Mega Mega Vote Thing - UNDERWORLD (Smith/Hyde) in ILM Artist Poll #102 - Campaigning, Discussion, Equivocating until 22nd May

can't wait to read that book. and what a trip to see Karl with Debbie Harry above.

There's a video with 3 20-second snippets of the Experimental Sound Field here: https://www.facebook.com/borndirty/videos/979915415404652/?permPage=1 (publicly viewable)

Not sure how many people have heard the collaboration single with High Contrast and Tiesto, it's like a glimpse of a parallel universe where Underworld were a Chart EDM/D&B group of the early 2010s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWOJyegyRbM

Sure 90% will find it unbearably cheesy, but afraid I love it without reservations - the backwards string sample at 1:41 is the money shot here btw.

The first salvo in that big room / collab era is also thrillingly obvious, and so Underworldy that it became a regular part of their setlists that year

(checking setlist.fm - aww, the first time I heard it was the first time they played it live)

it's like a glimpse of a parallel universe where Underworld were a Chart EDM/D&B group of the early 2010s
this is kinda what Barking is, which is part of why it feels so strange to me

About Glastonbury... well there was no Glastonbury in 1991. Mother Earth single was 1992. I'm thinking that little show behind the crowd couldn't have been 1990?

yeah, 1990 feels way too early for Karl to accept messing about in electronic / jam format. maybe it was a non-Glastonbury festival in 1991, that's he's overwritten his memory of?

Too Little Too Late (Club Mix)

― ufo, Saturday, May 9, 2020 4:40 PM (yesterday)

two weeks of

btw I left this one (& the Barking promo) out since it's still an "in-print" (Beatport exclusive) new release, but on one listen it seemed to just be an extended version of the sedate original, not a banging remix

“The First Note is Silent” is by far my favorite of the banger collab era. At the time I could barely get through it because I feared it was a permanent shift towards straightforward lyrics + famous EDM co-producers - listening knowing that that’s not the case, it’s such a good track.

also really love the original "Diamond Jigsaw" with the Van Halen synth though the one on the album is pretty sweet as well.

and Diamond Jigsaw had these massive chord changes which Paul Van Dyk didn't even seem to bother with.

Poking about in a folder of old UW website giveaways, I found a Diamond Jigsaw that's labelled as "demo mix," but seems to be at least partially live (possibly from Las Vegas?). Those synths are not only SO Van Halen, you'd think they would have been perfect for a mersh trance producer to latch onto and amplify.

listening to "big meat show," an outtake from dubnobass that's on the 1992-2012 comp, and it's..... fantastic????

On further reading, turns out this leaked onto the borndirty board in 2008 from a 1993 DAT that also contained the other two unreleased songs from the 2014 deluxe dubnob -- looks like Rick may have been reminded that they existed and put Big Meat on that best-of bcz the peeps on their message board were into it!

(gonna retag it to reside with the rest of the unreleased 1991-93 album, knocking that one over the CD length limit)

I’d be interested in knowing your track list and running order for that!

Just the disc from the dubluxe box - I previously had Big Meat in "Bs & Sidetracks 1992-2018".

it's weird how I'm A Big Sister... and Pizza For Eggs are so good but Lovely Broken Thing is one of the least essential things they've ever done

Outside of the first track obviously, though the Tokyo live version from 2005 fucking kills it, I never listen to the original anymore

Done the book (very little bio material left after the posted page). Definitely disregard the bit on that page about "returned to Glastonbury nine years after Freur had played there", as that would put it at '93!

Quick timeline cuz this is all driving me up a wall while I'm enjoying going through the early music

- 1983 April-May, "Doot-Doot" single charting. It is kicked off the chart after a friend is caught buying multiple copies, apparently.
- 1984 June, Freur played Glastonbury... some small stage?
- Karl is an extra in an Alison Moyet video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8CeAHfAD2w
- 1985 November, Clive Barker film "Underworld" (aka "Transmutations") released with soundtrack by Freur. Karl's book calls this job a "parting gift" from the label.
- 1986 Freur second/final album "Get Us Out Of Here" is released in Germany and the Netherlands only, with no label push and they're dropped.
- 1988 February, Underworld "Underneath the Radar" album release.
- 1988 summer, six week tour of the US. Sometime around this, Rick builds his first studio in Romford.
- 1989 fall, "Change the Weather" album release. Band plays their final shows on Eurythmics US tour.
- Around that time, Rick and Karl (mostly Karl) work with Terri Nunn on her solo record, and from then it doesn't sound like they grab a whole lot of time together until it's for the early material we've heard. Every other page of this hired gun section of Karl's book ends with something like, "Rick was calling me back to Romford, where I should've been all along."
- I'm thinking Darren enters the picture around now. Karl's book understandably puts off talking about him til he is back in town full time, though this article has Darren joining up with Rick in 1990, at 17 years old (also... Karl's a synaesthete?).
- 1991 late July: Karl back from Debbie Harry tour, sounds like he works a bunch with Rick and Darren... I guess sometime here there's that short show behind a crowd with "Mother Earth", somewhere... and a few earners as a larger band, in front of a crowd, per sic's YouTube.
- 1991 November: Karl called to New York for Debbie Harry sessions that don't pan out (and one show at CBGB's). This is the time in NYC he writes a lot of the dubnobass lyrics.
- 1992: ME/The Hump 12" (any idea when that year, anyone?). Band members involved in Glastonbury "Experimental Sound Field" all-weekend gig (extra plug for book: gig almost taken over by outlaw DJs!). Right after that in the book it's the "first Underworld MKII gigs", at Ministry of Sound and Soundshaft. Can't turn up exact dates.

