A Primary Industry - Ultramarine

Paul Hammond and Ian Cooper made a name for themselves in the 90s as Ultramarine, releasing five albums of "pastoral techno" music. Before Ultramarine, they recorded as A Primary Industry (with three additional members), releasing a few singles and compilation tracks and one full-length LP entitled Ultramarine. You can definitely hear the seeds of Ultramarine (the band) in A Primary Industry, but many tracks have a more raw and lively sound, influenced by UK post-punk funk bands such as A Certain Ratio, Pigbag, and 23 Skidoo (props to Burl Veneer for spotting some particularly heavy "influencing"), and still others fall solidly into shoegaze territory. Their contributions helped make Rob Deacon's Sweatbox one of the best UK labels of the 80s; other acts on the roster included The Anti Group, Perennial Divide/Meat Beat Manifesto, and In the Nursery. Inexplicably, Ultramarine has never been reissued, so I hope to bring more attention to this lost minor classic with a vinyl rip, here or here.