USF (formerly Universal Studios Florida) is an electronic duo that began in the fall of 2008. Band members Kyle Hargus and Jason Baxter released their eponymous debut EP in January 2009, and followed it with the critically-acclaimed full-length Ocean Sunbirds in June 2010, both on Brooklyn’s Little Fury Things Records. Described as “primitive in its joy, and cosmic in its intention” (Chocolate Bobka) and “[a merging of] psychotropic house music with sonic textures long foreign to dance music” (Impose Magazine), Ocean Sunbirds was an attempt at maintaining a uniform feeling across a sixty-minute exploration of imagined landscapes, and was featured in a variety of online and print publications, including Pitchfork Media and international press in Italy, Japan, Germany, the U.K., and Spain.
With their second self-produced full-length the Spray, USF are aiming for something different. Through an emphasis on complex rhythms and melodic layering, the Spray is an attempt to evoke a broader spectrum of emotions and create a tangible atmosphere—one soaked in the textures of the Pacific Northwest and ideas related to hauntology, nostalgia, and the impermanence of things. The Spray takes Jonathan Lethem’s short story of the same name as its primary source of inspiration, and was conceived as part of Lethem’s open-source “Promiscuous Materials” project. The album features vocal contributions from New York artists Big Spider’s Back and Alaskas, and was mastered by Jeff Smothers in San Francisco, CA. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.