Ut (band)
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Sprung from the downtown No Wave scene, Ut (Nina Canal, Jacqui Ham and Sally Young) originated in New York City in December 1978. The inheritors of the fertile collision between rock, free jazz and the avant garde that first manifested itself in the Velvet Underground, Ut soon became a serious force within the New York music scene.
The band were joined briefly by film-maker Karen Achenbach in 1979 before resuming as a three-piece and migrating to London in 1981. Ut toured the UK with bands such as The Fall and The Birthday Party. Originally releasing albums on their own label Out Records, the band became a favourite of John Peel's (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/johnpeel/artists/ut) and recorded several sessions for his show before joining forces with Blast First in 1987.
In Gut's House was originally released in 1988 and made NME's Top 50 that year. As The Washington Post exclaimed "With In Gut's House, Ut has scraped and droned one of the finest underground rock albums of the year...The tightly woven, firmly focused sound..is rich, spooky, urgent and quite unexpectedly beautiful."
In 1989 the band recorded and released the album Griller, engineered by label mate Steve Albini, who shared Ut's raw aesthetic. In March 1990, Ut played their last concert in Paris.
Sally Young went on to form the band Quint and released the CD Time Wounds All Heals on Southern Records.Quint
Jacqui Ham formed Dial with Rob Smith and Dominic Weeks. Dial have released 3 CDs on Cede Records: Infraction, Distance Runner and 168k
Nina Canal continues to do music and most recently participated in Rhys Chatham's 100 Guitars project.
Ut is one of the many bands mentioned in Le Tigre's hit single, Hot Topic.
[edit] Discography
- UT Live [tape] (Out) 1981
- UT EP (Out) 1984
- Confidential 12 " (Out) 1985
- Conviction (Out) 1986 ( Out/Blast First) 1987
- Early Live Life (Blast First) 1987
- In Gut's House (Blast First) 1988**
- Griller (Blast First) 1989**
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- Reissued 2006
[edit] External links
- Trouser Press page discussing UT
- The Memory Tax, a film by Karen Achenbach featuring music by Quint.
- High-Voltage Humans, 2006 article about resurgence of No Wave featuring new interview with the members of UT.
- Ut interview from Warped Reality (2006) (first of three parts)
