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

yeah i voted for "spoon deep" pretty high. it was at one point my no. 1 lol

i also voted for "please help me"!!!!

xp It took the internet to point it out to me, all that mass is pretty opaque. It would take a double CD to fit everything even without Spoon Deep!

Please Help Me additional:

A legendary classic.
I used to sleep with this on repeat in my headphones.
#Nostalgia

comment on live a capella version from 1998:

I love Please Help Me with it's vocal samples etc and Hyde's buried opening voice, it's so clear here without the beats, i wished they riffed and did things like this now. The crowd chatter, 'I love you' 'I haven't seen you in 10 years' 'look at the butterflies' 'love the shirt, it looks good on you', feels like Hyde's poetry/snatched convos. Is this Underworld eating itself? Wonderful

http://ghostable.uk/public/ilx/underworld/u073-194038.png

73. Motorhome
233 points, 7 votes
2016 album track from Barbara Barbara, We Face A Shining Future

audio
fan cover

a beauty

I think "Motorhome" from their new album is prob in their top 15 or maybe even 10 tracks, it is so beautiful and impeccably-textured! It sounds like Eno or some shit ("High Life" must have really rubbed off on them)

― Stevie D, Wednesday, September 21, 2016 6:09 AM

Can't get into this on the whole, but Motorhome is lovely, and a bit... Beatlesy?

― chap, Wednesday, May 31, 2017 10:34 PM

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

With five votes, including one making sure to specify that they meant live versions, and 233 points, You Do Scribble would have placed at 79 on uncombined votes.

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

live video 2008
video from sounddesk 2009
Abbey Road version audio

I liked Freur back in the day and picked up the first Underworld album, only to be deeply disappointed. Never looked back.

But these songs - "Scribble" and especially the live version - wow! What else in their catalog sounds like that live version? The deep "bom bom bom" synths in the latter brings to mind one of my all-time favorite albums from Rain Tree Crow.

I must reassess my attitude towards this band entirely.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Tuesday, May 18, 2010 12:54 AM

UW does this a lot - their studio stuff is awesome, but...I feel like going through all the live stuff, they just have a tendency to nail it from time to time and perfect these already great tunes (check some of the live versions of "You Do Scribble", they almost make me glad they never tried it in studio)

― frogbs, Tuesday, May 15, 2012 11:29 PM

http://ghostable.uk/public/ilx/underworld/u071-963007.png

72. Downpipe (Original Club Mix)
236 points, 7 votes
2009 12" by Mark Knight & D.Ramirez V Underworld

full length audio
promo video

hell yeah this is a proper cranker

dammit, spoilers

nashwan!

uh oh image spoiler for next track

Since it’s been spoiled I’ll just give a heads up that if you haven’t heard it you should check The Question by Futueshock which is basically a remake of Why Why Why

i love "why why why," another one that started off at the top of my ballot

man is it me or is this a TOTAL BITE of 'downpipe,' the song he already did w/ underworld 2 years ago? is this a conceptual thing, or like, is he just lazy?

― deej, Monday, September 13, 2010 1:59 PM

This?

The new track's most distinctive bit is probably the big riff that starts around 3:30. It's only vaguely similar to the riff that starts around 4:15 in Downpipe. Far from "a total bite." Otherwise, Downpipe is a lot moodier, and down-tempo, and vocal-driven. Maybe you could be more specific about the similarities you're hearing. (Or do you have a much different mix of Downpipe in mind?)

― Paul in Santa Cruz, Monday, September 13, 2010 2:14 PM

yeah it adds the riff @ 3:30 but its the same basic "doom doom. doom. doom doom. doom" backgrounds w/ the bleepy part added as it goes on -- just didnt have the big epic wooshy part in the middle w/ the snare roll breakdown

'total bite' is overstatement but its clearly the same formula

― deej, Monday, September 13, 2010 2:23 PM

i guess an alternate post on teh similarities wd be "i guess we know what knight contributed to the underworld track"

― deej, Monday, September 13, 2010 2:24 PM

Okay, I'll buy that. I guess I think of those loops as being pretty commonplace in lots of techno tracks, but it's likely enough that he contributed that element.

GEEK ALERT
Technically the two background loops are different, although they both alternate single and double stabs:

https://sites.google.com/site/pnauert/riffs.png

― Paul in Santa Cruz, Monday, September 13, 2010 2:36 PM

The Downpipe pattern is the backbone of "Groove La Chord," among other tracks.

