Ulrika Spacek - EXPO

Has life always been this claustrophobic? On ‘EXPO’, Ulrika Spacek experiment with electronics and warp their trademark psychedelic rock into something altogether more unsettling, sitting somewhere in the space between analogue warmth and digital tension. It reflects that the digital world has both made us more connected and increasingly isolated; home becomes a refuge but also a trap, as if the walls are closing in.

For this, their fourth album, the Reading cult favourites created their own sample bank, and it shows in the way the tracks feel built from layers. They play around with textures and soundscapes; the slightly frenetic ‘Picto’ serves as a mission statement, setting out the dense, inward-looking vibe from the outset, while ‘Weights & Measures’ is straight out of a movie soundtrack, building up to a theatrical crescendo that crashes down.

Many of the lyrics came together while touring the US during a turbulent time - with frontman Rhys Edwards awaiting the birth of his daughter and reflecting on the world she’d inherit - while ‘Square Root of None’ was written with all five members in the same room together, concluding that solitude doesn’t lead to good decisions through mathematical metaphor: “It’s slump or climb / In divisions of five.”

Some of the album’s longer, slower tracks - ‘Build a Box Then Break It’ and ‘Expo’ - drag slightly, but in their own way they reinforce the overarching contrast between warmth and alienation. Coming a decade after the band’s debut, ‘EXPO’ is not quite Charlie Brooker in song, but it’s not too far off. Fully immersive but a little disquieting.