Underworld - Classic or Dud?

i never bothered with anything after two hundred days or whatever it was called. am i wrong not to bother?

Barking is great. Oblivion With Bells isn't but has some good tunes.

you know what's good? the pig & dan mix 2 of 'play pig'. i think it's mix 2 anyway, the one on the 12".

The Pete Heller mix of Peggy Sussed rules too. I really like Oblivion With Bells and Barking. The River Run Projects have some great songs mixed with some mediocre experimental things. The RRP 12"s all have great mixes on them but they're hard to find. They've done three soundtracks that are all good if you like ambient UW. You really need to get their webcast from 06 called underworld vs. Misterons. It's 1.5hrs of UW jamming versions of some classic tracks and new stuff. Killer versions, required listening.

okay "Dirty Epic" is just the greatest thing they ever did

it hits every single one of their strengths and sustains the awesome for 10 straight minutes

totally agree. Dirty + Dirty Guitar just make the whole experience that much more enjoyable. they opened one of the shows I saw in 07 with Dirty Epic. truly incredible.

So actually sitting down and listening to their Isles of Wonder soundtrack for the first time. That Evelyn Glennie collaboration really is something.

I was actually kind of surprised by the High Contrast tunes. Not at all what I expected out of him and quite good besides. The new UW stuff is great, not that you'd ever know it's them. Good remixes too. But the fact that there's three Arctic Monkeys tunes on it kind of puts me off. Just delete all the non-UW non-High Contrast stuff and you've got a neat album though.

alright, this thread inspired me to pull out the old Underworld discs. i'm surprised by how well dubnobass has held up. not a single element out of place. I think the rub against techno (at this time, especially), was how it's mostly just discordant elements that come together but don't really form anything above the sounds. This album (and actually, every Underworld album) is a great counterpoint to that. Some bad lyrics (thinking of the "number cruncher" line) but many many more good ones. And what DJP posted about Dirty Epic is totally OTM. everything about that one works.

High Contrast wrote a great 3 part blog post on his Olympic experience on his blog. Recommended reading.

I relistened to 2nd Toughest and, surprisingly, didn't hate it. I still feel like the recorded versions of most of the songs aside from "Rowla" and "Pearl's Girl" don't have the same impact that they do in a live setting (ESPECIALLY "Confusion The Waitress", which really kills the momentum of the album) but I have a much smaller chip on my shoulder about the actual album than I used to

I still rank it behind all of their other albums though, except maybe Oblivion With Bells

I never really had a problem with "Confusion". You kind of need to listen to it on good headphones to catch all the little things that go on on that album. It just captures SO MUCH of what was great about the whole 90's electro scene (dubnobass did too, but kind of had its own sound)

I humped the OWB thread, that albums a lot better than I thought it was upon release. Definitely one of those "cast aside all expectation and come in with an open mind" type albums. When it first came out I was just upset it didn't have "Silver Boots" or "You Do Scribble" on it.

Going to have to give OWB another chance someday.

It's really the only outlier from their overall consistency for me.

I totally can vibe with OWB up unti "Ring Road" pops up, at which point all of the good will I've built up over the preceding songs evaporates and I have to tap out

It really strikes me as if they said to themselves "what if we took the one or two redeeming qualities in 'Bruce Lee' away and stuck the result in the middle of the new album?"

As for Second Toughest, it's what got me hooked on Underworld and will always be my sentimental favorite. Though "Stagger" will probably always zero plays on my iTunes.

Underworld were given the Innovation in Sound Award last night for their work on the Olympics.

http://i.huffpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/258303/slide_258303_1667730_free.jpg

I think I said upthread, I first heard the 2nd Toughest material by walking into a live gig blind that I heard about from a dude hanging out in my apartment with one of my roommates; I had the "Born Slippy" single and knew about their Change The Weather/Underneath The Radar era and wanted to see what their show was about. The whole thing floored me. I ran out and bought the album the next day and the entire thing just felt... weak, and non-present.

I love Oblivion With Bells! Best Mamgu Ever is one of Rick Smiths finest 'Reich-ian' repetitive piano pieces and a track I can listen to over and over again. Faxed Invitation is also a sleeper worth spending time with. Glam Bucket was absolutely HUGE when played live but it's a case of 'guess you had to be there' because it can come across flat on the album. Overall it's a really solid record and my only complaint is Holding The Moth. That track was much stronger live before the album was released but they over worked it and it came out sounding stilted and awkward.

xpost so we're basically saying the same thing. First taste was the sweetest taste.

Personally I don't have a problem with "Ring Road". I was okay with "Bruce Lee" and "Trim" too. Obviously not the best UW has to offer but as a one-off thing I don't have a problem with it. The chorus is good, at least. Agreed about "Glam Bucket" too. It's like "Twist" from AHDO, it's decent enough on the album but it feels like they really figured out what to do with the track live. Then again UW is really much different live and in studio. In the studio everything is perfected in its own way (I really like the studio version of "Holding the Moth"!), but yes it does lose some of its spontaniety.

