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

Slamming a ballot together.

not a big enough fan to vote, but I hope Stagger does well. I love that one

Should have titled it Colonel Sanders Fingers

#72 here. Now feeling great shame.

imo no such thing as 'not a big enough fan' for these things

I could name you 5 of their songs and you have to submit 13

my goodness you're not a fan at all :D

it's a reasonable cutoff I guess!

incidentally what are your 5? that's interesting cuz you like Stagger

#showmetheballots

#72 here. Now feeling great shame

and so you should. top 15 on mine

i should've voted for "banstyle/sappys curry" even higher

"stagger" is in my top ten i think

one of the many reasons i love second toughest in the infants is that the sequencing makes it a rave center ("rowla"/"pearl's girl") surrounded by gossamer jazzy flourishes ("juanita," "banstyle," and "stagger")

Agreed, the expansiveness of “banstyle/sappy’s curry” and “stagger” (as well as the “kiteless” / “to dream of love” section of the opener) both give the album its distinctive feel vis a vis their other work and allows the band the room to record what is perhaps otherwise their most uncompromising work - later tracks could be faster or harder, but the sheer minimalism of much of this album still startles.

Actually it’s really only about the first minute of “Juanita” that sounds minimalist, isn’t it? But I love the way that track starts and hence the way the album starts: dropping you straight into the middle of a techno set in some dark club at 2am in the morning (one of the genius things about the Everything Everything version is how it totally replaces the undercarriage of this section with something both housier and ravier while preserving this essential truth).

dog latin you are going to have a WILD RIDE in the rollout

I just sent in a ballot. That was ridiculously difficult. A bunch of what I love about underworld is contained in the remixes they did from 92-95, so I'd like to chat about those at some point too.

ffs

don't count it if it's too late. no sweat.

Tim, that's so beautiful

listening to Second Toughest tonight, I'm 8 minutes in and just ordered the vinyl and now think I put Juanita & the whole album too low on my ballot

cancel the poll!

now that I've looked it over I'd probably only put either of them up one spot, god damn they just have so much good stuff

I've heard the Everything, Everything version of this so many times, that was the version of it I knew for a couple years before I got the STITI CD

it's really a different tune, Tim definitely otm

keep listening

can I just say that banging piano underpinning is one of the most brilliant things ever in electronic music

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

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Monday, 11 May 2020 17:45 (two weeks ago) link

if I had to bet it'll be #1. it's definitely placing higher than my #1. but I don't regret it

while i'm here quoting Brad, this came to mind the other day

man... they were gold from the moment "spikee" dropped

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Thursday, 7 May 2020 13:57 (three weeks ago) link

how many electronic acts are legendary from just 1 or 2 12"s? Skyscraper(!) and Rez(!!!) came before Spikee. They were legends before the "first" album. dang.

you know it never occurred to me the hook in "Sappy's Curry" was just a bunch of sampled guitar like the "King of Snake" intro

don't forget that Dirty predates those!

xp

xp Orbital maybe. and Chime, Belfast, & Satan all dropped before the first album

in my thoughts rn about the legacy of Lemon Interupt had Underworld stopped at Rez.

yeah goodnight

a Rowla/Chemical Beats mash up would be pretty sick

I did relisten to dubnobass the other day - the 2014 version, as I've deleted all the original files off my computer and the vinyl copy is the new one. it's weird how much those little imperfections that were wiped out in the remaster get lodged in your brain - it sounds off without the mic pop in the Skyscraper intro or the deep bass stutter on Dirty Epic

I had a similar moment of regret relistening to 100 Days Off after submitting my ballot. I think I've underrated that album since it came out

Everyone has.

AHDO was a lot better than I remembered it to be

I haven't treated Underworld as an albums band at all since Second Toughest, but listening back to whole LPs for the poll has revealed the startling fact that they're very very good at making albums.

(emailed you, brotherlovesdub)

how many electronic acts are legendary from just 1 or 2 12"s? Skyscraper(!) and Rez(!!!) came before Spikee. They were legends before the "first" album. dang.

Yeah, I got into them in 93 with that awesome run of singles and by the time the album dropped the following January it was one of the most anticipated in a long while. And then they went and dropped the Dark & Long EPs a few months later

how many electronic acts are legendary from just 1 or 2 12"s

see the Vitalic thread last week. also Inner City tbh

I meant that they could've stopped there and they'd still be remembered

yah I said the same thing about Vitalic (people kinda care about the first album, but...) and I literally can't name an Inner City song after the first two singles

Aha. Yeah some might've done better not to make an album at all!

Aeroplane to thread

inner city’s paradise is a good album!!! but also yes the singles are towering

Had The Prodigy packed it in after that first run of singles (What Evil Lurks/Android, Charly, Everybody in the Place) they still would have been massively remembered IMO.

So many good Inner City singles, I can’t even...

So I'm guessing it's too late to submit a ballot! All good, I'll treat this rollout as a means of finding the hidden gems I don't have to look for.

NO MORE BALLOTS