Biography
Makeunder began as the home recording project of song-maker Hamilton Ulmer, a native of Texas and transplant in Oakland, CA. Soon after the first release, he began working with other like-minded experimental musicians from around the Bay Area. The group's songs depict Ulmer's family of misfit artists, and their struggles, digressions, and triumphs in carving out a place in a world not designed for them. The folks in the group wrestle diverse tastes - from Renaissance motet, to art rock, to 90's R&B, synth pop, and soul, to modern orchestral music - into powerful pop songs about death, survival, migration, & loss.
The project's first release, Radiate, Satellite, was written and recorded over five early mornings on a laptop's internal microphone as Ulmer cleaned out his childhood home. Exploiting only an alto saxophone, an old violin, a small hand drum, and layers of vocals, the EP recounts scenes from the life and death of a rural Californian family, engaging in shades of classic soul, Stravinskian flourishes, brassy melismatic vocals, and 40's big band charisma.
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