Underworld - Classic or Dud?

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

I made a playlist of the chiller side of UW, but not all chillout. Really just the stuff that's less played but still incredible. I called it Underworld Preferred and you can find it on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2e1kCLXPU4cypdYShxeLMC?si=x1qSVDcsSKaQ74cvyKFHxg

If you're interested in digging further into the various sides of Underworld, our poll results from last year might be fun. Here's the whole thread with rollout and discussion, or this post has youtube playlists with various versions of the winning tracks.

hey, great, will give these lists a listen

the band put together a bunch of playlists of various stylistic sides of the band a few years ago - here's the one for the ambient/chillout stuff like "sola sistim": https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0WoMpAYOApgQauW5uwTJON

listening to brotherslovedub spotify list, nice to reacquaint myself with some of the chiller stuff from beaucoup fish and second toughest....there a strong Alex patteson/the orb feeling to a few of these I hadn't heard, I really like the dubbed out stuff like 'river of bass', can't really think of another 'techno' outfit that manages to integrate a lyricist/vocals so successfully as a texture and on so many flavours of beats and songs

The single version of Dune into Custard Speedtalk on a loop as I one-two-three-four let it all go forever.

https://eternalbox.dev/jukebox_index.html

i'm almost mad at myself now for not 'getting' underworld after beaucoup fish until now. wtf was wrong with me? hyo is great and owb is even better.

i put the drift sampler on my phone for a sunrise run on a really lovely trail near the mountains the other day, having never heard any of it. halfway through my run, 'custard speedtalk' comes on and just dismantles me cell by cell while i'm chasing the sun down the trail. WOW.

:')

I remember telling a buddy who was big into UW as a teen about the Drift stuff and he said “cool I’ll check it out some day” then two weeks later he sent me a message like “I just randomly played Dune from that thing you told me, never would have guessed in a million years they could make music like this”

Custard is my favorite Drift song.

This is now a number of years old, but never thought that I'd ever see a cover of my favorite Underworld track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4OUm544GkY

Good tip-off re Dune, frogbs.

I think I got a bit, I dunno, overwhelmed by the box set in a way that stopped me hearing great tracks.

Born Slippy Deep Pan and Thing In a Book are great. Rest of it is prog tedium like Leftfield. Really hope this revival is replaced by the 90s french speedcore revival soon.

Great revival.

If Leftfield is prog tedium, what the hell should I use to insult Autechre

i just sank into 'dune' this morning, what a mood

been caning 'oblivion with bells' too. kind of a heavy record tbh, some of their best lyrics i think? the first side is immense, "ring road" is excoriating. not sure how i feel about the second side yet besides 'boy' and 'best mamgu ever' which are great.

"glam bucket" >>>>>>

i have been listening to the live sets they released after oblivion with bells... a lot

i will pay a little more attention to glam bucket next time

Leftfield sound pretty great atm actually

"Faxed Invitation" is also amazing, the part when the bass kicks in is one of my favorite UW moments

^^^ was gonna bring this up

Leftfield sound pretty great atm actually
― Tim F, Thursday, 1 July 2021 03:40 (seven hours ago)

Nah, just too close to awkward lad in bucket hat bbc radio 1 fan I want to go out with Fern Cotton. What's sounding good is the lo fi 786 approved ronseal biz.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_QAiYdLZi8

But then it's aussies and Canadians who are spearheading this revival so I guess you've got to be patriotic about the worst UK products.