Ultimate Painting: Green Lanes (2015)

Ultimate Painting were a British duo (with various supporting musicians) who released 3 modest, low-key albums over the past decade (with a 4th recorded but not officially released) before an apparently acrimonious break-up. It's a laid-back blend of contemporary pastoral freak folk (somewhere between Real Estate and Kingsbury Manx), latter-day psychedelic Americana a la Beachwood Sparks, and Lou Reed-styled jagged guitar strokes. It's unpretentious bedroom music, a little stark but still engaging.

The albums are all roughly comparable, though I particularly like the second one, Green Lanes. It's got a great opener in "Kodiak," slithery guitar lines out of the Velvet Underground playbook; and the marginally more upbeat "Sanctioned Blues" keeps things from getting too languid. There's an intermittent 70s mellow vibe here, like on the sunshine pop tinged "Break The Chain" or the Stephen Malkmus-like "I Was Lost," but it all walks a fine line between genuinely pretty and quietly edgy. Nice stuff, check it out.

Here's "Break The Chain" live in the studio:

Here's a live take on "Kodiak":

...and a live "Sanctioned Blues":

 Here's an in-studio performance of songs from the debut: