
The momentum growing around Pete Lawrie Winfield's Until The Ribbon Breaks project continues to swell. With every concert, every remix and every new release, I'm seeing more and more positive reaction online and the feeling that UTRB is on the verge of breaking through in a big way hangs in the air. A Taste Of Silver was my favorite EP of 2013 and I haven't been this addicted to a new act in a long time.
Now a three piece band with the additions of Elliot Wall and James Wolujewicz, Until The Ribbon Breaks have unleashed a second EP that combined with their first, would make Album of the Year material. The great news is that a full length is expected later this year, tentatively in August. There is certainly already plenty of first class material to choose from between A Taste Of Silver and this new EP, The Other Ones.
The fact that the song "A Taste Of Silver" starts this EP out is a bit of a running joke. Yes, it was the title of the first EP but did not appear on it. Well, the band also has a song called "The Other Ones" and it does not appear on this release named after it either. But that just gives us something further to look forward to. What I have admired as much as anything about Until The Ribbon Breaks is the versatility in the music and the refusal to be pigeonholed in a particular musical style. This EP is a microcosm of that as you get bits of funk, soul, electronic, hip-hop, infectious dance tracks and gorgeous ballads, all spread across the four songs.
"A Taste of Silver" is a funky banger, showcasing Lawrie Winfield's falsetto. "Spark" directs you straight to the dance floor with what appears to be an autobiographical lyric summing up Lawrie Winfield's musical journey. As I mentioned in my review of A Taste Of Silver, he previously released an album and some EP's under Pete Lawrie that saw him in a more folk-pop, singer-songwriter mode that screamed of a record company trying to make him into something he wasn't. It's obvious he has found his musical calling with the Until The Ribbon Breaks project, and music aficionados are better off for it.
Yes, there is a track here called "Until The Ribbon Breaks" and it's lovely, a somber electronic ballad which literally seems to break apart before building back up complete with a background choir and electronic strings. This time the jaw dropper for me is "Goldfish," an electronic soul track which opens with echoed lines from the first EP's "Pressure" before the song fully kicks in with haunting female backing vocals and an impassioned performance from Lawrie Winfield. Even with head bobbing worthy beats, it's a gorgeously melodic song, the highlight of another flawless EP from one of the most exciting new music acts out there right now.
Favorite tracks: "Goldfish", "Spark"
The Other Ones was released as a digital download only on March 25th, 2014 via the Casablanca Records label.
Official Website of Until The Ribbon Breaks
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Purchase The Other Ones from Amazon.com
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