UT - Conviction (1985/2019)

UT were a no wave group out of early 80s New York and as Stewart Lee tells you in his sleeve notes were hard to categorise in that less connected decade. Conviction was released in 1986 but the band had had a long gestation period beginning in 1981 emerging shyly out of the same loft apartments as the nascent Sonic Youth.

In fact there's a lot of Sonic Youth in these loose, improvised songs. Opener Confidential is almost the exact mid point between Patti Smith and Sonic Youth, a one note splurge of Swans like intensity with detuned guitars scratching over a heavy drone of a thing. Elsewhere Sick is more scattered and dysfunctional - the instruments seeming to battle against each other rather than coming together as a whole. There's something of the Velvet Underground in Phoenix and a lot of the Slits in Absent Farmer (what a title!)

It's a skewed, nasty racket as if a standard rock band had been eaten up and chewed by a dog and spat out in altogether different shapes. Voices squeak, guitars are played with razorblades and rhythms are always askew. Often a lot of hard work, UT are completely uncompromising and fully recommended to anyone who wants to delve deeper beneath Sonic Youth into the New York undergrowth.