why don't you poll me I feel like flying to... the UNDERWORLD Poll Results thread -- produced by Smith & Hyde for ILM Artist Poll #102

heebies & jeebies. Wonder if we'll see Mosaic here

― maf you one two (maffew12), Monday, June 8, 2020 11:45 AM (one week ago)

(For anyone who thinks Mosaic and Confusion The Waitress share enough elements to be counted together, they also would have scored 600 points combined.)

If "Jedis Sugar Hit Mix" of Jumbo merited an Abbey Road remaster then

AND IT CERTAINLY DID

a lot of great stuff today:
the fm mix of "mother earth" really makes it with the sax intro
duuuuuuuuune! probably my favourite of their downtempo tracks, one of the very best from drift
"most 'ospitable" is their absolute best ambient piece
didn't vote for "tongue" or even really consider it, so i was really underrating it
the album version of "twist" is fine but the guitar on the rehearsal version is so much better and really elevates it

bonus quotes for Rowla:

i had such an urge to listen to Rowla yesterday i dl'd it at work tho i have the CD at home

― blueski, Friday, October 8, 2004 3:39 AM

Also, "Rowla" fights with "Luetin" as being their best album track ever.

― DJP, Friday, January 7, 2005 6:11 AM

"rowla" is just kinda grating and repetitive to me, much prefer "cherry pie" (which i'm assuming it was combined with)

I like both, but not enough to vote for either. I think some sort of combo between the two would be the ideal mix for me

what's that you say?

cheers, groovypanda! silly for me not to go looking for this mix myself. this is basically exactly what I wanted

"kiss my wound"? Sheesh. And now that I've gone directly to "Tongue" for the first time ever, that's clearly right. Somehow in my head it was "love".

― maf you one two (maffew12), Tuesday, June 16, 2020 8:11 AM (three hours ago)

I'm leaving typos in the quoted comments if they speak to an elevated enthusiasm, btw, and tidying them up if it'll make the poster's intent clearer - but this guy actually had it as "kiss my root."

A morning heater for the European readers:

http://ghostable.uk/public/ilx/underworld/u039-673727.png

39. Bird 1
613 points, 13 votes
2010 single from album Barking

video by Dylan Kendle
KCRW session video 2011 (link to 13:36)

their newest song, Strumpet, is fantastic. check out the version from Oct. 31st / Brixton.

― brotherlovesdub, Tuesday, December 16, 2008 9:52 AM

audience video 2009 (as "Strumpet')

Underworld are deep into their most creative period ever. I'm in love with their recent work. Webcasts, artjams, live shows, social networking. It's a great time to be an Underworld fan now that the Lager, Lager, Lager heads have moved on. Between Stars and Strumpet are great indicators of their new direction. Karl is doing a poetry thing with Eno and one of the Eno/Hyde collaborations will probably turn up on the forthcoming K7 DJ compilation series Underworld is starting. Big things ahead in 2010.

― brotherlovesdub, Friday, October 16, 2009 2:36 AM

live jam entry in fan remix contest

lately I have become obsessed with "Bird 1"

― DJP, Wednesday, October 12, 2011 5:03 AM (eight years ago) bookmarkflaglink

it's a great song. the live version from 10/31/08 at Brixton is really good.

― brotherlovesdub, Wednesday, October 12, 2011 5:06 AM

i love lots of lines in that song but the one that really gets me is 'a moped started up, sounded like a chainsaw, tiny firecrackers'

― brotherlovesdub, Wednesday, October 12, 2011 5:07 AM

it really does call back to the lyrical style of "Dirty Epic" re: the whole lucid dreaming thing they do so well

― DJP, Wednesday, October 12, 2011 5:21 AM

There's a noise in Bird 1 that repeats that kills the song for me. I love Strumpet and still play it a bunch, but they ruined the track once they took it to the studio. I would love to discuss the meaning of the lyrics of that song though. I have a theory, but I'd like to hear other theories.

― brotherlovesdub, Wednesday, March 21, 2018 10:20 AM

piano cover

I play "Bird 1" something like once a week

― DJP, Wednesday, March 21, 2018 12:02 PM

https://i.imgur.com/ruTrwaK.jpg

i always forget how amazing "bird 1" is

― BradNelson, Wednesday, March 21, 2018 7:34 AM

I've never got bld's insistence that the album version on Barking has been ruined compared to the early versions of Strumpet. They're not massively dissimilar imo (and nothing like the difference between You Do Scribble and Scribble)

had never heard that cherry pie / rowla mashup, that rules

The annoying pew sound on the downbeat that runs throughout the song is all I can hear once it starts.

Oh I guess it’s pasted above, I haven’t read through all the posts. Some people have different opinions.

Bird1 is the best lyrical song Karl Hyde has ever written. There’s another opinion others won’t share.

Dune reminds me of some downer eighties sophisto-pop. Can't quite place the exact thing, something like War Baby by Tom Robinson.

I think Bird 1 was the only thing from Barking on my ballot. Great track!

the lyrics on Barking are surprisingly good

Bird 1 is such a good little story, not quite my #1 on that album but vvvv close.