"Best Mamgu Ever" is the one track that's been hitting me very hard lately and honestly I think it's one of their ten best. I'm a huge fan of the "Big Sister" EP they did and this is really just an extension of that. The way the vocals are mixed in is really astounding, but like all great UW tracks it just builds up under your nose, before you know it there's a long guitar solo and like three vocal parts. Those three final tracks on OWB are all fantastic ("Good Morning Cockerel" is really a beautiful thing. No way do Orbital or the Chems or Fluke do something like this).

i like the iciness of STITI, it's definitely colder in sound but it feels like a 2 AM train ride through an endless metropolis to me which probably hits me more than their warmer or plurier stuff.

I agree. I think the thing that I like so much about "Juanita" in album form is its majestic restraint, i.e. those alternating chords in half-heard choral background instead of juicy synthesizer hits.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4Brfp118S0

Karl Hyde solo album in the offing:

http://www.factmag.com/2013/01/24/underworlds-karl-hyde-announces-solo-album-edgeworld-stream-the-first-track-inside/

balls

Lanois!

well sort of

It is isn't it? It's also a little bit Talk Talk-ish, and a little bit like Small Hours by John Martyn

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01828/edgelands_main_1828410f.jpg

^ guessing that this book provided some of the inspiration for the project

Listening to the sample again, he should obviously have released this thing in late autumn/early winter

that sample really doesn't reveal a whole lot. but I do really like the ambient side of the group; the I'm a Big Sister EP and Rick's Bungalow With Stairs release are both excellent listening 30 minutes before bedtime

although Bungalow really creeps me out

Pre-ordered. Can't wait. Cut Clouds sounds beautiful.

http://www.karlhyde.com/

frogbs, do you like the Breaking and Entering soundtrack? I'm equally excited for Rick Smiths new soundtrack for the Danny Boyle film.

not as much as the two releases I mentioned; it's a little too much "background" for me, though some of the tracks ("Happy Toast" in particular) are real stunning

Track sounds lovely.

That book is awful, by the way.

The album is very nice.

great to see them (among very few other dance/electronic type bands) in BBC6's Best 100 Songs Of The Last 10 Years poll yesterday, keeping their end up at number 77 with Two Months Off amid the nu-folk and skinny indie kids.

For a moment I thought one track sampled Hans Appelqvist.

don't know if this was covered but barking is still pretty awesome

djh, what album are you talking about? breaking and entering or the new Karl Hyde?

i'm a little relieved at how well Barking has held up for me over 15+ listens. it's crazy that as a 14-year old my favorite groups were Underworld, the Chems, and Orbital. and now those three are responsible for some of my favorite albums of the last couple years. I figured they were all cooked!

again though let me stress how fucking incredible Oblivion With Bells is; it sinks in the way AHDO never quite did.

I will never understand how people underrate AHDO the same way I will never understand how people underrate Come With Us.

what do you like so much about it? i love the first two tracks and the last two - the middle section is what gets me. I like parts of it such as the wobbly off-beat rhythm on "Little Speaker" or the ambience of "Twist" (the live versions blow this out of the water by the way) but a lot of it feels uninspired for this band...particularly "Dinosaur Adventure" which seems like an analgam of past UW successes constructed just for single purposes; "Sola Sistim" doesn't really go places and much of "Little Speaker" is kinda lame, especially as the bass drowns out everything else. I still like the album and think it's actually quite good for a post-2000 release from an electronic act but it was definitely a drop off from the first three. Come With Us I'd rate on the same level - not as good as the first three, does have some great tracks, just not enough substance for me

"Twist" is one of my favorite tracks on the album, right behind "Luetin" and "Two Months Off"

Basically techno samba is one of my favorite things in the world

Luetin and Trim are the two sleeper-keepers for me. Their Peel versions are great too. Mo Move is also killer. Frogbs OTM re: live version of Twist being superior to the album version. DA3D is a track I never play but I think Chicken Lips did a decent remix.

Yes on all of that. Plus, "Sola Sistem" is maybe my very favorite of their atmospheric downtempo mood setters.

Sure "Dino Adventure" is sort of epic-on-autopilot, but most of the remaining album is good to great. Even at their best, almost everything they've done since is adequate to good.

And Come With Us doesn't remotely flag until Side B. Genuflect before "Star Guitar" or gtfo.

I like "Trim" as well. But it's kind of a minor track. I dunno, maybe not liking "Sola Sistem" much is why I don't really see it as being that great an album. Seems like a pretty key piece. As for Come With Us - you said it, I like "The Test" a lot but the second half really seems low on ideas.

Brotherlovesdub: apologies for slow reply. The Karl Hyde album.