below, U creates an ethereal sound akin to Bjork + Cocteau Twins. “Hollow Earth” is accompanied by a visualiser created by Eric Timothy Carlson and Aaron Anderson.

Oblique questions-as-statements open and close this substantial 8-track extended player. Presented as isolated non-sequiturs they hint at the discomforted state of mind U is thematically presenting in these pieces. Channeling acts of resistance over decades and the cumulative effects of policing protest on the nation’s psyche. The outer fringes of British post-punk, new wave, progressive rock and all of the minute offshoots that sprang from this era is the fascination that inspired the cohesive collection of recordings for Life Isn’t A Fountain? A time when recorded material was abundant and yet abandoned.

Focus track “Broken Pillar” pivots an ambient soundscape against a chugging bass drum and hi hats. It evolves to the brink of catharsis as its ethereal grime meets honking free jazz saxophones. U has traced these threads through his record collection and exhumed a wealth of source material to alter into this intriguing reflection on the peripheries of society and pop music, designed to portray a sense of gleeful mental imbalance teetering on the edge of hysteria.

Previous releases by U have been snapped up by imprints such as ManMakeMusic, Where To Now?, Phantasy and Technicolour to intrigue, applause and acclaim. U’s output genuinely defies categorisation. Slotting into the broad genre classifications of techno, hip-hop and experimental electronica while never fully pledging allegiance to any.

Artwork and design by NY based interdisciplinary artist Eric Timothy Carlson.

Listen → Hollow Earth
Order → Life Isn't A Fountain?