UBIQUITY MACHNE – RADIO

Here at the Send Me Your Ears studio today, we’ve been listening to the latest single from Ubiquity Machine. “Radio” was released on March 17, 2023.

We previously reviewed Ubiquity Machine’s single, Hey You, and were intrigued by its Art Rock quirkiness, so we were excited to hear what this latest single would sound like.

Radio is a song about the struggle for existence in the modern world. In the words of the band, “The modern world is a ubiquity machine. People’s individual experiences are curated, controlled, and manipulated… privacy is disappearing, choice is highly directed, information is dissected, free will is reflected.” As they say… cheerful stuff!

Radio starts with some spoken word that echoes off into the distance and is overtaken by a very bright and rhythmic acoustic guitar.

The verses of Radio have a slightly Rolling Stones/ Travelling Wilburys feel to them, with the strummed guitar and drums featuring heavily. Lead vocals have an almost B52s feel to them.

The lead vocals, and we’re sure they won’t mind us saying, are the kind of vocal that is more about presentation and passion than pitch. The vocalist plays it loose with the pitch, in the same way that Dylan does, and are the kind of vocals that would be absolutely ruined by modern auto-tuning techniques.

Radio makes superb use of different sections to maintain the listener. The choruses have a more 80s New Wave feel to them, whilst the verses are more simple 70s rock. There are other sections thrown in to keep your interest: there is a very interesting moment with filtered vocals and a disco bassline, for example. The song ends with the repeated line, “better do what the radio told you to do,” while an electric guitar wails over the top, battling for your attention.


Ideas from our ears

A hi-pass around 40Hz would remove some sub-bass rumble and a boost centred around 300Hz could add some extra fullness making the track sound a little thicker. A small cut around 1.1kHz and a boost around 4kHz would balance out the mids and high mids a little too. As always, these are just some ideas from our ears.

Final thoughts

Ubiquity Machine have created another quirky, art rock/ new wave track. This highly unique band are consistently coming up with songs to make the listener think. Another late-night playlister for sure.

https://ubiquitymachine.com/
https://soundcloud.com/ubiquity-machine
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0i9L54lerL733kHTPoI0OV
https://www.youtube.com/@ubiquitymachine