Punk planet

Sicily: land of citrus fruit, olive oil, Cosa Nostra, and Uzeda, a band hailing from the foothills of smoking Mt. Etna. Three of their five albums were recorded by Steve Albini, the pixie of punk rock himself, and released on the Touch & Go label. Albini’s instantly recognizable sound on 4 (1995), Different Section Wires (1998), and Stella (2006) encouraged online music magazine Pitchfork to call Uzeda “a T&G cover band with Kim Deal on vocals”. But that’s no bad thing.

They share a soundscape with Touch & Go labelmates Shellac (Albini’s own band) and the David Yow-fronted Jesus Lizard. “Tighter than a supermodel’s stomach” is one way I’ve heard the Jesus Lizard described and that’ll do just as nicely for Uzeda. And never mind the Pixies’ Kim Deal; Uzeda’s vocalist Giovanna Cacciola is a female Yow, cooing and moaning and pleading in a monologue that tugs at the engine of the band.

And what an engine: “a tribal-jazzy rhythm section that indulges in time changes worthy of prog-rock but coupled with shrieking guitar that makes Sonic Youth sound mainstream”, says Piero Scaruffi in his online History of Rock Music. There’s a wildness here, the bass growling like a feral dog, the guitars spiking like the tongue of a snake, unpredictable and languid. But the tightness makes it more machine than animal: a well-tuned engine bolted together by the piston snap of the snare.

Check out www.uzedatheband.com for audio and video streams of all the band’s recorded material.