ULTRASONIC GRAND PRIX – Instafuzz (Little Barrie & Shawn Lee) – LP – Black Vinyl

LP – Standard Edition Black Vinyl.

The story ofUltrasonic Grand Prixis one of two vintage 60s guitars and their owners – multi-instrumentalist / producerShawn Leeand guitar maestroBarrie CadoganofLittle Barrie.

I love my 1967 Vox Grand Prix guitar, declares multi-instrumentalist/producer Shawn Lee – creator, among other feats, of the soundtrack for Rockstar video game classicBully, and one half of Ultrasonic Grand Prix. It is a serious beast and an important part of my arsenal. Every tone you need

For guitar maestro Barrie Cadogan – of Nottingham Freakbeaters Little Barrie, best known for the main title theme of Better Call Saul,The The,Liam Gallagherand playing on the soundtrack forBaz Luhrmanns Elvis – it was the Vox Ultrasonic, also from the same period, that caught his eye. I first became interested in Vox guitars because of people who used them like Spacemen 3 and the James Brown band of the late 60s, he explains, but it was when I was part of a recording session at Anton Newcombes studio in Berlin that I had chance to get to know the Vox gear better. I was borrowing an Ultrasonic from a friend for a while and Shawn already had his Grand Prix. I thought it would be a good name for our project whenever we got it going.

Wed been talking for years about making some kind of record. Cadogan explains, but we were always being pulled in different directions with other commitments. Shawn got the ball rolling for real when lockdown happened, called me up and said, You know we keep talking about doing a record, well the time is now. Im so glad he did.

And the music that did emerge was weird, startling, and insatiably groovy. With one foot dipped in the organ-warbling garage of 60s psych, and the other vibrating in the mind-expanding fractals of the British Acid House boom, INSTAFUZZ plies the earthly quintessences of blues, rock, soul and jazz, against the preternatural discomforts of programmed drums and unhinged synthesisers to produce something distinctly and nostalgically futuristic.

Its a style that pays its debt to this project’s launch-pad inspiration, 2012s Personal Space compilation. A collection of underground U.S 45s from the late 70s and early 80s fittingly dubbed Electronic Soul – an appropriate descriptor, incidentally for these experiments from Ultrasonic Grand Prix.

With all the graininess of a documentary film compiled from bits and pieces of raw archive footage, INSTAFUZZ mashes various details and cuttings from its choice influences to invariably intriguing effects. The guitar twang-meets-intense synth of emphatic opener Seamoon Rising is The Limianas at The Haienda. At another extreme of the spectrum, Green Means Go drifts into the neo-psychedelic waters of The Soundcarriers or Vanishing Twin – hauntological, uncanny, cruising into the wonders of egoless delirium, suspicion and atemporal intrigue.

Tracklist:

Side A
1. Seamoon Rising
2. Instafuzz
3. Triple Denim
4. Green Means Go
5. Right Left
6. 96 Tiers

Side B
1. Slippery When Chet
2. Tin Wolf
3. A Guy Called Harold
4. Pop Eyes
5. 22 Years I Worked For This Guitar
6. King Condor