Underworld - Classic or Dud?

Yeah it was funny to see a lotta people ask about reissues and live shows and such, if you know Karl and you want a response ask him about a guitar or someone he once collaborated with 30 years ago

We should've gotten to the bottom of the supposed Glastonbury 91 gig!

I didn't bother posting after I saw there were already questions about more Drift (yes) and doing a new "cover" of "Doot Doot" (no answer).

Favourite detail was that he's obsessed with the app for https://radio.garden

his responses around live improv were interesting. "Around 2000 audiences changed" (???) but when asked if they'd do that kind of thing again, "This is something that we have been talking about for a while and though it's largely not appropriate for most of te events we play it certainly something we have discussed, exploring alternative types of shows..."

5-days-only limited edition collection of Rez merch, I think today might be the last day

https://store.underworldlive.com/collections/rez-limited-drop?_ga=2.36754534.791663222.1605926487-292505261.1605926487

One of the items "for sale" is a free MP3 download of "Rez" live at Reading Festival in 1996, they also put it on YouTube and it is..... beyond incredible, like one of my new favorite Underworld things of all time, hoooooly cow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YLOxbKwPVo

yeah, it's the version that's at the end of Bootleg Babies, the fan made alternative to the official Everything Everything live album.

blew my mind when I heard it there too

if you like that be sure and seek out "European Club Gig" from 1996. simply one of the best gigs ever by any band

there's a remastered and fixed version of that one, by the way, that was made by someone on rtsr.rowla.com, I found it being called Move Club, Cologne ("european club gig" is 3% too fast)

bootleg babies can be found at 100greatestbootlegs.blogspot.com (where it's number 148 lol)

and a link to the fixed version of European Club Gig: https://www.reddit.com/r/underworld/comments/5rlcvq/euro_club_gig_aka_19960719_move_club_cologne/

the NYE show at Alexander Palace in 1998 is apparently just as good if not even better - haven't found the version that was made in 2017 yet though (I'm not much of a trader so I'm not on rtsr)
( https://www.borndirty.org/forums/showthread.php?t=18437 )

17 minute King Of Snake - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoXXjPZptTw

there's a cool jammy feel to that "king of snake"

This 1996 Roskilde gig also looks pretty great: https://livebootlegconcert.blogspot.com/2020/02/underworld-live-roskilde-festival.html

We miss all you happy dancing people. Sending love and positivity for 2021... pic.twitter.com/bk9sRMnAR8

— Underworld (@underworldlive) December 20, 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGZ-35YwVP4

well thanks for clearing up the "razor/eraser" line

lol cute.

new remix is about 18 minutes!

new old mix. "Remix id2 A1804 offers rare insight into Rick’s Romford bedroom studio during the final weeks of mixing the dubnobasswithmyheadman album. It’s a snapshot, a moment in time… "

wowowowowwwwww I love this remix, I think I'm going to cue up the 5-disc dubnobass jawn today

That 5 disc set is the only super expanded edition of any album Ive heard that’s actually worth listening to all the way through

yeah agreed! I mean the Second Toughest and Beaucoup Fish ones are also great but not as replayable imo

What a lesiurely, discursive mix, like wandering around inside the song and checking out the sconces. You wonder how many alt versions of dubnobass might be put together in total. Could they bandcamp a Rick's Dubbed Out Infants Experience or three for every album?

Not just a completely essential 5- disc album but one I wish had another disc for a few more missing mixes!

this is going into my homespun "dubnobasswithmyheadman super duper deluxe" edition

^^ mine is seven "discs," but three of them would be double CDs

(plus the two-hour "dubnobass influences" radio mix they did)

now I want to compile all of the remixes that didn't make it onto the superdeluxe, starting with the dark & long 215 thing, sic do yo you actually have one???

holy shit that radio show looks great: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04krs79

It's here: https://www.mixcloud.com/UnderworldLive/dubnobass-6mix/

I do! And since I just dug out the folders in order to tag the "new" Cowgirl into it, how I break it down to an extent...

[1992] Lemon Interupt & Tomato 12s (9 songs, 1hr 17 - incl 2014 remasters, 2012 masters, and uncollected)
[1993] Underworld 12s (4 songs, 47 min - 2014 remasters + 1 2012)
dubnobasswithmyheadman [2014 Rick remaster/reMIDI]
dubnoluxe: 1993 Live Jam Kyme Rd
dubnoluxe: Previously Unreleased Recordings 1991–1993 ++ (12 songs, 1hr 41 - disc from the box set, plus The Big Meat Show demo/mix from Anthology & Cowgirl A1804)
[1994] dub nob mixes (12 songs, 2hr 13 - mix of remasters from the box and four (56 mins) left off)
[1994] Saved From The Cutting Room Floor mix by the Misterons (256kbps m4a version)

xp

What abt that early DAT version of dubnobass?

Organ and Can You Feel Me are in high-quality on the Previously Unreleased disc, I have the long River Of Bass and the DAT version of Big Meat Show tagged in a three-and-a-half hour catch-all Mixes And Reworks compilation*. Everything else is the same as the final album, so it doesn't really hold up as a necessary alt-universe relisten imo.

