still sounds great. excellent slice of downtempo and housey grooves

On A USER'S GUIDE, Ultramarine move fully into abstract techno mode: no more lyrics, no more folk, no more jazz. "All of a Sudden" showcase their new sound: slightly woozy, but also cool. That coolness extends onto "Surfacing," a brisk swim in a digital ocean, while "Sucker 4U" brings in a little electro funk ("Ghost Machine" will also have a hint of funk in it as well). "On the Brink" chugs along, like a freight train, but the 4/4 on "Zombie" guides that track through its better-than-undead vibes. A steady beat also appears on "Ambush," giving structure to the angular melodies drifting through, even as it all begins to decay near the end of the track. Finally, "What Machines Want" brings in an driving (yet sonically subdued) rhythm, while the melodies go from atonal to delicately harmonic. An underrated gem, to be sure.

Today I felt the best feeling I've had for a long time... After a few house moves I had lost track of Users Guide and had resigned to the fact that it was lost and was considering shelling out to buy a new copy... but after a quick trip to my folk's house and a rake through the bottom of a bunch of my old stuff, I found it again!!!... Such a sheer joy getting it back, reliving very fond memories of having many an after-party with this on in the background, absolutely perfect for that. Anybody who loves good, hearty, warm, lush, squelchy synth sounds with a bit of a chilled groove should own this album, an essential in my opinion!

I can only second what Absolute Ruler has commented. If you bought 'Every Man and Woman Is a Star', don't think this is more of the same. Completely different sound. Nothing in my collection is like it. A frequency/spacetime phase-diagram of a higher dimensional-folding lyaponuv plot. A self-contained world. Alien Dreamtime? The palette is classic roland electro, the scenery they reveal is unique. No it's not like any electro, detroit, IDM, glitch i've heard, but it may find the greatest apprecators in that crowd. Five tentacles up.

What we have here is one of the finest techno albums from 1998, a beauty! The basis is Detroitesk and generaly spoken kinda chilly. Most tracks are ideal for deep (late night) dj-sets but the sofa listeners will be fully satisfied too. "A User's Guide" could easily compete with John Beltran's "10 days of blue" or or As One's "In With Their Arps". One can clearly notice that these Ultramarine fellas have been into business for a long time (since the late '80). They master & manipulate their tools perfectly. The result is a never ending trip into electronic brightness. So I say: "Thank you for the music, the songs I’m singing" ;)