Mute Elephant Presents | UT

Mute Elephant Presents |

UT formed in 1978, after Peter Gordon introduced Sally Young & Jacqui Ham to ex-Gynaecologists / ex-Dark Day member Nina Canal. The female presence in No Wave was never that rare. There were very few No Wave bands that represented the standard-issue ‘guys/guitars’ formula of rock music. However, an all-girl outfit was a slightly rarer proposition. But then, UT are an exceptional band. They really came into their own as the survivors of the original scene, the torch-bearers who took the original discordant aggressive attack onward to the next generation, especially on Griller, which was engineered by Steve Albini.

UT developed a distinctly dark sound based on free improvisation & spontaneous song writing. As with many No Wave bands, UT lacked a strong grounding in musical training, which they intentionally accentuated by changing instrumentation on each song. These methodological approaches channeled the raw energy of UT’s song writing process into their live performances & finished songs (example: on “Confidential” Sally sings & plays guitar, Jacqui plays guitar, & Nina plays drums; on “Phoenix” Sally sings & plays guitar, Nina plays guitar, & Jacqui plays drums; & on “Absent Farmer Jacqui sings & plays guitar, Nina plays guitar, & Sally plays drums…& that’s just in the first four songs!!!).

UT left the US in 1981 to tour with The Fall & eventually settled in London, releasing a number of albums, playing & recording until they disbanded in 1990. After a pause from 1991 to 2010, UT is back doing live dates.