Pete Um
No Pressure

A Norman Records recommendation (7th August 2008)

This record left our BRIAN D feeling ecstatic.

Pete Um is a right mentalist. He does that whole bubbling, woozy electronic soundscape/ seriously bent electronic thing with warped absurdist poetry spread over the top like thick weird aural word gravy. This is dance music for people who have pink rubber furniture & sport 70s porn 'taches without an hint of irony. 'No Pressure' it's called is this album and i'm suitably impressed. Junk shop electronica from a one man mind mental, there's some seriously barmy, disjointed vibes bouncing around in these bendy but catchy grooves. John Callahan, early Baby Bird, Wevie Stonder, Felix Kubin & Manchester's wonderful Superqueens are handy reference points. For such an eccentric slab of vinyl, there's much satisfaction to be had from repeated listens. With the current electronica world caught in some kind of strange purist rut, either minimal techno or (yawn) dubstep being the choice of many a backpacking uber spod, I think the time is nigh for the new wave of whirring odd-hop and downtempo gibbercore. Lovely warm production with a very human & quirky feel, you get a mix of playful electro, ambient snippets, stagger-beats, voice manipulation, wayward mogadon-techno and a vast array of beguiling electronic noises. This remarkable album could even work as the modern equivalent of a radiophonic workshop experiment, there's some smart little tunes on here, my faveourite being 'Holy Fire' (Candie Hank remix). If you yearn for something a little different and individual then this vinyl shoulkd be in your bag. A highly inventive chap indeed! Ltd to 350 for the world, in a well colourful sleeve, inc lyric insert on the pioneering label, Gagarin

No-one has reviewed No Pressure by Pete Um yet. Give us your opinion.

What their label says...

If one reads this record’s press-release, one can only shake one’s head in wonder. Pete Um, claiming to be more un-musician than musician, fiddled around on this new music for more than 7 years and in this time brought out an album with just 35 minutes in length, but which has 18 songs. But, cockeyed as this picture is, it fits the psychedelic kind of music - and even un-music - which one gets to hear on “No Pressure”.

“Sometimes, when the north wind blows, you have to turn your back to the south.”

Pete has already recorded a great deal of music, albeit on limited CD-Rs at home or on vinyl. However, his heart always belongs to the tape recorder - thus his early recordings would always go the lo-fi route, he made music just for himself and was too shy to admit to anyone that was his dream to make music. In 1996 he finally got himself a computer and matters got considerably more serious.

And so the actual record “No Pressure” is now one of these umpteen thousand recordings. What number it is in the list of official recordings can’t really be worked out from the complete discography. However, what is clear is this: he’s been making music for a long time, and one notices it. Pete knows what he’s doing, even if it isn’t accessible always or for everyone.

The music is a long way away from lo-fi; almost perfect recordings, diverse sound experiments and distorted vocals are the results, among other things. If it’s necessary to find a category for unidentifiable music, then one would file this somewhere between minimal electro, experimental, freak folk and psychedelic. Computer genertated music which doesn’t skimp on melody but never takes the direct route.

And then there’s the length of the tracks. At the start of the record there’s still proper songs, fractionally over 3 minutes in length, with lyrics and the whole business. And then, in the middle of the record: 3 songs, none longer than a minute, one experimental sound lined up after the next, the creation of confusion as a deliberate device. All that just to bring back order with the next track and almost churn out a ballad. That’s the way it is in many places on the album, as the number of tracks and the total length will explain. His experimentation does credit to his self-promotion.

Of course it fits in with this scheme that the vocals are only set in the background and often distorted. But then when one catches one of the tatters, there’s no skimping on the wisdom and the pain of life.

“See, nobody lives forever
and nobdy ever is free.”

All in all with “No Pressure” one has an album, which surely won’t appeal to everyone. A certain openness and a weakness for experimental electronic music is a necessity. And Pete doesn’t want to use force, that much it says in the title. But get involved with Mr Um, he’s delivered a truly polished album - you don’t get seven years’ worth of work from nothing!

Other customers buying No Pressure also bought:

3 Field Rotation by Fuxa
(Double LP, £9.99 - sorry, sold out.)

Electrosonic by Delia Derbyshire/ Brian Hodgson/ Don Harper.
(CD, £11.79 - sorry, sold out.)

I Sleep by Cheval Sombre
(7", £5.99 - sorry, sold out.)

Fajar Di Atas Awan by Suarasama
(CD, £11.99)

Commits Suicide EP by Fuxa
(CD, £7.99)

Fill in the form if you would like more info about this item.