Uboa
Uboa | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Melbourne, Australia |
| Genres | Doom metal, dark ambient, death industrial, noise, drone |
| Members | Xandra Metcalfe |
Uboa is the musical project of the Australian drone, ambient and noise music artist Xandra Metcalfe. Uboa began in 2010 during a period when Metcalfe experimented with doom metal textures and home studio equipment, and gradually moved towards noise, experimental and abstract compositions.[1][2]
Uboa's debut album “Sometimes Light” was released in 2010, followed by “Jouissance” in 2013 and "The Sky May Be" in 2018.[3] Her 2019 follow up album, "The Origin of My Depression" has been critically acclaimed.[1]
Xandra has collaborated as Uboa with several other Noise artists including Slumber Kitty, Muddy Lawrence, Solus Varak [4] and has produced a split EP with Bolt Gun. Jenny Hval, Planning for Burial and the English music producer and composer Geoff Barrow and producer Ben Salisbury's collaborative score for the 2018 film Annihilation have been cited as influences.[2]
Life
Xandra grew up with her two friends Sagan and Tom, and lives in Melbourne, Australia. Uboa's music often reflects her struggles with her transgender identity, reflected in her music via the juxtaposition of emotional ambient music and harsh white noise.[5] In an April 2019 interview she described the sources of her mental pain as including "mistaken identity, failed relationships and inability to love, joblessness, boredom, structurelessness, psychosis...[and] anxiety.[5]
Music
In a very positive review of "The Origin of My Depression" by the critic Anthony Fantano, her sound was described as a "cerebral dive" into Xandra's most negative and intense feelings of being a transgender woman...via "intense feelings of abandonment...expressed through intense soundscapes...and walls of distortion", culminating in a wide expanse of styles and soundscapes.[1] Metcalfe has said of the album's sound, "I always associated sadness in music with sparseness, barrenness and quietness. I wanted to signify empty space musically. Hence why the harsh noise is few and far between, and I think a little more effective because of all the sparseness it contrasts with".[2] Comparing the two albums, Metcalfe has said "Originally I was worried 'The Origin of My Depression' wasn't "Uboa" enough because of how restrained and sparse it is as a record."
She describes the writing process for "My Depression" as having "little conscious intentionality, it was mostly an intuitive process of writing. Nothing was planned out, and a lot of the songs were improvisations refined into compositions, usually after several attempts. “Detransitioning” took countless attempts to get right, whereas “An Angel of Great and Terrible Light” came out of nowhere."[5]
Discography
All songs by Xandra Metcalfe.
EPs
- Coma Wall (2015)
- Hook Echo (2016)
- Please Get Home Safe (2017) colab with Slumber Kitty
- The Apple of Every Eye (2018) colab with Muddy Lawrence
- Uboa and Bolt Gun (2019) Split
- The Absolute (2019) colab with Solus Varak
- The Flesh of the World (2020)
Albums
- Sometimes Light (2010)
- Jouissance (2013)
- The Sky May Be (2018)
- The Origin of My Depression (February 14, 2019)
Notes
- ^ a b c "Fantano, Anthony. "Uboa - The Origin of My Depression". theneedledrop, 19 July 2019. Retrieved 3 August 2019
- ^ a b c Parr, George. "Xandra Metcalfe on Melancholia, Eclecticism and The Origin Of My Depression. Astral Noize, 11 March 2019. Retrieved 3 August 2019
- ^ "Interview #13". Archive Hate. Retrieved 3 August 2019
- ^ [1] ‘‘Review on 4zzz.org.au’’
- ^ a b c Vellucci, Justin. "Interview: Xandra Metcalfe of Uboa (2019)". Swordfish, 15 April 2019. Retrieved 3 August 2019