Ui (pronounced ''ooo-eee'') was an American

post-rock Post-rock is a form of experimental rock characterized by a focus on exploring textures and timbre over traditional rock song structures, chords, or riffs. Post-rock artists are often instrumental, typically combining rock instrumentation with ...

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

band based in New York City, which started in 1990. The group was started by

Sasha Frere-Jones Alexander Roger Wallace "Sasha" Frere-Jones (né Jones; born 1967) is an American writer, music critic, and musician. He has written for ''Pretty Decorating'', '' ego trip'', ''Hit It And Quit It'', ''Mean'', '' Slant'', ''The New York Post'', '' ...

and Clem Waldmann. Wilbo Wright joined the group in 1993. The group's songs are often described as "bass-heavy", as the band frequently used two

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

s. Other instruments used by the band include

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

tuba The tuba (; ) is the lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece. It first appeared in the mid-19th century, making it one of the ne ...

and

timpani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionall ...

. Their musical style is described to range between

, dub,

and

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to r ...

. The group had a high reliance on samplers and other studio equipment to overdub and articulate rhythms. The group disbanded in 2003 shortly after the recording of the album ''Answers''.

Discography

Full length

*''Sidelong'' (

Southern Southern may refer to: Businesses * China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China * Southern Airways, defunct US airline * Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US * Southern Airways Express, M ...

, March 1996) *''Lifelike'' (

, April 1998) *''Answers'' (

, June 2003)

EPs and remixes

*''The 2-Sided EP'' (Hemiola, December 1993) *''Unlike: Remixes Volume 1'' (Lunamoth, November 1995), remixes of material from ''The 2-Sided EP'' and ''Sidelong'' *''The Sharpie'' (Soul Static Sound, February 1996) *''Match My Foot'' 7" (Soul Static Sound, February 1996) *''Dropplike'' (Southern, August 1996), 3 remixes of songs from ''Sidelong'' *''Fires'' as the group name "Uilab" (Bingo;

Duophonic Records Duophonic Ultra High Frequency Disks Limited (also known as Duophonic Records or Duophonic Super 45s) is a British independent record label formed by English-French rock band Stereolab in 1991. The label has two imprints: Duophonic Ultra High ...

, February 1998), Ui and

Stereolab Stereolab are an Anglo- French avant-pop band formed in London in 1990. Led by the songwriting team of Tim Gane and Lætitia Sadier, the group's music combines influences from krautrock, lounge and 1960s pop music, often incorporating a repetit ...

collaborating on versions of "St Elmo's Fire" by

Brian Eno Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno (; born Brian Peter George Eno, 15 May 1948) is a British musician, composer, record producer and visual artist best known for his contributions to ambient music and work in rock, pop an ...

*''The Iron Apple'' (Southern, November 1999) Ui have also

remix A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...

ed music for many groups, including

Techno Animal Techno Animal is an electronic duo formed in 1990 in London, England by British musicians Justin Broadrick (of the band Godflesh) and Kevin Martin (aka the Bug, of the band God). The duo released six LPs beginning with their 1991 debut '' Ghost ...

and Microstoria.

References

External links

Official webpage (on Internet Archive)UI at Discogs
American funk musical groups American post-rock groups Musical groups from New York City {{US-band-stub