This is the debut mini-album from a Birmingham threesome who scream and wail whilst playing some heavily McLusky-influenced hardcore/post hardcore punk. They are signed to Tiger Trap Records, a new-ish small label created by a couple of former Drowned In Sound writers.

8 tracks and 16 minutes doesn’t turn out to be enough time for the band to fully grasp their own ideas and identity, unfortunately. UMP seem to be as much playing the best bits they’ve heard in other bands as playing something they’ve written themselves, the McLusky influence as heard in the bass work throughout the album and a particular guitar rhythm on “The A Minor Penatatonic Scale”, for instance. Or the cluster-fuck sound that Plot To Blow Up The Eiffel Tower trade in. Or the clearly stolen bass riff in “Endless Deodorant And Bad Shoes”, (Klaxons will want that back guys, it’s the best thing about “Gravity’s Rainbow”).

There are brief moments of UMP doing things themselves, such as the judiciously restrained use of screamed vocals to add variety every now and then. But for the most part UMP define themselves from the first track when they shout “We’ve heard it all/We’ve heard it all before” in “The People Versus Michael Miller”. By no means bad, after all the band do manage to be competent at what they’re doing, yet by no means special, this self-titled release holds some seeds for future development whilst failing to be particularly inspiring in itself.
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Links
Untitled Musical Project [myspace] [buy it]