I first caught Ulrika Spacek live as a support act back in 2016. I had no prior knowledge of their work but as soon as they launched into their debut album centrepiece Beta Male I pretty much needed scraping off of the venue floor. Since then their work has evolved across three albums and an EP, a heady, intoxicating mix of urgent artrock and motorik-esque indie mixed with moments of gentle ambient beauty.
London’s Lafayette is certainly a pretty venue. There’s an initial wow factor that gives way to a slight awkwardness as you work your way around its various twists and turns in an attempt to find a good view and feel of the action. Ultimately though, to my well weathered ears the sound itself is spot on and that is always the main thing.
This gig is a homecoming show, wrapping up a successful tour around Europe and the UK in support of latest album Compact Trauma, and the band hit the ground running from the off. Ulrika Spacek’s sound is uniquely powerful but never aggressive, with a triple guitar set up that still somehow leaves space for the rhythms and electronics to flourish. They are tight, controlled and let the songs themselves do the heavy lifting. There is no need for histrionics when the work is this strong, this important.
On the night the band play songs from across their back catalogue, which brings into sharp focus the sheer consistency of their brilliance. Everything, All The Time is relentless in its white heat energy, Freudian Slip brings an almost Can-like fluidity in its extended grooves, and the stunning If The Wheels Are Coming Off, The Wheels Are Coming Off is a heavy, stuttering juggernaut that pummels with both grace and raw power. They link these songs with short incidental passages that have the audience poised perfectly, waiting for the next beat to drop, to be taken somewhere higher, somewhere better for a little while.
The set finishes with recent single No Design, which provides one of those life affirming moments when time itself seems incredibly short and vital, and every bit of love and hope inside yourself screams to be let out into the light, regardless of fear or consequence. I shall leave you with the closing lyrics of that most beautiful of endings, and recommend that you catch this band as soon as you possibly can.
Passing into night
Blanket me and tell me there’s no design
And if all the world is broken
Then hide away in autumn
And shut out the fascists and the cowards.
Compact Trauma out now via Tough Love.
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