Maybe I was thinking of Hold On To Your Dreams as well, although that's been on my mind anyway. xps at me re: dune.

https://youtu.be/658677tpgkc

http://ghostable.uk/public/ilx/underworld/u038-028744.png

38. Air Towel
614 combined points, 14 total votes
402 pts from 10 votes for the 1996 album track on Second Toughest In The Infants, which would have placed around 56 on sole votes
and 212 pts from 4 votes for the 2000 rehearsal tape released as a free mp3 edited that year, and in full during Drift in 2019. This would have been 87 by itself
audio
Airtowel A2778 Live Jam for Web Dec 2000 audio or youtube

This, to me, feels more of a #56 track than a #38 track.

i love classic cuts like 'rez' but i feel like their deep cuts are often pretty revelatory and inspiring, like idk 'luetin' or 'air towel'..

― nomar, Friday, September 23, 2016 5:16 AM

audience audio 2008

https://i.imgur.com/Fy2NzI8.jpg

Had never realised what an airtowel was until this second

― James Morrison, Friday, May 10, 2019 11:08 AM

I didn’t until you pointed out that was what the image was supposed to depict

I’m satisfied to have that mystery cleared up but I will kind of miss its former status in my life as a nonsense phrase

― Champiness, Friday, May 10, 2019 2:14 PM

Was #35 on mine so feels about right xp

Does anyone know what the actual lyrics are towards the end?

Most sites have it as "Should I want it. Should I want" which sounds like it could be right but sometimes (and especially in some live versions) it sounds more like "Just where I want it. Just where I want"

This, to me, feels more of a #56 track than a #38 track.

― Dirty Epic H. (Eric H.), Tuesday, June 16, 2020 10:30 AM (nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

nah shit's funky

it was almost certainly pushed this far by the live jam though

xp, end lyrics, to me it's been "cereal wharf egg".

Love it

Cereal Wharf Egg would make a great title for a late-90s bootleg live CD

good track but yeah it placed ahead of a lot of more deserving tunes

Would you have been happier with this at #38?

http://ghostable.uk/public/ilx/underworld/interupt-tinthere.png

Intially a hard remix of Pearl's Girl, refined into its own track for a video game, and tightened even further for the CD soundtrack release of that game, Tin There scored 623 points from 13 voters (in various forms), including 1 #1 vote.

audio of CD version

lol xps

Damn, well that was almost certainly my #1 there.

God that thing is a demon of a track.

Anyways, Underworld is still classic because did I mention that "Tin There" is basically my favorite techno barnburner ever?

― Eric H., Thursday, January 8, 2004 4:27 AM

"Tin There" (Wipeout XL version)

― Eric H., Friday, May 19, 2006 2:00 PM

"Tin There" is blissful carnage.

― Eric H., Tuesday, July 17, 2007 6:19 AM

Going to stunt for Tin There over Pearl's Girl (Tin There). It's much less blown out, but I dig its strict crescendo-decrescendo symmetry better than the Pearls Girl version's variations.

― Eric H., Thursday, May 7, 2020 6:50 AM

lol i was kinda hopin tin there would be counted separately but yeah what a stormer

xp on second thought, it's hard for me to be sure I was the #1 vote

:)

tin there is SO GOOD, i think that's my first top 10 to place? (bird 1 was 11th, that was the only one close)

I had air towel high too! i declare this section of the poll ~the good zone~ (jk it's all good)

(actually i just checked, phonestrap was my 10th so it's the second top 10 to place, but anyway)

also re: tin there and re: wipeout, i had a video game magazine that had this ad in it and i used to think about it ALL THE TIME (i had no access to the game and no idea what it was about!)

https://i.imgur.com/dG2DX5X.png

also i have no idea who sara cox is but to the british ppl here, yes that is sara cox

kinda hopin tin there would be counted separately

Por que no los dos? dot gif

I like that we get a tiny snippet of the Designers Republic sneaking into this Tomato-sauced poll btw. xp: and now some extra from Will!

i mean i'm thankful you're giving us the alt universe list where it counts, sic

http://ghostable.uk/public/ilx/underworld/u037-629941.png

37. Stagger 
660 points, 14 votes
1996 album track from Second Toughest In The Infants

audio

Meh.

ahahaha too low

kind of yet another underworld track that invents a genre they never return to

Tin There was pretty high on my ballot, I never played the game itself but I did buy the Wipeout 2097 soundtrack CD and always loved that song. Hearing the longer version was interesting but I think I do prefer the one I'm more familiar with.

Air Towel is one of my favourites on Second Toughest so it feels too low to me if anything!

There is nothing in the songs "Blueski", "Stagger" and "Juanita" (for example) that sounds anything like anything in the other two.

― roxymuzak, Tuesday, June 29, 2004 11:55 AM

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.

― Eric H., Wednesday, October 24, 2012 1:49 AM

https://i.imgur.com/QQ6oSkQ.jpg

rehearsal jam audio

it's so random that this should feature