Underworld

I don't know if I can consider myself to have a favorite band, but if you put me on the spot, I'd probably say Underworld, even though they are a techno band which generally aren't too well liked among these parts. It's hard to pick a favorite, okay? But I've followed these guys more than anyone, because unlike any other contender for my favorite band, these guys are still around. Despite the fact that these guys are mostly classified as 'house', you would have to admit that they were, at times, extremely untypical for electronic music. They solved a lot of the problems inherent in many people's conceptions of the type of music - many claim that electronic music lacks soul, but Underworld is full of it. This is because the defining member, Karl Hyde, is an extremely interesting personality (he's the one with the shaved head - before that he looked a hell of a lot like Sting), pioneering a stream-of-consciousness-type of vocal styling that is sure to be emulated in the future (yeah, they use vocals, in fact, sometimes they actually use real instruments too). He's really one of the great things about techno music; he doesn't represent anything but the human aspect. Yet you have to wonder just how 'normal' the guy is...he writes incoherent books made up primarily of things he wrote while wandering about the city and takes pictures of abandoned sofas thinking it constitutes 'high art'. He throws a bunch of words in his liner notes with no correlation to one another...kinda like what a lot of his lyrics become. Half the time it just leaves you wondering whether or not his lyrics have any meaning or if he's really just singing about what the hell he's thinking. But still, he's a great guy - very modest, very much into the music he helps make (except for the 80's stuff, he's stated in interviews that even he thinks the early synth-pop albums are mostly a pile of shit) (I don't). He gives life to the music, mostly created by techno wizard Rick Smith who is, for all intensive purposes, the creative force behind Underworld.

This would have to be the main allure of the boys, that at the very least it seemed sincere. Of course, this doesn't apply to many of their popular house tracks (such as the stuff off of Beaucoup Fish) for the most part, even though these songs definitely had a spirit not seen in popular dance music. Many of their tracks are generally more downtempo, so you usually won't get the feeling that you're being overloaded by beats running all over the place.

Not that you've probably ever heard of these guys if you're not from the UK...only once did they actually have a single that captivated American audiences, but that's not until way later. Where we're actually going to start is at the way beginning of Underworld, before it was even Underworld. The first recorded band that these guys were ever in was called Screen Gemz, dating all the way back to 1979.

Screen Gemz - Teenage Teenage/I Just Can't Stand Cars (1979)

This is one of those things I never thought I would ever obtain, one of those obscure releases that almost every Underworld fan has probably heard of at some point but never cared about. This was Karl Hyde's first band, recorded even before he met Rick Smith at a restaurant and had him join the band. The version I have is in MP3 format and is encoded at about 40 kbps, which is pretty terrible by MP3 standards, but I have this feeling that's about as good as it's going to get. To be honest, you could never be able to tell that this is the band that would eventually become Underworld, since it's just a standard rock n' roll band that sounds more like the Beach Boys than anything. That's pretty much what "Teenage Teenage" is, with some good old fashioned rock n' roll on the B-side "I Just Can't Stand Cars". Neither of the songs are very good, but whatever - it's just a novelty for Underworld collectors anyway.

Freur - Doot-Doot (1983)

Best Song: Doot Doot or Whispering

While in college in Wales, Rick and Karl joined up with a man named Alfie Thomas. They eventually picked up a drummer named Byrn (who would literally smash the drums with his head until he was knocked out) (also I did spell his name right) and some guy named John. I really can't claim to know a whole lot about the band, except that they had a pretty popular hit with "Doot-Doot" (you can hear it in the movie "Vanilla Sky" just as it starts to turn really bad). As you'd probably expect, it's the best song on here, but the album as a whole is surprisingly good. If you've ever heard the single, you'd have a good impression of what to expect from the album. It's mostly slap-bass and keyboard-centered in a decidedly 80s New Wave fashion. Regardless, the hooks are pretty good, as is the extremely clean production that really shines through the album (the one element that really stuck through to their later work). Karl sings in a way that is quite surprising to anyone who's a fan of Underworld's later works - his voice is always deep and almost slurred through the tracks, but quite honestly I have to say he's got the almost perfect 80's voice. He can even pull off semi-seductive in the slow-moving, almost creepy "Steam Machine".

