Biography
Uzeda emerged from Catania in 1987 as one of Italy’s most enduring independent rock outfits and one of the rare underground acts from the country to reach a substantial audience abroad. Their music relied on angular guitar lines, explosive drumming, and extreme dynamic shifts that heightened the overall impact, placing them alongside American noise-rock acts like the Jesus Lizard and Shellac. Shellac’s Steve Albini became an early supporter, praising their recordings, sharing bills, and producing most of their studio work. Although lengthy gaps often separated their releases and tours, each album preserved the same coiled intensity, a quality that remained undiminished from 1998’s Different Section Wires through 2019’s Quocumque Jeceris Stabit.
The group formed in Catania, the Sicilian port city at the base of Mount Etna. Its founding members were vocalist Giovanna Cacciola, guitarists Giovanni Nicosia and Agostino Tilotta, bassist Raffaele Gulisano, and drummer Davide Oliveri. After several years of local performances and internal refinement, they issued their first album, 1991’s Out of Colours, on the A.V. Arts label. The record only partially conveyed their live force yet drew sufficient notice to connect them with Albini, the engineer whose prior credits included Nirvana, the Jesus Lizard, Poster Children, the Breeders, and Slint. Albini traveled to Catania to record their follow-up, 1993’s Waters, whose drier, more incisive sound better matched the band’s approach. British DJ John Peel endorsed the album by inviting Uzeda to tape a session for his program while they toured the U.K.; those performances later surfaced on the 1994 EP The Peel Sessions.
Nicosia departed in 1994, leaving the remaining quartet intact. The following year they released the four-track EP 4, their first outing on the American independent label Touch & Go. In November 1997 Albini reconvened with the band at Studio Black Box in Noyant la Gravoyere, western France, to track 1998’s Different Section Wires. Once the album appeared, the musicians elected to step back, partly to avoid letting financial pressures shape their timetable or artistic choices. Cacciola and Tilotta formed the side project Bellini, while Gulisano and Oliveri worked with Gianna Nannini and scored films. Touch & Go marked its twenty-fifth anniversary in September 2006 with a three-day festival in Chicago; Uzeda accepted an invitation to play and therefore completed 2006’s Stella with Albini so the record would be available in time for the event. After subsequent touring, the band resumed operating on its own schedule. To mark their thirtieth anniversary in May 2018, they organized a festival in Catania that showcased Shellac, the Ex, June of 44, Three Second Kiss, and the Black Heart Procession. The gathering prompted fresh activity, culminating in the July 2019 release of Quocumque Jeceris Stabit, their first album in thirteen years.
The group formed in Catania, the Sicilian port city at the base of Mount Etna. Its founding members were vocalist Giovanna Cacciola, guitarists Giovanni Nicosia and Agostino Tilotta, bassist Raffaele Gulisano, and drummer Davide Oliveri. After several years of local performances and internal refinement, they issued their first album, 1991’s Out of Colours, on the A.V. Arts label. The record only partially conveyed their live force yet drew sufficient notice to connect them with Albini, the engineer whose prior credits included Nirvana, the Jesus Lizard, Poster Children, the Breeders, and Slint. Albini traveled to Catania to record their follow-up, 1993’s Waters, whose drier, more incisive sound better matched the band’s approach. British DJ John Peel endorsed the album by inviting Uzeda to tape a session for his program while they toured the U.K.; those performances later surfaced on the 1994 EP The Peel Sessions.
Nicosia departed in 1994, leaving the remaining quartet intact. The following year they released the four-track EP 4, their first outing on the American independent label Touch & Go. In November 1997 Albini reconvened with the band at Studio Black Box in Noyant la Gravoyere, western France, to track 1998’s Different Section Wires. Once the album appeared, the musicians elected to step back, partly to avoid letting financial pressures shape their timetable or artistic choices. Cacciola and Tilotta formed the side project Bellini, while Gulisano and Oliveri worked with Gianna Nannini and scored films. Touch & Go marked its twenty-fifth anniversary in September 2006 with a three-day festival in Chicago; Uzeda accepted an invitation to play and therefore completed 2006’s Stella with Albini so the record would be available in time for the event. After subsequent touring, the band resumed operating on its own schedule. To mark their thirtieth anniversary in May 2018, they organized a festival in Catania that showcased Shellac, the Ex, June of 44, Three Second Kiss, and the Black Heart Procession. The gathering prompted fresh activity, culminating in the July 2019 release of Quocumque Jeceris Stabit, their first album in thirteen years.
Albums
Singles
