Date: Thu, 21 Mar 1996 14:33:08 -0600 From: a bear of very little brain (hk@NEOSOFT.COM) Subject: Re: UI (was: Prog Uber Alles) Jens Alfke wrote: > hk mentioned UI in his laundry list of current 'progressive' (lowercase > 'p') bands. I recently read a short review of them in a Seattle music > paper and they sounded interesting -- as I recall, the review lumped them > in with 'post-rock'* along with Laika and Tortoise, and compared their > sound to Savage Republic and early Gang Of Four. > Could hk or somebody else elaborate a bit? I'd love to hear a review or > know something about the band... The only thing from UI that own is the 'Unlike - Remixes Volume 1' disc which, a indicated by its title, is a series of remixes by various third-wave producer/engineer types f the stuff that's been previously released as singles and EPs. So it's not a very fair pla e to start, if you're looking to get a measure of what the "UI sound" is. My musical lexicon fails me completely when it comes to this UI disc. However, think it might be fair to say that the Tortoise comparison, while almost a reflexive knee jerk, is not an inaccurate one, as 'Unlike' and 'Millions Now Living Will Never Die' are almo t interchangeable in my disc player. Another point of reference is the band Doldr ms who released an album entitled 'The Secret Life of Machines' on VHF a short while ba k. But then, I bought all three albums within days of each other, so for me they all kinda ru into each other. Dunno about the Laika comparison, tho'. Date: Thu, 12 Mar 1998 15:26:34 -0600 From: AudioPig Subject: KablUi > On Ui: > There is track on Unied Mutations v3- quite raucous and noisy! Don't > know anything else though. the u.m. track ("out", a Liquid Liquid cover) is indeed a stormin' basher...also one of the handful of ui tracks with an actual vocal track ("skeletons (on rice)" and "sexy photograph" being two other fine examples), they're normally an instrumental trio of new york dudes. for those uninitiated, Ui really have no similarities to the stereolabbers other than the fact hat they get lumped into the same "post-rock" categories by lazy journalists...i would classify their schtick as more low-key jazz inflected soundtracks, more Tortoiscent than gane&co and not even as dynamic (!?) my favorite ui cd's are "unlike: remixes" (boss!) and the recent compilation "2-sided/the sharpie", both of which generally stay away from incredibly dull musing (as seen on their only "real" album so far, "sidelong") and get into some more dynamically challenging material. on rare occasion, they stray way up their own artful arses (see the two 7"s on soul static sound for more info). more scribbling on these fellows can be found at southern's site: http://www.southern.com/southern/band/UI000 Date: Fri, 13 Mar 1998 09:57:11 +0000 From: Andrew Norman Subject: Uilab Jens: > > I bought Ui's first album and found it to be a series of very > boring instrumental gtr/bass/drum jams with few ideas*. However, I > heard the UiLab cover of Eno's "St. Elmo's Fire" on the radio > yesterday and liked it quite a bit. Hmm. Have Ui improved a lot > since 1996? I found the "Sharpie" EP recently (it has just been reissued as a CD with another EP, so I suspect someone who was hanging on to the vinyl as an investment decided to ditch it). It's not as dull as the remix EP which Ganger contributed to, but I still can't see why Stereolab like Ui so much. Aerial M are much the same - I listened to the recent 7" ("Wedding Song No. 3") as I walked to work this morning and it just washes over me. Ganger's new single on Wurlitzer Jukebox isn't quite as good as the original EPs, but it does at least have some life and energy rather than plodding on in the same monotonous style for ten minutes. Life's too short for Ui, I think.