Not all the songs are good all the way through, but parts of it them come off as being real pretty - like the ending of "Tender Surrender", or the main synth line of "All Too Much" (before it turns into a Phil Collins-like power chorus). Oh, but some of the songs are actually good throughout - "Riders in the Night" might as well be the soundtrack to the 80's, and "My Room" is as funky as all get out. "Whispering" takes the same somber vibes as "Doot-Doot", taking an extremely lush keyboard line and shimmering it over a slow drumbeat. Put this all together and you get an album I really don't mind listening to at all (and I thought 80's Underworld would be a chore), especially since mine came with two bonus tracks. One's simply an extended "Doot-Doot", which is really no different from the original, but there is a pretty good rock song, "Hold Me Mother" in there. In fact, the only song I really don't like is the 60's gang style "Theme From the Film of the Same Name" which really doesn't go anywhere. Of course, the album also suffers from another flaw, in that the music hasn't exactly dated well. Unlike what they'd do later, this is tied to the genre and time period, which is why it's particularly hard to recommend to anyone who isn't already a die-hard Underworld fan. But if you are, you might as well pick this one up.

Freur - Get Us Out of Here (1985)

Best Song: The Piano Song

If you thought Doot-Doot was an obscure release, then check this out, an album so hard to find that even most Underworld fans don't know it exists. Basically, this is the same type of 80's New Wave stuff that populated the last album, except this time they're branching out away from their old somber vibes and going to more generic 80's rock. Obviously the end of the road for the band, as this one won't even produce a single hit - there's a lot of good attempts, like "The Piano Song" and "A.O.K.O." which are saved by amazingly catchy choruses, with funkier numbers like "Look in the Back for Answers" and "Endless Groove" taking the place of the more downtempo stuff of the last album. The slap bass has pretty much been replaced with synthesizer, and safer songs like "Riders in the Night" have been replaced with weirder experimental stuff like the singalong "Devil and Darkness" - this and "This is the Way I'd Like to Live my Life" make me almost think Hyde is trying to convince he's really Scottish, but whatever. He actually does a lot of weird shit with his voice, like in "Emeralds and Pearls" where he pulls off being a very sinister man!

It was clear at this point that the guys really didn't know what their strengths were or just couldn't capitalize on them, which is probably why this was pretty much the end of this band afterward. Mine came with a bonus disc with seven tracks on it, of which two of them, "You're a Hoover" and "Innocence" actually show off the guitar-heavy rock side of the band that was only hinted at before. "Hey Ho Away We Go" is also worthwhile (but it still sounds strangely Scottish). Other than that there's a lot of experimental shit like the short instrumental title track, something called "Uncle Jeof" which is like a road journal, an early short version of a track from the album, and the only really somber piece in the set, the amazingly long "Jazz is King" that goes nowhere in almost nine minutes.

Underneath the Radar (1988)

Best Song: Underneath the Radar

The three important members of Freur (Karl Hyde, Rick Smith, and Alfie Thomas) decide to form a new band, this time using a name that was a little more pronounceable (for the record, Freur was merely a phonetic pronunciation of the group's name, which was just a symbol). They joined up with bassist Baz Allen and called themselves Underworld, and the rest was history.

Well, not really, because this Underworld suffered a fate freakishly close to that of Freur. This was only Underworld mark 1, as opposed to the famous Underworld that this page is about that wouldn't come until a few years later. Not surprisingly, this sounds quite a bit like Freur, and it's not just the vocalist either. Hell, the three founding members were the same, so unless they felt that they had fucked up Freur I don't see why they couldn't have just reformed that band and had a few albums under their belt (and maybe a few fans).

No, sounds like these guys wanted a fresh start, another chance to bust into the mainstream. Therefore, this group's hit had to be a lot more radio-friendly than even "Doot-Doot" was, which of course was accomplished by the title track which you might have even heard some time. It's actually a pretty good song, too...on that note, the album is pretty much devoid of filler, save for "Miracle Party" which is really just a bridge between the two best tracks, the title track and the rock song "I Need a Doctor" which really kinda defines the 80's right there. There's a lot of nice stuff throughout...they demonstrate their ability to build a song around a catchy chorus just like they did during the Freur days quite a bit, with songs like "Call me No.1" and "Rubber Ball". There are even a few honest-to-god great songs too, like the opener "Glory! Glory!" built off an infectious piano line and the singalong "God Song" which may be the catchiest thing on the whole album.

So as a whole, the album is just one big guilty pleasure with quite a few songs to look forward too. The same production values are here, too, and it doesn't even feel overproduced like some of the Freur stuff did. The album's even got it's own trademark sound...this weird distorted guitar noise that sounds like the ends of the metal strings are scraping off each other...really not sure what it is, but it's in every song anyway. And the album has continuity, too, as some of the songs even flow into one another! Well, nothing spectacular, but they'll do this a lot in the future so it's notable. While the album does have a few flaws (of course, it sounds like horribly cheap 80's synth-pop, but the music's still good), it's still worth picking up if you're interested in some Underworld history.

