The Unit Ama Stream “Observe Yourself” & Announce New Album “Toward”

The Unit Ama take their time and act on their own terms. This applies to their music and their work-rate, just two albums and a handful of singles in twenty years, with only sporadic gigs and even rarer missions outside of their home turf of the North East of the UK. The band have now announced that they will release their new full length, Toward, via Gringo Records on the 5th May. It’s not their pandemic album but does see the band considering the important things: post-traumatic growth, insight through experience. Utilising the past to navigate towards a meaningful future. 

Toward was self-produced and will probably get tagged as post-hardcore which is fair enough. But it’s also informed by post-punk, jazz and folk, and by working closely together for two decades. The Unit Ama play in other incarnations, including The Long Lonesome Go, Archipelago and The Horse Loom, that inform their music and the way they dismantle any expectations you may have had of the trio. The band have now shared the track Observe Yourself, whilst it’s ominous and heavy it still manages to crackle with energy and fire, and is a perfect illustration of the aural treats that comprise Toward.

Toward takes the exploratory, explosive sound of their debut and adds twenty years of living and listening. Toward is eight tracks that are thoughtful and intricate without losing any impact. This is gut music as much as it is head music. The Unit Ama never let their abilities get in the way of their instincts and Toward is full of surging urgency and roaring anxiety. But there are moments of brooding calm too, including Mary, a song that could be stripped down and sold as a folk ballad.