The story of Ultrasound is simultanously horrendously predictable and unusual. Bursting out of Camden in a wave of NME-inspired hype, they were hailed as the next Great Big Thing, even if the band themselves seemed somewhat baffled by the whole thing. As part of the press appeared to be obsessed with the fact that singer Andrew ‘Tiny’ Wood was, shall we say, not quite as svelte as the usual frontman, you can start to see why they might have got a little annoyed with the nature of the press.

Plus, releasing a debut album that stretched over 2 CD’s with a final song lasting the best part of 40 minutes didn’t help. As the hype machine swung from “WE LOVE YOU!!!” to “WHAT THE HELL WERE WE THINKING!!!”, and the record label (Nude, The Home Of Suede, Who This Lot Were Meant To Be Replacing) the band split acrimoniously.

But now, they are back. Which came as something of a surprise. As the title of this post says, the old cliche that there’s no second act in music is clearly total cobblers. Inspired by playing at a benefit for Tim Smith of The Cardiacs, they decided to get back together, write and record some new material. Here’s one part of the new AA-side single, “Welfare State/Sovereign”:

Not bad, is it? Now that the world has moved on from the somewhat tedious Britpop of the late ’90’s, and got itself comfortable with the slightly proggy sounds of Radiohead and Elbow, maybe the time is right for a comeback? Good luck to them, I say. They are playing live at Club Fandango in August, if you’re interested.