Change the Weather (1989)

Best Song: Sole Survivor

Out of all the mk1/Freur albums, this is the one I like the least, mainly because the catchiness just isn't there. Oh, true, you get it in doses - the choruses are still pretty good, particularly that of "Sole Survivor" and "Fever", and some of the songs, like "Change the Weather" and "Mercy" are pretty great all around. But the problem is, only "Sole Survivor" really matches up to "The God Song", and after that you've got a bunch of stuff on the previous album, anthems like "Glory! Glory!" that just don't really exist here. Still, it deserves a semi-okay rating because I wouldn't go as far as to say the album is bad, because it's still quite listenable. At least I don't mind it, which is strange because most Underworld fans won't even touch anything before 1992, sans for this one song called "Mother Earth" that they would later put on an actual Underworld album. It's not on here, but I do have this demo session from 1991 that has a lot of the songs that would have gone onto the third Underworld mk1 album, and that was one of the songs.

As for Change the Weather, my advice is to just skip it, because not only is it much harder to find than Underneath the Radar, but it really doesn't have too many of the redeeming values that the previous album had. And all the cool parts, like Karl's scat singing on "Fever" is balanced out with stupid 80s ballads, like "Texas" and the closer "Beach" (which really shouldn't have ended the album). Some of them seem to work, however, because I do kind of enjoy "Mr. Universe" (just for that 'you shout attack, attack, attack!' part). There's also a halfway decent rock song on here, "Thrash". But none of these songs have the replayability of "I Need a Doctor" (or the other good Underneath the Radar songs), which is why the album's really just not worth it.

Lemon Interupt - Bigmouth/Eclipse (1992)

Tally up another failed band for Karl, Rick, and Alfie because Underworld just wasn't gonna make it for those guys. Alfie quit the band, but the other two guys went on, finding this 18-year old DJ named Darren Emerson and forming this badly spelled band that put out a couple of singles that are probably essential to any Underworld collector but damn hard to find (the real thing that is).

So this is probably the first actual "Underworld" single - same guys, same type of music, just under a different name for now. Both of these songs are damn good - right off the bat, "Bigmouth" is one of the both unique things they've done, being - get this - harmonica techno, based off Karl basically playing almost a blues theme on the harmonica and placing a beat behind it. It's damn catchy, although the middle section is probably a little overlong (but I do like how it foreshadows "Dark and Long"). "Eclipse" is good as well, using some female voice calling out the names of stars (I think her name is Juanita and she shows up on a lot of Underworld tracks) behind a pretty steady backing track. It certainly gives off the atmosphere of space, which I suppose is what they were going for. Obviously you're not gonna find this on vinyl, but there are a lot of MP3 copies around.

Lemon Interupt - Dirty/Minneapolis (1992)

While the last single was more house, this one is more of a jam single, as the disjointed "Dirty" is more of a collection of musical ideas than an actual song. The boys would realize this eventually and make it into "Dirty Epic", which is a hell of a lot more coherent, but a lot of the bass noises make this track worth it. Doesn't matter much, because I really do like "Minneapolis" a whole lot more since it wouldn't become the basis for a song I've heard a thousand times. Like I said, Underworld is very atmospheric, which the big city being the predominant image in their work. "Minneapolis", then, is probably about that city. There's a solid hook throughout, but it's the secondary parts, like the guitar, and the almost mellotron-like background part that comes in at about six minutes that interests me more. There's also a third track, called "Minneapolis Airwaves", which is interesting but not really necessary...helps complete the portrait of the city I guess.

Mother Earth/The Hump (1992)

The first single produced under the Underworld name. Extremely hard to find (once again, there's a few MP3 copies out there, so keep searching), but since "Mother Earth" is available in this form on the first mk2 album, it's not a big deal. The FM mix of the song is a little truer to the original, featuring mostly a different beginning than the first, but really it's not all that different. Oddly enough, the B-side track(s), "The Hump", is a hell of a lot more mk1 than Lemon Interupt. In fact, if mk1 ever did get another album, I'd be willing to bet this song would be on it - it's got another one of those signature 80's-type bass lines, used in a dancier setting. The first mix is the "wild beasts" mix, which is probably close to the original. There's also a "groove without a doubt" mix that brings in the influences from Darren to make a dance floor single.

