Ultimate Painting - Dusk

Rating:

'Dusk' suggests Hoare and Cooper may yet paint their masterpiece.

If their debut was a defiantly analogue set from a pair of songwriters taking time off their day jobs, 2015's 'Green Lanes' expanded Ultimate Painting’s horizons a little, while remaining tape-driven and determinedly DIY.

One year on, the duo of James Hoare (Veronica Falls) and Jack Cooper (Mazes) return with 'Dusk'. Appropriately, it's a darker, grander record than they've made so far: rich, heady but melodic; as 'Portrait of Jason' says, there's always "a light on, filament buzzing in the glass".

The bigger sound is obvious right from the metronomic thrum of 'Bills', as voices weave around guitar shimmer and droning bass. Drummer Melissa Rigby works wonders, her nimble fills adding spark to the motorik rhythm here and holding the psych-pop jangle of 'Song for Brian Jones' together. Cooper and Hoare's writing styles seem to have gelled too, and the result sounds more band than side-project.