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

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43. Border Country
505 points, 13 votes
2019 free-to-mailing-list mp3 by Underworld and Ø (Phase) as part of Drift

video by Simon Taylor and Jan Urbanowski
audience video at Sydney Opera House, 27 days before release

this is one of the best yet from Drift

― ufo, Friday, June 28, 2019 9:48 AM

oh my fuckin GOD border country

― BradNelson, Friday, June 28, 2019 10:19 PM

it is really quite something

― maffew12, Friday, June 28, 2019 10:41 PM

well this is good

― DJP, Friday, June 28, 2019 10:53 PM

Cocoon 20 live promo
audience video at Wembley Arena, their last gig before lockdown

second half in particular is amazing. this has got to be the fastest track they've done since..."Tin There" maybe? crazy

one thing I can't figure out is how the songs on this EP are gonna fit together...they're all very different from each other. I wonder how much they're gonna tweak for the release.

― frogbs, Saturday, June 29, 2019 12:16 AM

Deep Arch Youtube comments are wild lol!

Border Country WAY TOO LOW

what i love about this band is that they have never lost their touch over the decades ... still true to the original sound yet able to innovate and write the books for other to come ... ! if anybody would ask me who started techno and the genre whitout esitation i'd say underworld any given day ... ! love you guys thx for your work and energy !

This is like flying over a city in the future at night! Amazing stuff! It’s not just like you’re listening to a track. Underworld creates some kind of an audio MOVIE where you are in the very centre of it. Pure masterpiece, not less.

https://media.giphy.com/media/hR5Z9nH36gaZdE3zdq/giphy.gif

this is one of the best DRIFT tracks so far, no doubt. it sits up there with Listen To Their No and Appleshine Continuum for me. the visceral and bombastic intensity is the mere reason as to why this track so great...it really does hark back to the STITI era, especially with that high BPM. an absolutely essential release.

deep arch too low

everything too low

Border Country (Ø [Phase] Dark Room Tension Dub)

Deep Arch Youtube comments are wild lol!

"fatboy slim asked me where my head was at and i said underworld"

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42. Most 'Ospitable
516 points, 12 votes
1994 CD B-side thing

video video by Dirk Van Dooren & Graham Wood

the most beautiful track on earth

that'll do, earth

Love Most Ospitable so much

from pov: devastating tunes that make you curl up into the fetal position with a bottle of whiskey :

4. "Most 'Ospitable" by Underworld. Kind of an obscure B-side type and maybe not fully developed but my god is that synth noise both gorgeous and impossibly sad.

― frogbs, Monday, 22 April 2013 21:27

The UK single was the first every piece of Underworld music I ever heard. I'm a massive Underworld fan but this track remains my all-time favourite Underworld track, I wish they had made more tunes like these over the years

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

that'll do, earth

goodbye, mother

yeah this one still hits me in the gut

these guys really have a ton of one-off tracks that hint at new directions that they never fully took. I can't think of anything that sounds quite like this.

So I went to look at the YouTube comments on Deep Arch and now I can’t unhear “peepee mouth peepee mouth”

lol! i was only reading what sic bravely brought back. Good job on the deep dive.

The "talking into the void" nature of youtube comments really opens people up for heartbursting emotion, weird poignancy, and the occasional unguarded oddness. I'm rarely even looking unless there wasn't any/enough vaguely substantial ILX comment, but it's quite often unexpectedly enriching (and there are usually more comments on fan uploads than the official ones).

http://ghostable.uk/public/ilx/underworld/u041-878187.png

41. Tongue
545 points, 11 votes
1994 album track from dubnobasswithmyheadman

audio

Speaking of...

(None of them can touch "Tongue", though.)

― DJP, Friday, September 20, 2002 10:06 PM

audience video 2015 (Rickless tour)

Best track on the whole album.

it's my favourite song of all underworld's music. Unreal track!

make me cry all the times, to many memories ... london memories <3

Perfect song. I love the guitar on this track. Everything is stellar. Perfect. Timeless. Classic. Kiss my wound.

this music should have it's own catergory, 'Better than everything else.'

Shelter.

Slowdive rip offs

https://i.imgur.com/xee1zAc.jpg

I'm a huge fan of the specific-memory-based Youtube comments.

Slowdive rip offs

comes to think of it, it does sound a little bit like "Rutti", but "Tongue" came first as far as I can tell.

yea this is always the "wow forgot how good this one was" track on the album

https://i.ibb.co/McR6gVV/au-king-aa.gif

who's ready to...

...kick off the top 40?

https://i.ibb.co/87zrQkp/au-king-xx.gif

"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".

Nobody?

i’m ready

I'm invisible.

I'm still catching up but ready got more!

I only had time to listen to a handful of Drift tracks but "Dune" was a standout. Beautiful

Though not as beautiful as "Most 'ospitable", which was my second favorite find of this poll. Achingly gorgeous, and I love that the "Dark Train" pad is used in this, it fits wonderfully

"Tongue" is my favorite of that style of track they've ever done (and there are many to choose from). Such an evocative piece of music, makes me think of beaches on an alien planet

oh hell yes I've been offline for a while and was sure I'd miss the whole rollout

I have 51 tracks left on my ballot that haven't listed yet. trying to guess the 11 that won't make the cut and there's four that I actually have no idea on! the only thing I'm TRULY certain of is that my #61, "Beach", won't be in the top 40 lol

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40. TWIST
565 combined points, with an almost exact split on 11 votes.
285 points from 6 votes for the 2002 album track from A Hundred Days Off
280 points from 5 votes for the 2005 rehearsal tape released as a free mp3 2019 during Drift

pre-release long version audio
live 2002

yesssss / too low

I love the way looped Karl is holding up the title there, and at first appears to be wearing a different business shirt.

It's like "Twist" from AHDO, it's decent enough on the album but it feels like they really figured out what to do with the track live. Then again UW is really much different live and in studio. In the studio everything is perfected in its own way (I really like the studio version of "Holding the Moth"!), but yes it does lose some of its spontaniety.

― frogbs, Wednesday, October 24, 2012 2:24 AM

Basically techno samba is one of my favorite things in the world

― DJP, Tuesday, February 5, 2013 2:29 AM

https://i.imgur.com/Ozc3LHZ.jpg

Music Bank Jam Take 7 audio or youtube

Soundcloud comments on the Music Bank Jam version:

You guys never cease to amaze me. Ear candy!

i can't ever truly express how this track--and the live takes of this track from that time with guitar jam--along with 100 Days Off has changed my life.

always growing better with years!

This song reminds me a difficult time in the 2003, so many emotional memories happended during the album which contained the original version of this song released. Such nostalgic! such precious! Thanks for your sharing.

people who listened through that live Twist will have gotten a spoiler

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

On solo votes, Rowla would be placing respectably close to here. The track from 1996's Second Toughest LP (also promoed on white label) got 600 points from 13 votes. We'll visit it again later, but here are a couple of versions you might not be familar with.
12-inch audio audience audio 2000

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:

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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