Melting Away is Ultraflex’s magnum opus. The final single from their upcoming album Infinite Wellness is a patchwork quilt of references – in the intro Katrín whispers a sentence by the danish poet Tove Ditlevsen, made famous in Norway by singer Kari Bremnes.
The first verse is heavily inspired by the short story The Husband Stitch by author Carmen Maria Machado, and the chord progression is borrowed from Usher’s Climax. Guitarist Bjarni Daníel Þorvaldsson plays a delicious Spanish guitar solo in the song in the style of Enrique Iglesias, and in the end the track ended up as a seamless mashup between Spice Girls’s masterpiece 2 Become 1 and Madonna’s Live To Tell.
Out of all the songs on the album, Melting Away had the most difficult birth. The song’s working title was Power Ballad and every trick in the book was used to fulfill that name. Ultraflex had such high ambitions for it, it created an almost insurmountable obsession with perfection. About six different versions of the chorus were composed and as a result the structure is quite unconventional.
Ultraflex’s new album Infinite Wellness is naughty. Are you really allowed to combine a horny saxophone solo with a relentless eurodance beat, steel drums and shameless moaning? No, that is not ok. Neither is putting a melodramatic spanish guitar solo in an excessivly erotic power ballad, nor ending a whole album on a loud gong. Which is precisely why they’ve done it. Ultraflex aren’t interested in being good girls, but rather to explore what they can get away with – relying on faux innocence and devious charm. And they do get away with it all thanks to the immaculately pristine production that drapes the whole thing in glossy sophistication.
Pulling inspiration from all sorts of juxtaposing sources, Infinite Wellness is Usher to Albinoni, a mashup of disco, R&B, 80’s synth pop, Italian 70’s film music and eurodance, with some references to jazz and classical music. On top of all of this are cheeky lyrics sung in breathy vocals or spoken in a way they call club rap.
An important layer to Ultraflex’s music is their flamboyant visual identity. In their videos they’re flaunting things like fringed bikini tops and jeggings or doing tandem housework in full gala get-up. The high note of the album is the evident friendship behind the music – you can vividly imagine the pair grinning in the studio while whispering a sensual Norwegian quote or adding secretly recorded party conversations. Their exhilarating playfulness welcomes you into their intimacy and lets you in on their secrets while inviting you to dance!
The music video is directed by visual artist Kristín Helga Ríkharðsdóttir.
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