"Soundproof" is the debut full-length CD from instrumental rock trio Ultraviolet Makes Me Sick, who hail from Pavia, Italy. They formed in the spring of 1999 and, after a period of line-up turbulence and a final decision to proceed on an instrumental basis, recorded a fine five-track CD-R EP in early 2000. Starting from the premise of guitar-led rock, the angular and melodic compositions on this self-titled EP created their own unconscious and almost filmic language. In the same year, the band took part in two competitions, "Atmosfere Rock" in Ferrara and "Experimenta 2000" in Massa, taking off the first prize in the latter case, walking away with a tour van. The band worked on another instrumental EP all through the rest of 2001, finally issuing "Soundproof" as a CD-R in February 2001. Entranced by the second as much as the first, a deal was struck for a debut international release of the material on these EPs on the Camera Obscura label.

The Ultraviolets express their cinematic rock ideal better than we ever could: "Davide Impellizzeri, the drummer, is our rhythmic figure. Alberto Anadone, is guitarist or bassist according to the songs, and draws out our structure and melodies. Gianmaria Aprile, is also guitarist and works with the sounds in a highly personal way. We play instrumental music for life, capturing harmonies in film-like tunes, inspired by images and sensations in order to recreate particular feelings we have inside." Film is a definite influence, as in the delicately yearning "Faye", inspired by the protagonist of Wong Kar Wai's "Hong Kong Express". It's a tribute to the band's sense of drama and dynamics that they can program the vertiginously psychedelic "Black Canvas" next on the disc, surrounded the listener in dense eddies of fragmented guitar that connect firmly with the pit of one's stomach. A track that we suggest you play late a night with the lights out and car headlights playing across your wall. Davide Impellizzeri percussion is the engine room of "Soundproof", and no more so than in "On the Way Back", alternately screwing up the tension with metronomic strobe flashes of cymbal and belting out staccato snare patterns at climatic moments. Relative calm is restored during "She Used to Dress in a Pale Red" which is a lot like trying to ascertain shapes through a rain-streaked windscreen at night. Our favourite is the closer "Once Again Turtle", working from stillness to hurricanes of guitar bliss.

The music on "Soundproof" echoes the introspective soundscapes of current indie rock darlings like Do Make Say Think, Tortoise and Mogwai (they cover Mogwai's "Cody" live), but with the widescreen soul and vision of a Bernardo Bertolucci or a Luchino Visconti.