― Paul in Santa Cruz, Tuesday, September 14, 2010 5:23 PM

https://i.imgur.com/PU7t4Ez.jpg

live video 2010

Updated:

http://ghostfood.uk/public/ilx/underworld/u072-697745.png

it's amazing how much these images rules btw

True! And now:

71. Why, Why, Why
244 points, 8 votes
1993 12" b-side

audio
Volume Eight remix audio

Commentary from youtube:

- This is sick (btw I'm 69th like)

-- Nice

--- Nice

--- Good, good

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

- The joe biden theme

-- LOL

Futureshock's The Question credits Underworld outright.

agh sorry about that image botch - let it be the last one

70. Holding The Moth
250 points, 8 votes
2007 album track from Oblivion With Bells

audio
webcast live video 2006

http://ghostable.uk/public/ilx/underworld/u070-560124.png

er, oops

http://ghostable.uk/public/ilx/underworld/u070-560124.png

er, oops

otm

ok this one really is way too low, every time I hear it I'm astounded at how fucking great and emotional the second half is

live audio 2008

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.

― brotherlovesdub, Wednesday, October 24, 2012 1:54 AM

https://i.imgur.com/1PuWBpg.jpg

Downpipe!!! Yesss

For all the talking up my "I even wrote blurbs as I was doing my ballot," uh, lol

Took you a while to pick how many "s"s in Yesss, I'm sure.

I will be holding the moth for now. No moth for anyone until you guys get it together.

Last one for a few hours, gotta hit the barricades:

http://ghostable.uk/public/ilx/underworld/u069-305171.png

69. Eclipse
251 points, 5 votes
1992 12" by Lemon Interupt
audio

wow! Some people had this one high. Love it. What is that image??

https://www.parknshop.com/medias/sys_master/front/zoom/9152936738846.jpg

i found the 'big mouth' 12" a while back from when they were releasing as lemon interupt - the flipside, 'eclipse', is this amazing strung-out balearic house cut. do people know this track?

― haitch, Thursday, May 8, 2008 12:17 PM

no but i would like to know it

― cutty, Thursday, May 8, 2008 1:07 PM

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

(Patrick Hernandez didn't write this one either)

i definitely should have put "holding the moth" higher than i did. "why why why" and "motorhome" are both very good too. "motorhome" reminds me a lot of eno's vocal solo albums, just a similar melodic sensibility?

well. Karl *was* hanging out a lot with Eno during the time...

Underworld say "defund the police."

https://i.ibb.co/xmDz55Z/gg-violentdance.gif

Voted Why Why Why but Eclipse was one that didn't quite fit on my ballot.

Also Motorhome way too low

Mods are asleep, post Underneath The Radar covers!

Haha, only just listened to/watched Underneath the Radar for the first time. Fuckin hell, unexpected. Quite good though.

― rhythm fixated member (chap), Monday, May 17, 2010 10:29 AM

My own home state has made a fist or two of the beloved song, too

such as some bloke called Steve Stevens at a village fair somewhere in NSW
or Shrewd Rhythm, available for your function in the mid-south-coast region
and you can't go past Hot Slop playing at Wiz and Mitch's birthday bash at Marrickville Bowling Club

the latter venue is somewhere I would walk ten minutes from home to see acts like Herbert or Jamie Lidell or stirmonster or 6th Borough Project

https://i.ibb.co/kDhx4mq/karl-jack-mexico.gif

What is that image??

Pic is the cover of a maintenance manual for an early 90s Mitsubishi Eclipse - couldn't not use with that caption also on it

considering that some part of my brain still thinks that all MK1 stuff "doesn't count", I'm pretty tickled by all these Underneath the Radar covers.

It's going to be hilarious if the Drift songs just stop ranking cold at the 77 mark.

― Dirty, Epic Hateration (Eric H.), Thursday, June 11, 2020 4:52 AM

http://ghostable.uk/public/ilx/underworld/u068-145745.png

67= Toluca Stars
255 points, 8 votes
2019 digital single as part of Drift

video by Simon Taylor and Carys Staton

Hah, I knew that wasn't actually going to happen.

This track simply makes me cry at heart. they are still on the top.

Perfect song for sitting relaxed and chill out!!

Loving it. I won't buy it though, rather stream till the ep is out and that I buy without thinking. So, yeah, loving it to death. That track is just what I need right now to calm my mind.

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

ends about 5 minutes too early if you ask me

― frogbs, Thursday, August 8, 2019 10:31 PM

yeah it takes a bit too long to get going and then doesn't spend enough time there once it has

― ufo, Thursday, August 8, 2019 10:33 PM

the juice was barely shook!

I liked it. wonder if the box will have some longer variations of the many "film edit"s.

― maffew12, Thursday, August 8, 2019 11:06 PM

still confounded by the beat on this one but its such a gorgeous track