The Unit Ama take their time. They act on their own terms.

This applies to their music and their work-rate. Two albums and a handful of singles in twenty years. Sporadic gigs. No endless Bandcamp messages or weekly mailing list updates. Rare missions outside their native north-east.

And then…

Toward is their second studio album and their second Gringo release. It’s not their ‘pandemic’ album but does see the band considering the important things: post-traumatic growth, insight through experience. Utilising the past to navigate towards a meaningful future.

Toward was self-produced and will probably get tagged as post-hardcore which is fair enough. But it’s also informed by post-punk, jazz and folk, and by working closely together for two decades. The Unit Ama play in other incarnations that inform their music and the way they dismantle expectations of the rock trio. There’s as much Richard Thompson as Minutemen.

Toward takes the exploratory, explosive sound of their debut and adds twenty years of living and listening. Toward is eight tracks that are thoughtful and intricate without losing any impact. This is gut music as much as it is head music. The Unit Ama never let their abilities get in the way of their instincts and Toward is full of surging urgency and roaring anxiety. But there are moments of brooding calm too, and a song – Mary – that could be stripped down and sold as a folk ballad.

Credits
Recorded and mixed by Sam Grant at Blank Studios, Newcastle. Mastered by Stephen Kerrison at Tall Trees Audio Mastering, Liverpool, UK. Design by David Hand.

Pressing Information
520 copies on black vinyl in gatefold sleeve with obi strip. Comes with digital download code.

International Distribution
Australia - Rocket
Benelux - De Konkurrent
Canada - F.A.B.
Czechia - Day After
Finland - Supersounds
France - Kuroneko / Differ-ant
Germany / Austria / Switzerland - Cargo Records
Greece - Sound Effect
Italy - Goodfellas
Japan- Disk Union
New Zealand - Southbound
Poland - Rockers
Portugal - Compact
Scandinavia - Border
Slovenia - Matrix
Spain - Popstock
United States - Red Eye and Forced Exposure
Everywhere Else - Bertus