Drab Majesty — Unarian Dances
Another record which I opened for the first time for this project is 2012’s Unarian Dances EP. This EP shows where Demure and Drab Majesty would head, but it stumbles along the way.
The world’s first introduction to Deb Demure and the work of Drab Majesty, this EP was released independently on cassette. This cassette was limited to 100 copies, and saw little groundswell in the scene until it was distributed by Lollipop Records. Clinco was the drummer for the now defunct band Marriages which was fronted by Emma Ruth Rundle. She would go on to do guest vocals on two songs from the EP. The EP got its name from the Unarian Academy, a UFO based religion founded in 1954. Clinco’s interest in this would lead him to his fascination with the Heaven’s Gate cult. The original cassette featured 4 songs, but the record pressing contains “Pole Position” as the fifth and final track.
This one starts off rough. “Pragmagick” is all over the place. It comes across with none of the polish Drab Majesty would come to be known for. The vocals are undertuned, the instrumentals cascade on one another into a cacophony, it is not good. With this opener I was prepared for a bad time, but the rest of the EP surprised me. “In A Hotel (Somewhere)” has an atmospheric aura to its intro which then evolves into a more realized musical arrangement. Demure’s vocals are still muddled and undertuned, but there is at least a semblance of cohesion. “Y.K.E.D.A” goes full synthwave in its instrumentation. Side B of this EP begins with “Wrecking Ball.” A distant sounding acoustic piece with lo-fi vocalization working to its benefit here. The final song is “Pole Position.” This one feels like Choir Boy, before they were even a thing, lacking Klopp’s signature vocals of course.
Must Listen To: Wrecking Ball
This song leans heaviest into Drab’s actual limitations at the time. Now, the band can create well produced lo-fi analog work, but here it was all being recorded to literal cassettes. The hum of the tape gears and the somber melody of this song work to great effect.
