PREMIERE: Makeunder’s Stunning New Album, Pale Cicada

Photo Credit: Ginger Fierstein

One of the most unique and interesting artists working relatively below the radar is Oakland’s Hamilton Ulmer who records as Makeunder. Dedicated GroundSounders may remember our interview with him around the release of the wonderfully animated video for his single “Great Headless Blank” and now Makeunder is readying the release of its debut album, Pale Cicada, out everywhere tomorrow. We’re happy to be bringing you an advance stream of the LP below.

One run through Pale Cicada will knock you off your feet; or ears. Two, three, etc more and the depths of Ulmer’s brilliant sonic world will yield new and invigorating brush strokes to spark your own imagination. It’s hard to believe this album is the vision of one person.

Invision opening a box with fireworks, streamers and confetti exploding out into the sky and watching the resulting slow fall to the ground. That only begins to scratch the surface of the feeling you get when diving into Pale Cicada.

The latest from Makeunder runs the gamut of styles, taking Ulmer’s classical background and juxtaposing it against modern rock, pop and R&B sounds. Single “In Between My Dead-End Jobs” is a relentless funk banger that calls to mind a marriage of Stevie Wonder and Talking Heads while “Ringing Chord” and “I’m Still Living Wrongly” offer Ulmer’s most straightforward balladry to date.

What more can we say? Listen to Pale Cicada look for the album out at midnight on Good Eye Records here.