Umber (album)


Umber is the first full-length album by the American post-hardcore band Bitch Magnet. The band had added second guitarist David Galt since their previous year's release, the eight-song EP Star Booty. In 2004 Umber was listed in Mojo's "Lost Albums You Must Own".

Music

Music journalist Andrew Earles described the sound on Umber as "an aggressive and heavy approach to post-hardcore/indie rock that had a lot in common with the aggro noise rock that dominated the Amphetamine Reptile and late-'80s Touch and Go rosters." However, Earles stated that Umber "lacked the unweildy, testosterone-fueled depravity and nihilism" of these albums, and that the album instead " on the hazy, often buried but melodic" vocals of Sooyoung Park. Jason Ankeny of AllMusic described the album's third track "Clay" as a "taut exploration of extremist spatial dynamics." He described the album's fifth track "Douglas Leader" as a "quietly hypnotic minimalist ode 180-degrees removed from everything else in the Bitch Magnet oeuvre to date."

Release and reception

Umber was first released in 1989 on LP by Glitterhouse Records with an all yellowish-umber colored cover with the band's name and album title set in a small bold font at its center. The record's 10 tracks were paired with the band's previous eight-song EP, Star Booty, and issued by Communion on cassette and CD that same year.
Jason Ankeny of AllMusic gave the album three and a half stars out of five.
In 2011, Umber was remastered by Alan Douches and released in a box-set containing with the rest of the band's catalog.

Track listing

All songs written by Bitch Magnet
The 2011 box-set also contains alternate versions "Motor", "Joan of Arc", "Big Pining", "Joyless Street" and "Punch and Judy".

Personnel

;Bitch Magnet
  • Orestes Delatorre – drums
  • Jon Fine – guitar
  • David Galt – guitar
  • Sooyoung Park – bass guitar, vocals
;Additional musicians and production
  • Bitch Magnet – production
  • Karan Filian – backing vocals on "Big Pining"
  • Lou Gehrig – backing vocals on "Big Pining"
  • Mike McMackin – production, recording