What Is It was a song that was soon added to the The Ug Brothers live set in 1995 and became one of their most popular tracks. Dave wrote the lyrics after the band had jammed out the main groove enough for it to make some kind of sense. The talking part (not heard here so this particular piece of information is somewhat superfluous) was also written by Dave and delegated to George by accident after a recording blunder. He was never entirely comfortable with it.
These recordings of instrumentals – or Ugstrumentals – by The Ug Brothers were made at Graham’s flat in Fore Street, Exeter, above the Real McCoy Arcade during the late winter of 1994/5. They are most of the set of The Ug Brothers, including various pieces that were never performed live due to having had no lyrics written for them.
There are no vocals as Natalie was not there on the occasions that these Ugstrumentals were recorded. The idea was to have something to listen to and work on with a view to creating lyrics, and also as a karaoke tape for Natalie to sing along to when practising. Few further lyrics were forthcoming as things turned out. These Ugstrumental pieces still sound wonderful and full of interesting musical ideas. The concept of Ugstrumental pieces such as these was later developed by the Flicker project.
Copyright (c) Wud Records 1995, (p) Ug Music/Explicit Music 1995
