The Road To Perdition City.

[Furious B]

I’ve been a huge fan of Ulver’s older style (Bergtatt, Kveldsanger, Nattens) for a long time and I neglected to check out their newer stuff because it wasn’t ‘metal’, especially when it has been described as being ‘techno’. Now, after falling in love with “Perdition City”, in hindsight, I feel like a nescient jackass. Anyways, I now love the atmosphere this album creates. I feel like driving around downtown Minneapolis amidst a rainstorm in the middle of night and just passing the sights as this album plays. It is a beautiful, yet somber album. I love it.

So my question is this, are all the newer albums (anything post Nattens-era) similar to this? I apologize in advance if this has been asked before. Also, if I could get a brief summary that would be great.

My last question is this: are their any other bands/albums similar to “Perdition City”?

 

[NAD]

Welcome to the post-Ulver world, long time no see!

All the post-Nattens follows in similar tradition, gradually getting simpler (as in more minimalist) ever since. Lyckantropen Themes in particular is extremely sparse. Perdition City is probably the best of the later period, but by no means are the others lacking in quality.

I've been listening to Antimatter a lot lately, rather similar stuff, and VERY good. Also some Future Sound of London, in particular Lifeforms and Dead Cities, two wonderful albums.

 

[Kveldssanger]

Everything after Perdition City follows variations of the same course, although lately they've added more glitch elements... Themes is an amazing album though not really similar to PC musically... Anyway I'd really suggest you try listening to some Coil if you want to listen to some great experimental electronic music...

 

[LuminousAether]

Get these albums:

Gridlock - Further
Gridlock - Trace

The first is a mixture of noise and ambient.
The second is a mixture of idm and ambient.
Beautiful, dark, and haunting music.

Beefcake - any album
Drei is the best, it is a 70+ minute wandering piece seperated into a bunch of tracks. Everything flows and it mixes more cinematic electronics with dnb and trip hoppy beats.

 

[Kveldssanger]

Scorn are also a good choice... Check their album Evanescence...

 

[NAD]

Here's a quick summary of the Ulver albums I did awhile ago:

William Blake scares me, but I love it. Long, drawn out, and overdone, but awesome. Masturbatory music at its finest.

Metamorphosis EP is my least favorite (too trance/dance for me), but has one of my favorite songs, Of Wolves and Withdrawal.

Perdition City will receive a 10/10 from me within a year or two (CDs must be in my collection for several years before I can grant them this honor... some very rare exceptions though).

The Silence EPs are not for everyone, but they sure are for me, I absolutely adore them. If you're looking for something more ambient than Perdition City, but not quiet minimalist like Lyckantropen, here ya go. Good luck finding them, unfortunately they are of very limited pressing.

Lyckantropen is great except the last track... the only not-so-great song they have done. Very minimalist, this is definitely a headphones album.

I have heard one song from their forthcoming EP, it sounds like Future Sound Of London to me, which is just fine since I'm a huge fan of them as well.

 

[LuminousAether]

After some thought, I realized another band that I think would definitely have some appeal to many Ulver fans. That band would be Haujobb. They started off similar to Skinny Puppy, but very quickly changed to a smoother, more idm / trip hoppy style of ebm that featured a very cinematic Blade Runnerish feel and it always makes me think of dark dystopian cyber futuristic scenarios. Get Solutions for a Small Planet, Ninety-nine, and Polarity... all are fantastic.

 

[Zoroaster]

What about Robert Fripp or David Sylvian?

 

[Julian Zembrowski]

I like Silencing the Singing as well. Darling Didn't we Kill you? sounds pretty lurid.

 

[The_Accolade]

william blake - metal style (and clean) guitars are mixed in. a lot of different moods here.. from relaxing to frantic. a lot of faster songs and a lot of slower songs.

silence teaches you to sing - perfect... my first ulver. its really wierd, nonsensical, but the musical experience is a trip. (destination? hell and back) its a few unconventional musical themes, tied together by strong elements of noise. you should listen to it there is nothing like it. the effect is a really gradual one. its also in my opinion ulver's most melodic stuff

svidd neger - i think this is cool. its mostly symphonic, kind of eerie... not very trip hop, not technical or wierd... noise is lacking. no vocals

lykantropen - totally depends on your mood. smoking pot in my car atop a mountain at 4 am... it scared the shit out of me, really trippy. going to bed the next night... just a distraction. this one is pretty techno... except it lacks enough drums to really be techno. no vocals

a quick fix of melancholy - really good and over the top, ties a lot of different things together, kind of the svidd neger thing, faster, more dramatic and complex, with vocals.

check stuff out... there is usually a time and a place for ulver's wierd ass music, i dont think you can go wrong

 

[Julian Zembrowski]

you should listen to it there is nothing like it. the effect is a really gradual one. its also in my opinion ulver's most melodic stuff

Yeah I wasn't really a fan of any of their ambient stuff really but the songs from those two albums (silencing the singing and silence teaches you how to sing) really brought out a weird atmosphere.

 

[Blue Moon]

Favorites in order are (I'm excluding Themes, 'cause I don't think it's really relevent to their new incarnation) :

1. Perdition City
2. Lyckantropen
3. Silencing the Singing
4. Silence Teaches You How to Sing
5. Svidd Neger
6. A Quick Fix of Melancholy
7. Metamorphosis

But they are still of very high quality.

Thanks for the Gridlock, beefcake and Scorn recommendations. I'll check this out for sure.