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, an early purveyor of regular House music nights in Soho, London. Their debut album was issued by Crépuscule in 1990. Their classic second album 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 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.