The Ultra Montanes

The Ultra Montanes went underground in Dublin for quite a long time before re-emerging earlier this year with the 'Dirty Blood Saved Our Town' EP, an EP which was highly acclaimed by many. It featured the excellent radio hit 'Sterilised', which is a great slice of guitar-punk pop from the gutter. Beyond that track, I found the rest of that EP a bit too immersed in a grunge-punk crossover for my tastes, although it does have some other good moments, with the energy in 'Speedwalker' for one being very hard to resist. Full-length free MP3 downloads of all the tracks from that EP are now available from their official website.


Already back in the studio following the release of that EP, they also have two of their more recent recordings free to download from their website; 'This Party' and 'Illuminated'. With these two they have shed a lot of the excessive grunge-punk tendencies purveyed on the EP. There are Bowie influences shining through to the surface at times now too, and in 'This Party', an unmistakable Placebo leaning. These newer demos are deliciously addictive indie-guitar-pop songs, and for me a massive improvement from most of the material on the 'Dirty Blood Saved Our Town' EP. In these, more than ever before, I feel they achieve to show nods of appreciation to the sounds of 70s rock while still retaining that overall sound which has been described before as 'sickeningly modern'.

Related Links:

http://theultramontanes.com

http://www.myspace.com/theultramontanes

http://artists.cpu.ie//bands/1175