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UNI - the bio
UNI is:
Jon Mattox Drums, Percussives, Moog Brian Cram Big Bottom Basses Melody White Belly Dancing
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UNI has guest performers join them onstage to expand the UNI sound. Each performance presents a new combination of musicians. The artists that have joined UNI on stage have included:
Here's the evolution of UNI:
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A version of UNI first appeared in November 1997. Jon Mattox talked his way into performing a show at Lumpy Gravy's 'alternative' music night in Los Angeles. Mind you, this was without a band, music, or a name. He calls up fellow drummer Shawn Nourse and says "Hey Shawn, you know how we've been wanting to be in a band together all these years... well... I booked us a show two weeks from today". That was it. UNI was born.
"Sinister electronic bachelor pad music" was one description of the pieces that were performed. The instrumentation was unique with Jon Mattox performing on analog & digital synths, samplers, tapes, and various percussion and Shawn Nourse keeping the groove with Simmons Drums, toy percussion, and playing cards. On the right is the only surviving image from that first performance (courtesy of Mark Wineman).
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For the next few months of 1997 UNI peformed a handful of shows around Los Angeles as a duo confounding audiences with the little known fact that, yes, drummers CAN perform music. UNI also attracted the attention of L.A. scenesters who made comments like "I've always wanted to be in a band like this..."
| In July of 1999, more than a year from those initial duo perfomances, UNI was reborn. Again, Jon committed to a performance before a lineup or music was in place. After that initial performance, he mutated the philosophy of uni to become more spontaneous & experimental in nature and open to revolving musicians. He asked former band mate, digital guru and synth comrade, Bill Knight to link up for Uni's return to the stage. Uni provided the perfect vehicle for his twisted style of keyboards. Common creative ground and natural selection moved Bill to return from musical exile in his studio, and join Uni. |
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Several of UNI's tunes stem from ideas recorded by Jon and Bill during past recording studio experimentations. The sound of Uni has become a potent mixture of rich textural backdrops underneath a mist (or hailstorm) of spontaneous improvisation, mutation, and groove. The audience of an Uni show is not cheated from witnessing the music as the musicians create and experience it for the first time with them.