Recent Ultimae Records

[abasio]

 

Ultimae was one of those labels that I blind bought from for years. I have everything until around Cell - Onwards System in 2022 however a lot of the later releases didn't hit me like their old stuff did.

I thought at the time what I still think now, not that Ultimae went downhill, but I went downhill. 

The last 10 years of my life has been a busy old time in this head of mine. Family, work, health, etc. have all blocked me from my natural state of being - relaxed, focused, chilled.

Pre-marriage and kids, it was easy to just sit down, put on a CD and sink into it. I could listen to the ambientest of ambient and still appreciate all the nuance. It was, a good time.

I'm recently in possession of the occasional span of time where I am being left alone. For this, I bought myself some new headphones, HE100SE, which are renowned for exceptional detail retrieval, and above all for my my purposes, a massive soundstage. I also bought a CD with an amp that'd enough to drive them properly (although they are easy to drive as I didn't want to spend so much money on headphones only to have to spend twice as much again with a monster amp to make them actually work)

Anyway, my new set up has given me a new appreciation for music.

- the headphones to really sink into the music effortlessly

- the CD player to make me choose and album and commit to it 

 

So, I feel now is the time to rediscover Ultimae, what albums over the last 10 years (even better if it's pre-2022 as I probably still own it) is the best. What should I play next?

 

Sub question - how are you currently feeling about music? How do you play it? Streaming, digital downloads, CDs still? Vinyl? Cassettes? 

[psytones]

I think the «releasing 24Bit vs 16Bit as 24Bit releases is an knowingly and unknowing FOMO marketing BS scheme» question is fascinating and likely, actually important. Zenon Records used to do as Ultimae and release both 16 and 24bit versions (on Bandcamp), but after a recent enough chat …they actually stopped and continued with only quality 16bits. I personally do not know the truth on this and true width when it comes to enlarged bit and it’s room of movement possibilities, …the Aas Dana’s ‘Inks’ album is a deep grooves gem of a record. Beautiful, varied in it’s digging-it style, and bass stylish as yum! I bought it at release day or so, and bragged about how amazing it sounds to oCeLoT, and from there started to get educated and more aware of it’s FOMO ——& much possible scheme. Files are large, which must be stored and transferred. 

NB. Producing in 24 or let’s say 32 Bit, is not Releasing, with or without Mastering. Tho’ for worldwide listening Mastered tracks is an important lamination ———🎼 Vince surely knows his stuff, so does Aaron. But when for the enlightening possible fun I wrote to him about it but his answers did not actually answer anything posed. As it was a light conversation he didn’t  I did not push him furter into it  
 

~ personally I do not check out Ultimae’s  cat.# as frequently as before but their always there in mind and through my speakers from time to time.  As with you the seldom recent visits to their page hasn’t left me hungry for more and to buy - tho’ I’m anyway ATM practicing celibacy on buying music (u c I get trigger happy). 
 

Sub A.; I use BC, free Spotify (maybe buy subscription once or so a year ..), YT rarely, SC rarely as well, M-X more often. And as I’m selling all my physical music collection, I’m in a slow process of going iver to ‘’mp3’’ player. Man, $-) have you seen these upgraded iPods with large enough SD, and BT if want? So sexy. And expensive …..unless you have one and manage (…..) to fix it’s upgrade yourself. For me such a beast is out of prioritised :-€ reach so I went with a nice cheaper alternative for present being. File of choice after all I gather, is FLAC (16bit) ..