Ultramarine

London and Essex-based UK duo Ian Cooper and Paul Hammond; formed in 1989. Cooper & Hammond were both former members of the band A Primary Industry.

Ultramarine's early releases were issued on the Brussels-based label Les Disques du Crépuscule and by Brainiak Records, a label affiliated to label 2481919, an early purveyor of regular House music nights in Soho, London. Their debut album [r=32318] was issued by Crépuscule in 1990. Their classic second album [r=201342] was initially released on Brainiak in 1991 and given a wider audience with the release of an expanded edition on Rough Trade (UK) in 1992. The album was neatly described by Simon Reynolds in his book Energy Flash as:

Perhaps the first and best stab at that seeming contradiction-in-terms, pastoral techno... all sun-ripened, meandering lassitude and undulant dub-sway tempos... like acid-house suffused with the folky-jazzy ambience of the Canterbury scene.