New Video: Ulrika Spacek Shares Feverish “Picto”

London-based art rock outfit and JOVM mainstays Ulrika Spacek — founding members Rhys Edwards (vocals, guitar) and Rhys Williams (guitar) , alongside Joseph Stone (guitar, keys), Callum Brown (drums), Syd Kemp (bass) — will be releasing their highly-anticipated fourth album EXPO through  Full Time Hobby on February 6, 2026.

Unlike its predecessors, which looked within, EXPO reportedly holds a mirror up to the world and captures a warped reflection. The material was deeply informed by the band’s most recent American tour and was written while the band’s Rhys Edwards was awaiting the birth of his daughter, and started to wonder what kind of future world she’d inherit. 

Although their foundations have long been in art rock, they’ve been increasingly drawing from electronic elements. But as a band, they’re interested in the glitchy space that exists between the two. And as a result, their most recent work reckons with human warmth and digital isolation, while being welcoming and alienating, exploring the uneasy tension of modern life as we know it. “Our music has always been a collage – a bit patchwork, sonically – but what makes this album a landmark for us is that we went one step further and made our own sound bank and essentially sampled ourselves,” the band says. 

The album sees the band creating their own doppelgängers in a world of almost-real, where the band appears as if they’re in a funhouse hall of mirrors. Digital drums are sampled and layered over real drums and the like, creating an eerie, spectral vibe. Sonically, the album’s material grapples with the organic and the digital while dancing across musical languages. 

The album will feature the previously released tracks:

• “Build a Box, Then Break It,” a track that serves as a de-facto album mission statement that sees the JOVM mainstays actively pushing their sound into a new liminal space, while seemingly channeling Geoff Barrow‘s work with Portishead and Beak>, Radiohead‘s Amnesiac and The Orielles‘ The Goyt Method EP. 
• “Square Root of None,” an expansive, labyrinthine track that twists, turns and morphs in weird, prismatic directions seemingly at will.

EXPO‘s third and final single “Picto” is a cold-sweat fever dream of a song anchored around angular bursts of guitar, an angular and driving bass line, skittering boom bap serving as an uneasy bed for Edwards’ remarkably Thom Yorke-like delivery. The song helps establish a sort of manifesto for the record — “It’s back to strength in numbers/ Count in fives.”

“There is no better way to describe the process other than fun. It felt great to be working as a collective again and ultimately the music we were making felt fresh,” the JOVM mainstays explain. “There was a lot of optimism about what music we would make after working on this song and lyrically it celebrates making art as a collective as opposed to constant individual expression.”

The accompanying video is fittingly a surrealistic fever dream split between footage of the band performing in the song in a studio and a dentist doing dental work on a woman in the studio and other dental procedures.

______

The Joy of Violent Movement is a completely independent and completely D.I.Y. media outlet. Over the course of this site’s 15+ year history, I’ve used my fiercely independent stance to cover music with an eclectic and global perspective that a lot of other publications just don’t have — and will likely never have. 

To that end, I could use your support to continue to keep bringing you my unique global perspective on music. There are a number of ways that you can support this work. 

I’ve been told that some people would prefer to make a one-time donation because it’s easy and less of an obligation. So, if you’re able to make a one-time donation, there’s a donation box below.

If you can give more regularly, please feel free to check out my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheJoyofViolentMovement. 

Advertisement

Anything you can give is very much appreciated. It can and does make a real difference, y’all. 

I know that a lot of folks are struggling to make ends meet in an uncertain and tumultuous economic climate. So there are other, non-financial ways in which you can support this work. 

You can follow me on the following social platforms:

X/Twitter: @yankee32879 and @joyofviolent 

Instagram: @william_ruben_helms

Threads: @william_ruben_helms

Bluesky: @williamrubenhelms.bsky.social

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheJoyofViolentMovement

As always, if there are posts that you dig, share them with your friends. The more eyeballs on my work, the better.