Reviews

But, enough of records that real people might like. Let's talk obscure genius while we've still time...Far grittier and gloomier, but no less brilliant is Üter's 'Tomorrow's Clowns' (OSCarr). Covering The Jesus And Mary Chain and Kraftwerk and sounding not unlike some bastard offspring of the two, this Glasgow trio are in a world of their own. The transcendent title track - awash with scrolling metallic guitars - proves Pink wrong too. Clearly, God isn't a DJ, he's My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields.

Tony Naylor, NME, 24.01.04

This Uter record is a case in point. This four-tracker is consistently excellent. The stand-outs being not the craftily chosen cover versions of "My Little Underground" (JAMC) and "Ohm Sweet Ohm" (Kraftwerk come Auld Lang Syne) but (promisingly) Declan Roney's quite lovely "Tomorrow's Clowns" and "Vibrato." These would have even the hardiest LSD-reconstructed bad bwoys crying into their beer; crying for the shimmering, androgynous, mute-love bliss-scapes of 1988. There's no getting away from the comparisons, here in the high-lonesome harmonies, to My Bloody Valentine. Those seductive basslines: New Order. That crystalline feedback: AR Kane. The utilitarian drum-machine pulse: JAMC. It's quite lovely stuff.

www.woebot.com

UTER calls its music "beautiful noisy Pop with a cold electronic heart." I call it Instrumental Joy Division updated for the dancefloor. Either way, the title track of their TOMORROW'S CLOWNS 12" EP (Oscarr) is a symphonic, synthesized stormer of a cut, a seriously grandiose tune with live Hooky bass and dark Germanic synth chords straight out of latter-era JD. It's also one of the few times I've screamed for a 12" dance track to be enlivened by vocals. Then again, given the quality of the vocals on 'My Little Underground', which sound like they were recorded in a cardboard box, we're probably better off without. That said, 'Vibrato' has already proved itself on the Step On dancefloor. And when I played the title track itself, at 3.30 in the morning, a group of stragglers got up off their seats and started floating around the dancefloor as if in a trance. That's a talismanic quality for any piece of music. This one has it in spades.

www.ijamming.net

Granted there's the cover of Kraftwerk's most romantic and revered number (Ohm Sweet Ohm) and a foursome of tense dreamy songs that abide to principles edicted by Suicide and Joy Division and also the sleeve's artwork direct lienage with the nervous guitars of Loveless as well as a cavernous romantism that painstakingly brings back New Order under Martin Hannett's calve. But that's not the reasons for our enthuiasm for such fragile and martial -to that extent quite close to Colder's- songwriting. No the real reason is that the name chosen by the outfit is that of one of The Simpsons's best ever featured charachter, Uter, the German penfriend, who quite logically re-invents krautrock on that 12".

Inrockuptibles, 12/2003

Drone-Indierock von Tigersushi? Mit 909 wie Thaddi mit glücklichem Blick vermerkt? Yo. Strange, das? Nein, Tigersushi kann ja schließlich machen, was sie wollen, das müssen sie nicht erst noch beweisen und irgendwie, nimmt man mal die Jesus And Marychain Coverversion beiseite, auch eine Platte, die sehr viel Spaß macht. Pappt postdepressive New Order mit völlig besäuselten My Bloody Valentines zusammen und ihr wisst, wie das klingt. Nett eben, durch und durch, nur bitte jetzt nicht Revolution rufen.

de:Bug website

glasgow's declan roney has been joined by new recruits martin johnstone & marceline smith, making uter a very individual three piece. the title cut on this four tracker "tomorrow's clowns", is as inspiring as it is inspired, wave after wave of fat synths, layer into an uplifting melancholy, harking back to some of joy division's & the cure's finest moments. "vibrato" comes over like early death in vegas,"my little undergroung" see's the jesus & mary chain having a ding dong with suicide, & finally "ohm sweet ohm" goes from kraftwerk to some twee scottish / omd thingy.

Wordandsound

Spaced out fuzzy electro rock with an alternative indy feel.

Sonic Groove

Time was when news of a New Order release prompted queues in the high street to get hold of a copy on the day of release. How we miss those days; when was the last time that happened? Midnight openings for rabid Metallica and Oasis fans notwithstanding, it’s been a long time, too long. So long in fact that I’ve forgotten what it felt like, but Üter bring it all back, and make this writer yearn for those heady days when quality was thin on the ground and real quality was snapped up. It’s just like today then, and though Üter are basically ripping off the New Order template it’s the classiest formula in town. Get in the queue.

Michael Ornadet, Logo

Üteris for me. Great stuff and a very pleasant surprise. It's moody, but with a slight electronic pop overtone, and might be dubbed cocktail-electro, but with rumbling bass. 'Tomorrow's Clowns' for example, is not unlike OMD, while the synth-drenched 'Trampaline' (sic) is a close cousin of Kraftwerk. 'Ohm Sweet Ohm' IS Kraftwerk - a cover version, which speeds up in disconcerting fashion. 'My Little Underground' is a Mary Chain cover but with electronic noise as opposed to the Reid brothers preferred feedback. There's another original song here - 'Vibrato' is the Human League remixed by Fatboy Slim. Or vice-versa.

Miles O'Toole, Is This Music?

One dose of Red Medicine later, and we're back with Glasgow's Üter, who seems to be pretty much a one-man band, albeit in a fully kitted-out home studio way, rather than strapping a few drums and a harmonica on and going off busking (although I hear there's money in that). And what we've got is an interesting little collection of drum machine-powered instrumentals driven along by insistent, warm basslines that bring to mind Fridge at their most outgoing. 'Tomorrow's Clowns' gets away with some cheesy keyboard washes hidden away in the mix and builds up very nicely over its five minutes, while Third Eye Foundation ambience swells underneath the Glaswegian Krautrock of 'Accordination'. 'Tramapoline' is inconsequential, but followed by a couple of interesting covers that, were Üter's influences not quite obvious, might betray them - we get a regal 'Ohm Sweet Ohm' by Kraftwerk, and 'My Little Underground' being played by the Jesus and Mary Chain underwater with short-circuiting Casio keyboards. Üter has 'no band and no record deal, but would like both'. And it'd be nice to see what he could come up with given both - some live drums, nice production and more flashing boxes than a Dixon's Christmas sale would spice up this already-enticing dish a treat.

Stuart Fowkes, www.diskant.net

Do you remember when the first Flying Saucer Attack album came out? Do you remember goggling at the photocopied sleeve notes that advised you to tape the LP with the recording levels too high and listen to that instead of the record, for full enjoyment? Do you remember how right it sounded when you did? Would you like a small hit of that fidelity buzz today? Try Üter's JAMC cover on this demo, recorded down a sewer with Kraftwerk's instruments. Stick around while Üter's mate, The Sultan of Browney, rewrites one of Üter's own cuts by sticking a huge beat and a rap on top of it.

Jimmy Possession, Careless Talk Costs Lives

Üter Vibrato *** (Worth a shot)
A quirky piece of Stereolab meets Joe Meek instrumental electro pop. Antique keyboards squelch and bleep over tin-pot break beats. The more upbeat B-sides are best. Here's hoping we get to hear more.

Mark Robertson, The List, 29.4.99