The "My Comments" section in myspace is rarely fertile territory for uncovering promising new bands. Sometimes it's like the people posting their own musical efforts are being intrusive, like a precocious child in class wanting to be the centre of attention, even though it's not their turn at 'show and tell' Occasionally though, the bait being wiggled on the hook in front of me is potentially interesting enough to me to take a nibble. I'm glad that I did this time as I was intrigued enough by the promise of some stop motion animation, thus I sunk my teeth into a juicy big worm of a tune by an independent L.A. band called Ubyk.The main protagonists of Ubyk (pronounced yoo-bik) are singer/songwriters Roman Bleum and Samantha Tobey who share vocal and multi-instrumental duties. This lineup is complemented to make a ”mostly” acoustic six-piece, when they perform live.
The name is derived from a story by legendary sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick, who imagined a homogenized world run by a powerful and ambiguous organization that owns, creates, and markets everything in existence.
The music of Ubyk weaves together the sun kissed chilled out Sixties folk pop vibes of The Mamas and Papas on an L.A beach, with an all together more disturbing undercurrent of whimsical psychedelic paranoia a la early Pink Floyd or Arthur Lee's Love. Seeping into the mix, is the more traditional musical heritage of Bleum's Russian roots and some melancholy post rock explorations. It's a unsettling but captivating mix, as amply illustrated by the Matryoshka song and the accompanying video of the lonely doll's journey, in search of a place of belonging, to make her complete... She finds it and I'm glad I found Ubyk.
Ubyk- Matryoshka Directed by: Jamie Urman
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