Seattle, Washington may be famed for its contributions to grunge when talking about alternative music, but there’s more to the Emerald City than miserable vocals and despondent guitar tones…sometimes other genres are allowed to raise their, UGLYHEAD if you will? Yes Uglyhead are the brainchild of sound engineer / producer Jake Alejo, and while in their formative years (With Jake being the primary member using only session / backing musicians for certain shows) they only really got airplay on late night college radio shows, it wasn’t too long before he got picked up by Automation Records for his 2007 debut. With more label backing, some additional EP’s and even finding a soundtrack placement on “Greg Hasting’s Paintball 2” for Wii, Xbox and PS3, he soon gained more and more momentum. 2019 finds Jake continuing on his path of noise experimentation with the brand new EP entitled “Disembodied” (Scheduled for release April 26th), collaborating with PIG / JULIEN-K percussionist Galen Walling…let’s check it out…
The EP opens up with a double-barrelled head-fuck of “Here But Not Here” and “There But Not There”…the former offering a light, synth-driven lead countering off-kilter programming and percussion over some raspy, manipulated vocals. The tone is dark despite the subtle joviality of the electronica as he sings of ghostly apparitions, and it’s quite the creepy opener, while the latter transitions into some vocal distortion and an up-tempo instrumental fill. There’s a lot more urgency to this track and you get more of a feel for the industrial influences…some of the wailing is hard to differentiate from twisted sampling, with the dark dub elements and a certain EDM vibe, blended well with gothic techno. Overall a decent if not expected start…
The title track then takes on a much more, sinister, subdued pace as it skulks along sounding as if musically trapped somewhere between vaudevillian MARILYN MANSON and early ORGY aesthetically…the hypnotic tones allowing for the conceptual outer-body experience as is the theme of the EP, and while not the most entertaining of tracks musically, it’s moody and atmospheric in its own right, and really wouldn’t feel out of place on one of “The Crow” soundtracks. Sadly then we’re given “Too Real For Love” and it’s here the EP starts to struggle on the home stretch…over seven minutes long, the deeply foreboding synths can only maintain their aura for so long and it’s not long before this track seems to just drone on miserably, until closing track “The Funhole” (I’m not even kidding) literally takes up the arse-end of the EP; another slow, off-key pulsing piece of warbling electronica, and echoed, barely discernible vocals.
Jake may have aimed for transcendence with his blend of deep alternative techno, but his proposed outer-body experience sadly stays very much within the confines of your skull, resulting in a headache upon sitting through the whole EP. Things started off really quite promisingly, all things considered with this genre of music, but the last two tracks sadly leak one out the aforementioned funhole and soil the EP. Regardless of what the opening tracks suggest, unless you're a fan of say, ALIEN SEX FIEND for example, it’s neither here OR there. [3]
The EP opens up with a double-barrelled head-fuck of “Here But Not Here” and “There But Not There”…the former offering a light, synth-driven lead countering off-kilter programming and percussion over some raspy, manipulated vocals. The tone is dark despite the subtle joviality of the electronica as he sings of ghostly apparitions, and it’s quite the creepy opener, while the latter transitions into some vocal distortion and an up-tempo instrumental fill. There’s a lot more urgency to this track and you get more of a feel for the industrial influences…some of the wailing is hard to differentiate from twisted sampling, with the dark dub elements and a certain EDM vibe, blended well with gothic techno. Overall a decent if not expected start…
The title track then takes on a much more, sinister, subdued pace as it skulks along sounding as if musically trapped somewhere between vaudevillian MARILYN MANSON and early ORGY aesthetically…the hypnotic tones allowing for the conceptual outer-body experience as is the theme of the EP, and while not the most entertaining of tracks musically, it’s moody and atmospheric in its own right, and really wouldn’t feel out of place on one of “The Crow” soundtracks. Sadly then we’re given “Too Real For Love” and it’s here the EP starts to struggle on the home stretch…over seven minutes long, the deeply foreboding synths can only maintain their aura for so long and it’s not long before this track seems to just drone on miserably, until closing track “The Funhole” (I’m not even kidding) literally takes up the arse-end of the EP; another slow, off-key pulsing piece of warbling electronica, and echoed, barely discernible vocals.
Jake may have aimed for transcendence with his blend of deep alternative techno, but his proposed outer-body experience sadly stays very much within the confines of your skull, resulting in a headache upon sitting through the whole EP. Things started off really quite promisingly, all things considered with this genre of music, but the last two tracks sadly leak one out the aforementioned funhole and soil the EP. Regardless of what the opening tracks suggest, unless you're a fan of say, ALIEN SEX FIEND for example, it’s neither here OR there. [3]
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