Catalogue Number:CSRT009
Wow, this is a special one. Let’s start with the B-side, because ‘Awesome’ which leads seamlessly into ‘Eternity’, are the tracks I heard first. They were in fact the first Ultra-Sonic tracks I’d heard, period. I was in 3rd year at school and a friend lent me half of his ear-phones and played this on cassette. I leaned in with my head at an angle, and through the muffled, distorted Mega-Bass heard something absolutely extraordindary.
It started with a few seconds of what sounded like a hyper crowd then a voice I now know as that of Joe Deacon, MC and DJ at ‘The Metro’ in Saltcoats but at that stage in my life might as well have been God himself. ‘Right now, we’re loud and proud…put your hands together make some noise…for Ultra-Sonic!’
There was a rhythm and energy to the way he spoke that got me hooked straight away. The next voice, was Mallorca Lee’s. ‘OK…we’re coming live in the place to be…(kick drum..), ‘come on!’, ‘whoosh’ sound effect and into the blistering hook of the track.
What on earth was this? I’d never heard anything like it. This is one of the simplest, most basic dance tracks I’d ever heard. It’s rough, raw, sounds cheap..and is absolutely irresistible. I’m going to attempt to break down what’s going on but you really just have to listen to it.
What we have here are 2 young guys from Ayrshire grabbing the whole rave scene by the horns and dragging themselves to the top with sheer brute force and energy. What US understood, better than anyone else at the time, was the audience. They’re not trying to make music here as much as they’re simply living their lives on vinyl. It’s not restricted by genre it’s about being young and loving life and wanting to make the most of it. As the track progresses and Mallorca hypes the crowd in the way only he can, we hear that pure, unfiltered, relentless energy of youth which found a home and a direction in the Scottish rave scene. Mallorca’s talents have been quite rightly highlighted over the last 12 months or so since his diagnosis and very sad passing. But he was always clear that this, and all Ultra-Sonic songs were a team effort. Bandmate Rodger Hughes and producer Andy Haldane were integral to the sound and success of these songs. Much has been made of Mallorca’s wonderful and abundant personality but these songs work because of the 3 of them.
The track bounces along wildly with Mallorca at times struggling to control his energy and enthusiasm but always hitting his cues and working perfectly in sync with the beat and other elements of the record. Whether this truly was a live recording isn’t really relevant. It sounds as if it is, but they never said so, which makes me believe it wasn’t. And I guess that makes it even more outstanding!
Head onto YouTube and you’ll hear several recordings of this track being performed at live PAs and you’ll realise that the version on this release truly does justice to what the band were serving up at events all over the country at this time. It’s incredible that they’ve been able to re-create that so perfectly on record. There’s some really clever work going on with the drums. Stopping and starting, building tension, taking the listener on a journey and of course Mallorca is yakking in and around every beat. It’s a pretty sparse track but every element matters and has a big impact. It’s not often you hear a piece of music where you’re genuinely fascinated as to what might happen next.
As ‘Awesome’ comes to a halt, there’s a brief respite for a few seconds of that manic, stadium sized crowd noise before Mallorca says ‘You’re looking good out there..’. My friend sharing the earphone at school jumps excitedly and tells me ‘this next one will blow your mind..’. I brace myself as the fast, high pitched piano of ‘Eternity’ begins and the synth chords swell in the background. Mallorca has calmed down slightly, telling the audience he wants to know if they’re having a good time. It seems critically important to him that they are. I now know, right up until his dying day, it truly was. From the noise, the crowd seem in such rapture they couldn’t answer him even if they wanted to.
The tension ramps up higher and higher as Mallorca asks for hands in the air, that manic piano is still going and I can see in my friend’s eyes that something immense is coming. ‘This is the sound…of Ultra-Sonic’. There’s now a shiver down my spine and I’m starting to think ‘yes, maybe, I can do something with my life. Maybe I can make my dreams come true, maybe it’ll all be OK..something has changed…yes, I believe.’
I’m starting to think the release might never come. I’m going to be stuck forever in some perpetual tension building frenzy. Now Mallorca wants us to raise our hands to the roof and my friend is actually doing it. Now I am too. Jesus, aren’t we supposed to be in school?
‘JUST JUMP TO THE BEAT C’MON!!!’ – holy shit it’s on. I’ve never felt so good. My friend and I are jumping and the headphone lead connecting us stretches too far. My earphone pops out and I’m on the ground, scrambling around trying to put it back in but my friend’s jumping so I can’t get it! Eventually he leans down so I can put it back in and now we’re crouching on the floor, bouncing like frogs while Mallorca goes manic and that piano goes round and round.
‘Is everybody ready…some noise..let me see ya, that’s right let me see ya’..and then ‘watch out for your mind’, perfectly timed right up to the female vocal sample which kicks in, pitched up so it sounds as though a celestial angel is providing guest vocals on a Clubscene Records release. That’s the high point for me. The explosion, the absolute peak of what music can be. Absolutely life changing. And when I listen now, more than 30 years on, I feel the same. Songs like this are a big part of the reason I’ve never gone near drugs and hardly drink. I simply can’t imagine feeling any better. When he screams ‘watch out for your mind’, I actually do think something fundamentally changed in me.
The ‘I never felt this way’ vocal is the perfect bridge into the final part of the song, where the bass drum gets harder and everything ramps up to an incredible crescendo. Finally, it stops, although that crowd noise continues and Mallorca goes out with a compliment and warning…’You’re looking good out there, but we haven’t even started yet’. He was right.
Back to reality, breathless and trying to come to terms with what I’d just heard, it was off to Standard Grade history class.
But a few weeks later my aunt and uncle would take me on a late night trip to Tower Records in Glasgow, and there it was. On 12″ vinyl, ‘The Pulse’ by Ultra-Sonic. Of course I bought it, the first Clubscene product I ever purchased and I also picked up my first copy of the Clubscene fanzine which, along with M8 Magazine would become my essential guide to everything that was going on in the Scottish dance and rave scene.
It was the A side, ‘The Pulse’ that showed me there was a lot more to Ultra-Sonic than wild, out of control party anthems. What we have here is a very credible, deep, trance/techno track. A wonderful, hypnotic vocal from Julie Lepic. Mallorca and that mad piano sound are nowhere in sight. This song takes its time. It also features a ‘T minus 10 seconds’ space launch countdown sound. A pounding bass drum and hi-hat, and pulsing, techno bleeps. It’s catchy as hell and has a really nice breakdown section in the middle with sounds I’d never heard before. Listen from 1’49 – 2’15 and you’ll see that not only do Ultra-Sonic have a frontman in the shape of Mallorca that can hype people into a frenzy; not only do they use the rave standards like a manic piano and a crowd sample to achieve the desired effect, they can also do it by turning the knobs on what I assume is a Roland 303.
Another nice breakdown from 2’45 where the drums all stop and the song opens up and then from 3’42 a euphoric, trance like vocal from Julie – ‘it’s a feeling and a rhythm that makes us move our body’. Just brilliant. It’s a relaxation tape and an energiser all in one 6 and a half minute journey. I love the breakbeat drums right at the end as well.
This 12″ release will always have a very special place in my heart. It’s an absolutely incredible record made by 3 guys working together with the purest of intentions and doing the absolute best they could with what they had available at that time. In the process, they’ll have changed countless lives and brought tens of thousands of people together.
Thank you guys.