Beach Sloth

                Ullbasunen are full of giddy energy. ‘Action Force’ sound heavily edited of any negative energy. What remains is the structure of happy little tracks. Sound-wise Ullbasunen has not changed but the attitude appears to mix their two previous EPs into a full sound. Like their first album they possess a great deal of energy and like their second it is rather heavily based on near-broken grooves. Actually this EP combines those two albums and creates an album energetic but not overly so, catchy while still danceable. In fact parts of this EP come across a little bit differently than what they’ve done in the past. 

                ‘The Arashikage Clan’s Family Picnic’ sounds about as silly as one would expect from Ullbasunen, cheerful, repetitive with a simple melody holding it together. ‘Billy after the car accident but before the bullets’ is about as bizarre as the title indicates. Here an extraordinarily basic beat goes on as a sample of a horse’s bray is distorted beyond almost all recognition. Eventually Ullbasunen overwhelms it with various effects and other levels of weird. On ‘Snow Job’ Ullbasunen loses the previous abrasiveness for a sweet melody. ‘Wet Suit’ takes this impulse even further. Indeed ‘Wet Suit’ explores a more reflective mood, something alien to Ullbasunen. It shows a sense of growth, of maturity to the Ullbasunen. This may be the best track on the whole little EP. 

                ‘Action Force’ shows growth in the young Ullbasune life span. While it retains its initial, loveable impish impulse it slowly moves towards a more mature sound.