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

you know now that I'm hearing it more firmly in the context it was released this was quite a big leap for them. the beats are so much different than anything they'd done before.

man, you're bringing me back. at 15 I asked my Mom to pick up Dig Your Own Hole from Columbia Mall. she brought back Beaucoup Fish as well because the guy at Sam Goody told her "if you want techno, you NEED to hear this."

I still think about that guy sometimes.

I'd guess it would have taken you a bit longer, frogbs, but their name was thrown around so much in the 90s for a band that never got radio play. I kept hearing about them and reading about them. cf my experience with UW as a youth: hear "Moaner" after buying the Batman and Robin OST - hate it; listen to "Born Slippy NUXX" after reading about how amazing it is - find it boring; grudgingly check out dubnobass after some friends in college recommend it - everything clicks

Yeah I remember being totally no nonplussed by the “Born Slippy NUXX” vIdeo when I was 14 - like: “these are nice synth chords... wait, isn’t this just a really loud kickdrum for several minutes?”

Of course it now sounds like one of the most memorable and instantly recognisable kickdrums ever.

I think I recognized the name from a newsgroup I was in. lol, back in the day when I could be online for 15 minutes a day. my introduction to electronic music was Fatboy Slim, I thought the whole genre was "RIGHT ABOUT NOW...THE FUNK SOUL BROTHER". naturally, I thought that was the coolest thing ever.

that was pretty much my reaction hearing NUXX for the first time too. like..."that's it?? this is so dumb". I didn't get it.

I couldn't believe the intro (before the drums come in) went on so long. I thought it was a joke

And *checks notes* it's only 1 minute 30! I thought it was at least 2 minutes. It probably felt like 5 minutes at the time

I was 13 and could only afford like 4 CDs a year! what are the odds I'd pick this one knowing nothing about the group

― frogbs, Friday, May 29, 2020 10:29 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I was about that age and helping out my dad at his work over the summer break. One day during the lunch break I walked over to the Herald Sq. HMV and they had it on one of the listening stations. I was immediately taken with Jumbo, but didn't have any money to buy the CD, so I walked back to the same HMV every day for weeks to listen to Jumbo on repeat. When they took it off the listening station I was heartbroken!

Previously to that I'd only heard a Real Audio sample of NUXX on AOL i think. It might even have been the whole track idk.

one of the very first CDs I ever bought. was looking for more music like Lo Fidelity Allstars and it was recommended to me.

ha ha, yess! it's the only album that could work for that, but it does make sense

also lolol last night I was listening to another Oblivion tour best-of and thought "hey Karl is very nearly doing a direct homage to Warming Up The Brain Farm" here

wait did I say another, four-and-a-half-hour-long Oblivion tour compilation that includes one version of every song performed on the tour not already covered by the other two?

Nice one!

cheers sic

while sourcing video/audio last night for the rollout, I thought "damn, is - is this secretly Underworld's best song ever?"

listening to AHDO now. song I regret not putting on my ballot: Little Speaker

I remember playing the CD at my first job and one of my co-workers saying "hey, your CD is skipping" at the end of that track

"no, that's the way it is"

"oh. that's fuckin weird"

so deep into trying to source rich supplemental materials for the rollout that I've accidentally found frogbs' accounts on two different sites/services

lol sounds about right

cf my experience with UW as a youth: hear "Moaner" after buying the Batman and Robin OST - hate it; listen to "Born Slippy NUXX" after reading about how amazing it is - find it boring;

Haha this is similar to my Underworld discovery trajectory: When I was 13 my friend had the Batman and Robin soundtrack and played me Moaner because he thought it was funny. I agreed but was also intrigued by the sinister vibes. Then I saw Trainspotting a few months later and was blown away by NUXX. Once I made the connection that it was by the guys who did Moaner I realized there was something special about them.

In retrospect 90s Batman movie soundtracks were the jumping off point for lots of my youthful musical rabbit holes; Batman Forever OST in particular is insanely stacked.

90s Batman soundtracks = 80s John Hughes soundtracks

Moaner, NUXX, and Rowla are all horrid, imo. I can't stand Underworld when they try to be hardcore. Give me a 15min ambient rip-off of Steve Reich anyday over that shit.

