Ut

Ut emerged late in the 1970s as a New York trio of Nina Canal, Sally Young, and Jacqui Ham, just as the city’s no-wave scene was winding down. Canal had already played with Robin Crutchfield in Dark Days before launching Ut. The group’s jagged, guitar-centered dissonance grew directly out of no wave’s abrasive anti-rock stance and echoed the attack of Liliput, the Slits, and the Au Pairs, yet Ut kept the backbeat far less emphatic, more erratic and elastic than those bands’ groove-driven approach. At times this looseness let shapeless material drag on; more often the irregular pulse merely framed semi-melodic vocals while leaving ample room for free, improvised exploration. After New York’s post-no-wave audience paid them no attention, the members moved to England and signed with the forward-looking indie label Blast First. British critics proved more receptive, though the band’s thorny rock noise still found only a narrow audience. Ut disbanded after issuing the Steve Albini-produced Griller in 1989. Almost entirely overlooked in their own country, the group nevertheless left a distinctly skewed model of rock & roll that later resurfaced in the recordings of Sonic Youth, Bikini Kill, and Sleater-Kinney.