UI
Sidelong

Intro

“Do you read comics?” and she plants two astonished hazel eyes on my face, accompanied by an expression mixed with compassion and resigned acceptance; and try to explain to her that this comic is Art Spiegelman's “Maus,” a chilling reconstruction of the Shoah that has won numerous awards and even a Pulitzer, she has already turned on her heels, gracefully in her few few years, has put her earphones back on and is typing some thoughts about love or friendship from her cell phone, leaving me like a fool, with my finger raised trying to find a response that didn't sound like a justification. That look, the look of my sweet niece (yes, it was my niece, wasn't it clear?), tormented me for a long time, I felt it on me every time I played a video game, read a comic, or listened to some good ignorant rock piece. So when I want to do “air guitar” with some trashy metal, I shut myself in my room, like the Pirandellian protagonist of “the wheelbarrow,” and unleash my baser instincts while in public I maintain a persona of a cultured listener of string quartets and vintage jazz.

Music

Luckily, albums like this “Lifelong” by Ui come out, which know how to align heart, butt, and brain, inventing this 'post-rock' thing in the '90s that—ultimately—means nothing, but when it works out, it's something that you can describe by saying: “what is it?” and impress your friends and your wife, and when it really works, it's also fun (if it doesn't, it's a bore with intellectual pretensions, but you still make a good impression). In this case, it's luxurious, just two basses and a drum set (a sprinkle of keyboards and some studio effects, maybe a hint of guitars, but always barely hinted at), purely instrumental pieces (except for a couple, but they certainly cannot be defined as songs) full of ideas and rhythm, but with a crooked tempo that seems so intelligent, and in the last piece, you can also do “air guitar” along with a fuzzed-up bass solo (or is it a guitar? Well, to me it sounds like an eight-string bass); basically, genius. Look at the cover: in my opinion, it immediately shows what kind of stuff is inside. And anyway, it's not that easy to describe this stuff, when you describe it you say: “what is it?” and you make a good impression, but it's not something for a one-time listen, something to find on YT while doing something else, it’s something kind of structured, that plays on effects, offers multiple interpretations, in short, it's “Post Rock” darn it!

Note on the authors

In 1990, music journalist Sasha Frere-Jones, who had already played with the “Dolores,” put together some pieces with his friend Clem Waldman and, since they went well, they left another bassist, Alex Wright, and percussionist David Weeks along the way and brought the much more talented Wibo Wright on board as the second bassist, and UI was born. They recorded four albums: “Unlike,” this “Sidelong,” “Lifelike,” “Answers,” and an EP “The Shar” plus a tasty collaboration with Stereolab under the name Uilab. Then the group disbanded because there wasn’t exactly a line of people eager to listen to them………… I recommend, besides this “Sidelong,” also giving a listen to “Lifelike,” more serious but still full of ideas. One could say something about these music journalists who switch sides to the microphone – like Morrisey, Mark Perry, Robert Palmer, Rolf Ulrich Kaiser, etc. – but I’m lazy, I just remind you that the two-bass setup is not such a rare thing, think of Cop Shoot Cop or Lightning Bolt (just to mention the first two that come to mind) or the incredible Ruins who do prog – PROG! – with a bass and drums.

Final rant

Ok, I talked about the album - it's nice alright - but there's something here that doesn't sit well with me. I can't just end it like this with my cheerful little niece, who should at least show more respect towards her uncle, and there is no way I’m giving her those hideous sparkly shoes again for the next Christmas!

I need to respond to her somehow.

At this point, the Reader will say: “but you need to give yourself an air when reading a comic and say you're reading Spiegelman or Pazienza or WhoKnowsWho, while I read Topolino or Tiramolla or even Jacula or Lando and I don’t give a damn.” In short, the problem isn't giving oneself an air, but distinguishing: so yes, Jacula and Pazienza are not the same thing, if you read both okay, but if you only read Jacula? And if you even say it's good?

If at a certain age you only read Mickey Mouse (or the sports newspaper, and maybe flaunt that you despise intellectuals and professors…….), well you might have a few issues. In short, if you take your kids to school or catechism singing “Gabba Gabba Hey Hey” wearing a Deicide t-shirt, thinking “they didn't bend me,” well, it makes me a bit sad; if you then drown yourself in music at 1000 mph to avoid thinking about how sad you are………. (damn, 1 to 0 for my niece!)

So alright with high and low…. alright with lightness……. alright let the child inside be free……. alright with the trash recovery, and enough with being posh and okay “and who judges what is and what isn't?”, “and who says this is beautiful and this is ugly?”, and not just the Serious and Important things…….. and even Eco said……… and even Pasolini recovered………

But darn it shit is shit! If something sucks, don't be afraid to say it (you can’t sell me shit as vegan chocolate!). And who decides what sucks? You do!

Read, watch, and listen to whatever you like but do it consciously, that's all. We must take the risk and duty (moral, yes moral) of aesthetic judgment (and this is not contradictory to what I've stated elsewhere – the duty to choose is moral but the judgment of the work is only aesthetic – if one wants to understand it) otherwise everything is the same: Men and Women and Pasolini, Malgioglio and Cohen, I Vanzina and Fritz Lang. Let it be clear I'm not stating that there exists a High and a Low, I find it entirely fair that Manzoni's “Merda d'Autore” is worth as much as a Vermeer painting, and I will always assert that “Ultimo tango a Zagarol” is a masterpiece while shouting to the skies my “WHAT A PAIN!” at the umpteenth viewing of Malick's “The Thin Red Line” because I take responsibility for my aesthetic judgments.

I give enormous importance to aesthetic judgment: I consider it more important than moral judgment and fundamental to forming a political conscience. To say I would like a law that prevents access to public offices (or at least the Ministry of Cultural Heritage) to anyone who bought a copy of “Sugli Sugli Bane Bane” by Le Figlie del Vento or “Sei Nata Per Fare La Zoccola” by Ponzio Pilato (thus taking a pebble out of my shoe since I've chosen an album for this review that nobody follows and it's long enough to discourage many), maybe today we wouldn’t have someone leading the government who sang “Madonnina degli Scout” in shorts at twenty…………(damn, I judge people by how they dress, what they read, and what they listen to! 2 to 0 for my niece!)

The world is complicated and you should not always look for the shortest paths to answers; one needs to make the effort to form an opinion, it's the condition of adulthood.

Darn it, but I have to say something to this little brat with her utterly banal brown eyes, with her freaking earphones with Laura Pausini and Marco Mengoni!

And then: “Yes I read comics, but I can afford to!”

Hope she doesn’t laugh.