Daniel Avery's Gorgeous 'Ultra Truth' Dances Between Electronic Music and Pure Humanity
Plus, this week's Songs You Need to Hear Now playlist!
There’s no denying it’s a Tense Tuesday™, so I want to counter that with the most stupidly brilliant meme you’ll see on the internet this week:
I, of course, endorse every week’s playlist, but this one, in particular, is really fun to me. As we round into year-end lists, I include more of the electronic stuff you’ll probably see as some of my favorites of 2022, including Daniel Avery and HAAi’s “Bodies of Water” from Baby We’re Ascending. Also included are the latest and greatest singles from vets like Yo La Tengo and The Antlers, as well as awesome ones from My Idea, Julian Fulco Perron (both parts of the song are inseparable and must be played back to back!), Marci, Brothertiger, The Beths, and Angel Olsen.
Dig in!
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“‘Ultra Truth’ finds me in a different place to where I’ve been before. My previous albums have all focused on the idea of music being an escape or a distraction from the world but that’s not the case this time. For me this album is about looking directly into the darkness, not running away from it. There’s a way through these times but it involves keeping the important people in your life close to you and navigating the noise together. This is an intentionally heavy and dense album, the hooks often hidden in dusty corners. I’m no longer dealing in a misty-eyed euphoria. Ultra Truth is a distorted fever dream of a record: riled, determined and alive.”
- Daniel Avery on his stunning new album, ‘Ultra Truth.’
I often compliment records based on their escapism scalability set to max, but I appreciate the above quote when listening to Daniel Avery’s new electronic masterpiece, Ultra Truth. Recorded in a Thames-side studio, Ultra Truth is a journey through Avery’s mind that ebbs and flows with ideas born years ago, now reworked to offer a current snapshot of the producer.
A grooveable record with no interest in hanging at the club, for every floor-filling moment like “Wall of Sleep” that features newsletter new favorite HAAi offering heavenly vocals over synths and a skull-crushing foundation, there’s a slower, atmospheric comedown gives pause to the trek. Perhaps no song demonstrates this idea more than “Overflowing With Escape,” the auditory equivalent of being crushed by a wave under layers of compressed distortion. The listener is forced to confront the track’s heaviness, but there’s beauty in staying in the demanding moment.
Ultra Truth is one of those albums that skirts description, instead begging to be experienced with a fully devoted ear. Daniel Avery crafts a moment that gloriously combines electronic music with pure humanity. I’ve included two songs from the album on this week’s playlist as bookends to an auditory encounter - between the building atmosphere of the title track and the leftfield beauty of “Lone Swordsman,” it’s a sampler of the diversity of Ultra Truth, one of the year’s best electronic albums and well worth exploring.
"I often compliment records based on their escapism scalability..."
This is one of my barometers for sure. I don't care where we're going, but you gotta take me somewhere.
Loved the RR & PM video. The Daniel Avery stuff is gorgeous.