Utah Saints
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Utah Saints | |
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| Origin | Leeds, UK |
| Years active | 1991 – present |
| Genres | Electronica |
| Labels | London, Echo |
| Members | Jez Willis Tim Garbutt |
Utah Saints are a British dance band from Leeds in West Yorkshire. The music is produced by Jez Willis and Tim Garbutt, who are joined on-stage by other musicians whenever the band plays live.
Utah Saints were one of the early pioneers of bringing sampling technology into mainstream dance and pop music.
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[edit] History
They were described as "the first true stadium house band" (by Bill Drummond), though their music is difficult to place into one particular genre and they have been compared to Underworld, Fluke, The KLF, and even Ministry or Nine Inch Nails.
They first had chart success with the singles "What Can You Do For Me", "Something Good" and "Believe In Me", which they described as their vocal sample trilogy as those singles sampled Gwen Guthrie, Kate Bush and Human League respectively ("What Can You Do For Me" also features a sample from Eurythmics). Contrary to one rumour, the band were not sued by Kate Bush over the use of a sample from Bush's track "Cloudbusting" in the Utah Saints track "Something Good" - the sample was legally cleared before use.
Utah Saints then moved away from vocal samples with singles such as "I Want You" and "I Still Think Of You" (Jez Willis providing original vocals on each).
After their debut album, the self-titled Utah Saints, and one further single "Ohio", Utah Saints seemed to disappear for several years, doing remixes (including the theme to the 1995 blockbuster, Mortal Kombat), and producing tracks for other artists such as Terrorvision. During this time, they recorded an album that was to be called "Wired World" but was never released, and produced a handful of Utah Saints tracks that to date have never had a proper release either, with titles such as "Star", "Train" and "Rock".
They eventually re-appeared in late 1999 with charting singles "Love Song", "Funky Music" (featuring Edwin Starr on guest vocals), "Power To The Beats" and "Lost Vagueness" (featuring Chrissie Hynde). In 2002 they went back into hibernation and fans are still waiting for their next re-appearance.
The band are notorious amongst their fans and the dance music community for taking a long time in between their releases - their first album Utah Saints and follow-up album Two were released seven years apart.
They have also been working on projects under other names, such as BeatVandals, as well as developing their very popular regular Leeds-based club night SugarBeatClub.
[edit] Personnel Details
[edit] Discography
[edit] Albums
- Utah Saints (1992) #10 UK
- Two (2000)
[edit] Singles
- "What Can You Do For Me" (featuring samples of Eurythmics' "There Must Be An Angel" and KISS' Alive! album) (1991) #10 UK
- "Something Good" (featuring a sample of Kate Bush's "Cloudbusting") (1992) #4 UK
- "Believe In Me" (featuring a sample of Human League's "Love Action") (1993) #8 UK
- "I Want You" (1993) #10 UK (featuring a sample of Slayer's "War Ensemble") (1993)
- "I Still Think Of You" (1994) #32 UK
- "Ohio" (featuring a sample of Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer")
- "Love Song" (2000) #37 UK
- "Funky Music" (featuring Edwin Starr) (2000) #23 UK
- "Power To the Beats" (featuring Chuck D)
- "Lost Vagueness" (featuring Chryssie Hynde)