... nuxx????

lolz

Kittens > Moaner

I like, and voted for, Moaner .NUXX and Rowla, going hard is fine and good imo

I agree Moaner is pretty over the top, arguably their most out of character track in a way. its great though obv

also the indisputably great "king of snake" is one of their hardest tracks

tbh left nuxx off my ballot on the principled stance that there was no votable version w/ both the synths and the piano

there's not?

some hard takes in here today

Think about 80% of my top 10 is 'hard' Underworld

xp unless i scanned over something besides the original and 2003 versions?

i like nuxx! just never reach for a non-live version, and 77 was tight

i didn't sweat versions so much in making a ballot. sic is probably going to combine a lot of things? Depending on how voting went? I think the only alternate sort of thing I put in was the version of "Twist" put out during Drift - such an improvement. I would've assumed listing "Twist" would turn out the same anyhow. Though I probably slighted "Appleshine" by only ranking "Appleshine Continuum". That's just something I'll have to go on living with.

Just put ".NUXX" in my top 20 somewhere. In my heart that probably includes elements that were only done live. It's not fair but what can you do?

Everyone can fuck right off with their "Moaner" complaints. Hearing them close a live set with it almost exactly a year ago made me the happiest I have ever felt.

Also I was independently going to come back to this thread to say that although I love (and highly ranked) a lot of Underworld's more expansionist / moody / chilled work, to me their dance anthems are such indisputable anthems in a way that's nearly unrivalled for a single act that I think it would be entirely appropriate for someone to only vote for e.g. the songs that ultimately made it onto Everything, Everything and a few other of their biggest tracks (including "Moaner" but also stuff like "Dark Train" or "Listen To Their No" from the more recent work. I suppose "Always Loved A Film" is in this category too but it feels to me like it's trying a bit too hard to be in their category - much prefer "Downpipe" actually).

I think Deej posted something once about Everything, Everything being almost the ultimate encapsulation of the appeal of dancing to banging electronic music in a dark warehouse - not because those versions are necessarily superior to the originals but because the album collates and sequences them so relentlessly.

Preparing the rollout has solidly convinced me that I was hugely underrating Always Loved A Film before.

I tried to tell you (I think)

At this point, I may have played "Always Loved A Film" and "Bird 1" more than any other Underworld songs except maybe "Pearl's Girl", the original "Born Slippy", and "Dirty Epic"

― DJP, Saturday, May 9, 2020 3:59 AM (three weeks ago)

https://i.ibb.co/101NhpP/tocata-street.gif

LOL

Agree with Tim on anthems, my protracted struggle with Moaner nonwithstanding. You can call them the ultimate almost-anything-in-this-sphere-of-music band and make a solid argument at this point. And all the different views are fascinating to me. And I need to go play Always Loved A Film again cuz I didn't rank it!

Speaking of the rollout, folks

Finally!

To be clear, now I enjoy both "Moaner" and "NUXX", just took me many years to get there

...is anyone keen to find out the 77 BEST UNDERWORLD TRACKS OF ALL TIME next week?

Yeeeeeesssssssss please!!!

Also I was independently going to come back to this thread to say that although I love (and highly ranked) a lot of Underworld's more expansionist / moody / chilled work, to me their dance anthems are such indisputable anthems in a way that's nearly unrivalled for a single act that I think it would be entirely appropriate for someone to only vote for e.g. the songs that ultimately made it onto Everything, Everything and a few other of their biggest tracks (including "Moaner" but also stuff like "Dark Train" or "Listen To Their No" from the more recent work.

that's what's so nuts about Underworld, they are so undisputedly great at this one thing that it seems almost unnatural that they're also great in a bunch of other modes.

https://i.ibb.co/CWJT95x/Underworld-big-day-out-Australia-2003-01water.gif

Just Will then?

me me me

kind of preferring the anticipation

L-R: maffew, me

https://i.ibb.co/f4Lpfn3/rick-annoyed.gif

had I actually submitted a ballot, Moaner would have been in the top 2. can't wait for the rollout!

I can exclusively reveal that had you and brotherlovesdub both voted in time, Moaner would have placed four spots higher than its current spot

so I guess it's somewhere around #15