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

post-rock Post-rock is a subgenre of experimental rock that emphasizes Texture (music), texture, atmosphere, and non-traditional song structures over conventional rock techniques. Post-rock artists often combine rock instrumentation and rock stylings wit ...

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 ...

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. Frere-Jones was pop critic of the ''New Yorker'' from 2004 to 2015. In January 2015, he left the ''New Yorker'' to work for ' ...

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 (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

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 in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

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

tuba The tuba (; ) is the largest and lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece (brass), mouthpiece. It first appeared in th ...

and

timpani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion instrument, percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a Membranophone, membrane called a drumhead, ...

. 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 came to prominence in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mos ...

. The group had a high reliance on

samplers Sampler may refer to: * Sampler (signal), a digital signal processing device that converts a continuous signal to a discrete signal * Sampler (needlework), a handstitched piece of embroidery used to demonstrate skill in needlework * Sampler (surna ...

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, March 1996) *''Lifelike'' ( Southern, April 1998) *''Answers'' ( Southern, 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 English people, Anglo-French avant-pop band formed in London in 1990. Led by the songwriting team of Tim Gane and Lætitia Sadier, the group's sound incorporates repetitive motorik beats with the use of vintage electronic keybo ...

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

Brian Eno Brian Peter George Jean-Baptiste de la Salle Eno (, born 15 May 1948), also mononymously known as Eno, is an English musician, songwriter, record producer, visual artist, and activist. He is best known for his pioneering contributions to ambien ...

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

remix A remix, also sometimes called reorchestration or rework, 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, poem, or photograph ca ...

ed music for many groups, including

Techno Animal Techno Animal was 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 ''Gho ...

and

Microstoria Microstoria (sometimes in all lowercase) is an experimental electronic duo composed of Markus Popp of Oval and Jan St. Werner of Mouse on Mars, founded in 1994 in Düsseldorf, Germany. Their first full-length album released in 1995, released in E ...

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