...... and from there it's all clear enough I guess.

All to say I think Rick was woodshedding a long while. Karl spends the last few pages thanking Rick for letting him be in his band. It's very sweet. Happy anniversary boys :')

👏👏

Too Little Too Late (Club Mix)

on one listen it seemed to just be an extended version of the sedate original, not a banging remix

there's also a bass drum that comes in at the start instead of working up gradually.

the impression I get is that the Riverrun stuff didn't work out the way they wanted, none of the casual fans knew about it & a lot of people had trouble downloading them. there wasn't really the infrastructure for just putting stuff out the way there is now. when they started the project I think they had eyes on doing more than just 3 but I think they quickly learned that if it wasn't on a studio album most people just weren't gonna hear it

Could be, but might also just be that their whim changed or they were actively distracted by getting paid for the work. The three Riverruns, Oblivion With and the two film scores are apparently all the product of one consistent two-year run of output from the pair.

And it's not like they were any more consistent when they tried "just putting stuff out" with Drift. First it was just a notion of World Of Underworld where they were going to release old and new stuff regularly. They made it one year-belated EP, one covermount 7" of old tracks, one new single and half a new song on a youtube video before retreating and rethinking.

Then once they had a backlog built up and switched to Drift, it's not like they took advantage of the infrastructure in any consistent way. They could have made a year-long subscription through their website (TMBG style), or created a membership channel on Bandcamp, but instead they seemed to make it up week by week as to how things would come out. The new tracks always had a video version, but the tracks would be on sale on varying platforms at different fidelity levels, week to week. Once they started giving away one-week downloads, they would skip weeks here and there. Sometimes the in-between archive stuff was a new DJ mix, sometimes a "new" old track, sometimes a medley of demos, sometimes an old track that had only been in lower bitrates, sometimes only on mixcloud, sometimes on mixcloud and soundcloud, sometimes a download, etc etc.

(The frustrating inconsistency was part of the fun of Drift! But they definitely limited the audience in a similar way to Riverrun by again not making it a consistent and reliable mode of release.)

your idea of all these sustained peaks - challenging the very nature of a peak! - and none of them containing Second Toughest... just boggles the mind.

I mean really everything from 1992 to 1999 is really great, but really there was just an insane wealth of stuff from 93 and 94 alone. STITI has a handful of really great B-sides & remixes of course, absolutely love "Oich Oich", "Puppies", "Cherry Pie", and "Tin There"...but overall idk if that deluxe set worked quite as well as the dubnobass one

And A Hundred Days Off I think much more belongs with the three that dreams are cake of before it than anything that came after.

A Hundred Days Off feels a bit like a sequel to Beaucoup imo, the way Second is a sequel to dubnob. I figure it's more because that's where Smith & Hyde's heads were at, especially after touring BF, than any commercial idea of staying close to what people expected.

The deluxe Toughest is absurdly good value by any standards other than classic Dr Who DVDs or the deluxe dubnob... but yeah, it feels less seam-bursting. Possibly a combo of them now being more confident about what Underworld mkII was, and the fact of their success meaning that they could work out new material for hours on stage instead of hours and hours in the rehearsal room, means that there was simply less material on tape to excavate this time around.

(Or Rick was just exhausted after all the work on & remastering from scratch on the first box! Note BF deluxe's "will this do?" offering of two discs of outside remixes, and then the switch to World Of Underworld / Drift instead of cataloguing their legacy with any more reissues...)

i'm into the second toughest material now. "cherry pie"... pure bliss

the og "born slippy" too

xp Great timeline!

I remember the fun of them releasing the Blue Mountain session on uwlive.com back in '99 or so. Featuring an extended King of Snake, Cappe Ffuno, and a superior Something Like a Mama. Feels like this was around the start of their free download experiments. A proper "live in the studio" jam.

https://www.mixcloud.com/MixesByOtherDJs/underworld-live-blue-mountain/

omfg i forgot about "deep arch" and how it is perfect

too bad how they fell off then tho... lol

#secondtoughestteam

I remember the fun of them releasing the Blue Mountain session on uwlive.com back in '99 or so

Same. Crazy how that box set ended up. Looking forward to dipping back into what wasn't on it!

ok what is with that vocal sample on "The Hump (Groove Without A Doubt)" lmao

baaaaaaaaaaaooowww!

Been having a look at what the internet likes by Underworld.