*(that at some point I half-intend to break down into notably different mixes and "mostly the same but a different length." it's mainly a place to put things that I don't have in "As and Bangers 1997-2019" (2hr 50) or "Bs and Sidetracks 1992-2018" (2hr 24) )

I hope a super deluxe version of Oblivion With Bells is coming soon, I bet a 4 disc set of that stuff would be just as great

If they didn't skip A Hundred Days Off, which would be easier to put together - one disc of B-sides / 020202 / NUXX'03, one disc of unreleased if there's anything worth pulling together, plus the Tomato PS2 soundtrack if they need to pad it out.

Certainly if they're holding off on Drift 2 until they can tour again, lockdown 2020 would have been a great time to compile Oblivion With Box, to release in lockdown 2021.

oh wait ha we did this almost two years ago

apparently much of the Sunshine soundtrack, most of the Breaking & Entering soundtrack and all (?) of Oblivion With Bells came out of the work that started as the Riverrun sessions ... easily four discs just covering November 2005 to June 2006, let alone the rest of the decade.

Does anyone remember a drum n' bass track called "Swing Up High" that was offered up for download on underworldlive.com a decade or so ago? It fuckin' ruled!!

― frogbs, Friday, June 14, 2019 2:29 PM

there were two versions of this given away, from circa May 2004, and they played a handful of demos while guest-hosting for Peel in October, so there's enough to scrape a barrel for a three-disc AHDO, eg:

DISC 2: B-SIDES

8 Ball (The Beach OST 2000) 8:55
020202 (Old Mix) 6:04
Tiny Clicks 2:16
Headset 5:59
Like A Swimmer 5:26
Ansum 16:17
Born Slippy Nuxx (Rick's 2003 Down Ambient Mix) 4:54
020202 (New Mix) 6:35
Twist (extended Ansum version) 8:46


DISC 3: MIXES & MISC

Dinosaur Adventure 3D (R.C.M. Version) 8:09
Two Months Off (King Unique Sunspots - Vocal Mix) 8:17
the girl (Mr & Mrs Christmas) 1:32
Swing Up High (Version 1) 5:20
dinner at rods (Mr & Mrs Christmas) 3:36
Dinosaur Adventure 3D (Funk D'void Vocal Remix) 7:53
choppo (Mr & Mrs Christmas) 2:31
Two Months Off (John Ciafone Vocal Remix) 7:32
the melon man (Mr & Mrs Christmas) 2:01
Born Slippy Nuxx (Rick's 2003 12" Mix) 7:02
belfort novatel kipper (Mr & Mrs Christmas) 1:00
Swing Up High (Radical Version) 7:08

though tbh two discs is probably enough

well I guess "h" tags don't work with carriage returns?

this "influences" mix is great, thanks sic!

https://store.underworldlive.com/collections/cowgirl-limited-drop/products/cowgirl-limited-drop-cowgirl-limited-edition-vinyl-2021-12

oh damn it's *that* performance of Rez/Cowgirl, would love to have that but idk if I can justify paying that much

Free Download of Two Months Off from Glastonbury 2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHbB8aSZtMI

A heartbreaking little memoir from Karl here: https://www.thesocial.com/imposter-karl-hyde-underworld/

damn. he's a hell of a writer.

£100 for the Beach Towel bundle 😮

https://store.underworldlive.com/collections/two-months-off-limited-drop

the Glastonbury Two Months Off is now out as a single with this unreleased early version as a b-side

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-phNFssMzSQ

The imposter-karl-hyde-underworld/ writing brought a tear to my eye. He *can* write. The beach towel made me think "Hmm".

i love the beach towel. tempted to order it but the price is ridiculous. i've ordered the 12" and I think that's probably all I 'need' to have.

All "art" has WTF moments. The beach towel is one of Underworld's. Clearly trying to cash in on the (attempted) re-opening of society this summer.

That said, they are on the Mt. Rushmore of modern electronic music (with - if I continue this silly concept - Autechre, Bjork, and Kraftwerk).

Their more recent work with The Necks cemented their "still relevant" status for me. I'd go so far as to call it their best-ever collaboration.

Nobody makes money from records anymore and touring has been on hold for over a year. That leaves merch, and while an expensive beach towel is not my thing, *somebody's* gonna buy one.

Two Months Off still sounds pretty good! Juanita Boxill's spoken word in the original version really grounded that song I thought

so is the AHDO super deluxe coming

nothing wrong with selling a fucking beach towel, especially one that says "two months off" in a kewl font, sheesh. i'd think about getting it if it were sold separately lol.

for real the towel is the most attractive thing here. I bought the Cowgirl single but I'm not going in on this.

xps They've got to be making a little bit from putting a couple of archival bits on a 20 quid 12" cmon.

loved a bit of underworld in the late nineties, seen them a bunch of times, came across this 'chillout' track by them last year and was surprised and taken with the sound, guess I missed a lot of their catalogue that wasn't shouty, moody percussive brit-techno

underworld - sola system

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ciKeiYbfy4