One of the longest-serving and most consistently intriguing artists within the fold of Phantasy, U returns to the label with another two-track trip of sonic mystery and erratic magic, ‘Parade/Watchers’.

Presented on limited-pressing 12” vinyl with a sleeve riso printed by U with London's Error Press.

With the texture and earthy promise of a psychedelic mulch, ‘Parade’ presents a glorious timelapse of acid-inflected minimalism. Unfolding defiantly at nearly fifteen minutes, U’s driving but subtle composition transports from guttural, electronic uncertainty to a wide-eyed denouement in one illusionary transition.

With inverse effect but no less power, ‘Watchers’ unexpectedly drops listeners into a rough wash of digital hardcore, spinning it’s initial warehouse chords into a collage of decay and regrowth, a nephilim-scaled journey and arguably U’s most ambitious production to date. More

Repress!
For their 7” debut on Where To Now? U mines the considerable depths of his MPC hard drive to present 3 snapshots of an artist shaking off their formative influences and commencing the journey to unexplored realms of the sampler’s universe.

'Junkies' has classical string stabs (that would later become a focal point on the sound of “Vienna Orchestra” (WTNLP05)) driven forth by dark, jazzy double bass licks, all shrouded in vinyl crackle and forced forward by a 2-step feel on the drums. It would have the essence of an early 2000s instrumental hip-hop track were it not for those drums shuffling off on a different tangent.

'Too Good For Me' toys more with the sampled nature of the music, throwing abrupt rewinds and record manipulation into a melange of rumbling industrial sounds led by a pulsing high-pitched melody. This is underpinned by a Bossa-styled beat that further unsettles the murky atmosphere of the track.

Finally 'Almost Man'’s exotic plucked strings and booming bass-heavy beat roll into snares in a marching rhythm that could reflect the march into the future for this unparalleled producer taking the lonely road to the outer edges of modern composition and electronic production. More

An infrequent but invigorating contributor to Phantasy, U returns with a beguiling new single entitled ‘Ecstasy’. Initially available as a limited pressing with a sleeve designed and printed by U themselves, this haunting return promises to draw the curious into two divine rhythms, transferring unknowable forces and mysterious energies. The first side of the artefact portrays ‘Ecstasy’, a wide-eyed and spectral incantation rich in intimacy, whispering voices and earthy psychedelia. Somewhere between machine funk and folk canticle, a sonic gift perhaps for a field in England bathed in moonlight, else a dire basement dripping in energy, ‘Ecstasy’ leaves the system almost spiritually. On the contrary, ‘Morpheus’ presents a tougher meditation, a creeping jam with an analogue consciousness, ghostly rave echoes and a conundrum at its heart. The dream seems so real, but what if you can’t wake from it after all? More

U is a producer and DJ currently living in London. Previous records for Man Make Music have proven suitable for the club as well as home listening, while a collaboration with Babe, Terror as BTU for Erol Alkan’s Phantasy label was varyingly described as “pleasure with a sense of dread” (The Line of Best Fit) and “akin to having five songs playing simultaneously on your computer” (The Guardian). 2014 saw U’s debut ‘Haven In A Heartfelt World’ EP described as "giddy electronic fuzz that packs the subtlest of punches descends into dense glitch noise then returns triumphant gritty and melodic” (Crack Magazine) and “distorted dreamstates” (Ransom Note). After the deranged chamber­edits of 'Vienna' for Where To Now?, U returns to the well­trodden path between flattery and irreverence in dance music with a special edition 2-­track 12" for Phantasy Sound. 'Friendly Ghost' enters with a splay of combat­bongos, a thin synthetic aura draws over the fluctuating rhythms before a strangely negative bassline sets the pace in nu­wave perpetual motion, inevitably spiraling back on itself into a clattering reversal. On the flip 'Ascension Hymn' rushes headlong into a mechanical shunter, abruptly dragged back by a frail and singular voice reciting an uncertain mantra of self­fulfilment over this blunted hardcore epic spanning 13 minutes. More

Little is known about the London-based producer and DJ who goes by the name of U, but that hasn’t quelled praise from bedroom heads, industry tastemakers and big name press alike. Audio arbiter George FitzGerald originally met U on a holiday in Greece and immediately commissioned a handful of 12”s, each brimming with trademark mechanical bliss, like pleasure tinged with menace. U has since gone on to release for Erol Alkan’s Phantasy Sounds (both as a solo artist and in collaboration with Babe, Terror as BTU), being given the nod by The Guardian, Mixmag and The Line of Best Fit. ThIs newest effort, an EP to be released on Technicolour this summer, takes that same flavour and concentrates it. In a past life, U was turned away from a prestigious Berlin club with the words “this is our place, we decide who comes in.” Spinning this dismissal into the release and leading track titles, U traverses different tempos and sonic swatches: the cavernous thump of techno lament“Our Place,” a hollowed orchestra of bric-a-brac on “Oma,” the tail-end of euphoria gently glowing on “Easy Prayer,” and a slow descent into the comedown as “Arcane Fantasy” fades out. Unlike picky doormen, We Decide Who Comes In ushers you straight through the door. More

The enigmatic U returns to ManMakeMusic for another limited run 10" of ethereal electronic excursions into the hinterlands of house.

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