The 10 Best Underworld Songs - Stereogum

10. “Two Months Off” (from A Hundred Days Off, 2002)
9. “Always Loved A Film” (from Barking, 2010)
8. “Low Burn” (from Barbara Barbara, we face a shining future, 2016)
7. “Beautiful Burnout” (from Oblivion With Bells, 2007)
6. “Small Conker And A Twix/You Do Scribble” (from Live In Tokyo 25th November 2005)
5. “Pearl’s Girl” (from Second Toughest In The Infants, 1996)
4. “Dirty Epic” (from Dubnobasswithmyheadman, 1994)
3. “Born Slippy .NUXX” (from the “Born Slippy” single, 1995)
2. “Jumbo” (from Beaucoup Fish, 1999)
1. “Juanita:Kiteless:To Dream Of Love” (from Second Toughest In The Infants, 1996)

Greatest Hits : Underworld - Treblezine

“Crocodile” from Oblivion with Bells (2007; PIAS)
“Mmm…Skyscraper I Love You” from dubnobasswithmyheadman (1994; Junior Boy’s Own)
“Dinosaur Adventure 3D” from A Hundred Days Off (2002; Junior Boy’s Own)
“Push Upstairs” from Beaucoup Fish (1999; Junior Boy’s Own)
“Underneath the Radar” from Underneath the Radar (1988; Sire)
“Stand Up” from Change the Weather (1989; Sire)
“I Exhale” from Barbara, Barbara we share a shining future (2016; Caroline International)
“Born Slippy .NUXX” from “Born Slippy” single (1995; Junior Boy’s Own/Wax Trax!)
“Pearl’s Girl” from Second Toughest in the Infants (1996; Junior Boy’s Own)
“Scribble” from Barking (2010; Cooking Vinyl)
“Juanita: Kiteless: To Dream of Love” from Second Toughest in the Infants
“Two Months Off” from A Hundred Days Off
“Jumbo” from Beaucoup Fish
“Bird 1” from Barking
“Santiago Cuatro” from Barbara, Barbara we share a shining future
“Beautiful Burnout” from Oblivion with Bells
“Dark & Long” from dubnobasswithmyheadman
“Rez/Cowgirl” from Everything, Everything (2000; Junior Boy’s Own)

I've been listening to hours of Underworld every day for a week and so far all I've determined is that The Hump will not be in my top 77

sic I mailed you (via ilx tho so not sure if it got thru)

xp "Eclipse" tho!

IMO the standout Barbara track is "If Rah", and I don't say this only because my kids used to shout "LUNA LUNA LUNA LUNA / I LOVE THIS*" during bathtime

* AFAIC this is the lyric now

that track is in my head all the time but "Ova Nova" is the one I keep coming back to

Funny that I once more get to bemoan missing that Glastonbury festival in 1992. I couldn't easily get the time off work but a bunch of my mates at the time came back talking about the Experimental Sound Field. I think the first time I saw Underworld was the London Megadog the following October (I learned from rowla.com linked above) and that still stands in memory as one of the finest live music experiences.

A few years after that I went to a Goa / psy-trance type thing at Brixton Academy largely because they were using that ESF rig, which was like eight stacks surrounding the large dancefloor. The music was given a deconstructed edge because the decks weren't isolated and were constantly jumping.

I've been listening to hours of Underworld every day for a week and so far all I've determined is that The Hump will not be in my top 77

haven't been managing that much time. All I got so far is that Change the Weather slays Underneath the Radar! Album ballot slots 14 and 15 settled,lol

the version of Spoonman from Nov 92 on the dubnobass boxset is so good, I think I like it even more than the original

OK i see where y'all are coming from re: Barbara Barbara, but, have you considered: "I Exhale"

btw sic thank you for separating out "pearl's girl" and "tin there" because i would've been voting for both anyway

"i exhale" is the rare underworld track that doesn't really justify being 8 minutes. the single edit is great though. love the music video too

If Rah and I Exhale make me irrationally angry. I still believe those are the worst moments in their entire history, including the Freur wardrobe. Just absolute garbage aimed at morons who yearn for a return of the Skint label and a big beat revival. I realize i'm nearly alone in my opinion. So, yeah, that's just like my opinion man.

lol no way

the worst, including the spangled tops? the leather jackets? the running the fingers through the hair?

It's not nearly as fun to just say i skip those tracks, is it?

haha right. I'm placing it extra high now. It does make me irrationally happy

really fondly remember how confused and excited i was when i first heard "i exhale"

I still hear "Hit the North" but yeah great track

i wish it was 8 hours

I've always sung 'Hit the North' over the opening of I Exhale too.

UW may be the only band to ever do the deluxe reissue/"classic album in full" tour thing and come out way more creative on the other side

don't get me wrong I like the Barking period and some of the singles they did around that time (especially "Downpipe") but in retrospect it definitely seems like a deliberate attempt to reclaim their throne as the kings of house floor-fillers (after self-consciously avoiding that sound for a decade) and I think they realized that when it comes to pop culture and singles charts you don't really get a second go at it

q: is "juanita/kiteless" the greatest song ever recorded by anyone

second toughest does feel like a sequel to dubno, more refined, confident, exploratory, lighter on its feet in every way, but "juanita/kiteless" still feels like it comes from another world entirely

like how did they make that

i see you

q: is "juanita/kiteless" the greatest song ever recorded by anyone

a: no

(pvmic)