Rez/Cowgirl (1993)

Both of these tracks are widely available elsewhere...Cowgirl appears on the first album, and Rez is on a bunch of assorted releases, although it never made an album. Strange, because this is one of their best tracks. If you've heard "Cowgirl", you'll probably know what to expect...it's a similar house track, based off a very melodic sequence of beeps. "Cowgirl" is similar, but with more words (easily done since "Rez" doesn't feature any). It also has the ending that "Rez" lacked, but really they're both great tracks. This is another single that's hard to find but both tracks are pretty easy to track down.

dubnobasswithmyheadman (1994)

Best Song: Cowgirl

I've re-written this review a number of times, namely because I really can't say what all I want to say about the album without turning it into a boring 5-page essay (complete with thesis statement). That's because I'm absolutely cuckoo for this album (and cocoa puffs), and if it weren't for the unbeatable charm of Village Green Preservation Society thing by the Kinks, I'd crown this as my favorite album of all time (Update 8/05: I need to think this over...) I mean, I used to listen to it all the time, and I can still put it on and enjoy it like it's brand new despite the fact that I've listened to it a thousand times already. If you've followed the singles leading up to this (I didn't, I was only 8 when this was released), you'd know the band was set for a creative explosion which seemed to have happened all over this album.

Despite the fact that a lot of these songs were actually written for other things ("Skyscraper" was an early single, "M.E." is an even earlier one, "Cowgirl" was the flipside to "Rez" and "Dirty Epic" is just a reworking of "Dirty"), this is their most coherent album to date, with songs flowing into each other and such. The tracks are even ordered in a cool way..."Dark and Long" makes the perfect opener, and things kind of culminate from there, with both of the real 'house' tracks, "Spoonman" and "Cowgirl", being followed by the more ambient tracks, "Tongue" and "River of Bass". Of course it's really the songs themselves that really do it for me...in fact, it was near impossible to pick out the songs for the high points, as with the exception of "Surfboy" and "River of Bass", I've pretty much obsessed over every track here for a while (actually, scratch "River of Bass", because that one is so damn catchy and I couldn't get it out of my head when I was in Boston).

I don't know if it's because the spirit of the 80's is still in these guys (well, it's pretty much in Karl's voice), but this album just seems to be everything that 80's Underworld wanted to be but really couldn't because the times wouldn't allow it. It probably has something to do with Darren Emerson as well, but this is still primarily Karl's show. What would "Dark and Long" be without Karl's smooth vocals, or "Mmm Skyscraper I Love You" without Karl giving voice to the city (just to name the first two tracks)? The best vocal performance, however, would have to be Karl's worried tone on "Dirty Epic". Now there's about a million songs about sex, but lyrically, this one is probably the best (just like there's a million songs about techno and "Cowgirl" is probably the best). From the distorted-to-hell backing tracks of "Spoonman", to the constant repetition in "Cowgirl", Underworld shows that Karl's voice can also be used as more than just another element.

The more ambient pieces are good too. Technically, the first one would probably be the ending of "Skyscraper" right after the awesome synth line takes over at around minute seven and a half. "Tongue" is the best ambient piece on the album though, based off a really soothing guitar line. Karl's distorted vocals and the random banging around in the background (it kind of sounds like shopping carts hitting each other, but that's just me). Oh yeah, the guitar's great, but it's just a shame that Karl doesn't use it more. Those two guitar chords in "Dirty Epic" really make the song work. But it's not as if there's a bad song anyway...even "Surfboy" is just more or less standard techno, but it does get really good in its last third anyways.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is that you ought to buy this album if you're looking for a way to get into techno music (which stopped being an oxymoron in 1994) (actually probably 1992 because that's when Orbital 2 came out) - I really can't think of a better introduction to the electronic/house genre. It's not just dance music, as there is real substance here, enough to make me consider this to be one of the best albums of the 90's easily.

Dark and Long EP (1994)

Best Song: Thing in a Book or Dark Train

One of the cool things that Underworld used to do was put out EPs that were just as long as their albums. This "EP" (which would actually take up a double album) is actually slightly longer than dubnobasswithmyheadman which puts it at over 73 minutes. But there's only six tracks here, and one is a four-minute version of the title track (whose full version is absent). I suppose the 20+ minute "Thing in a Book" might be part of the problem (and the almost-as-long "Spoon Deep" is the rest), but I'll be damned up the dam if this isn't a great piece. It starts as a really pretty ambient piece but really slowly develops into a nicely laid out jam, with some of the coolest (but hardest to decipher) synth lines Underworld would ever do. Actually scratch that, because the ultimate club track, "Dark Train" is on here (they say it's a remix of "Dark and Long" but there's only like two similarities and they're really hard to pick out), and it has probably the catchiest simple synth line of Underworld's entire career (actually, maybe not, because "Two Months Off" would later have a similar but equally catchy one). Who says these guys couldn't write great hooks? I mean, who else (besides Orbital) was on top of things this much in the mid-nineties? But besides that and "Thing in a Book", the rest of the EP is pretty much a bunch of jams. "Spoon Deep" is an 18-minute remix of "Surfboy", which is just way too long, and "Dark Hard" and "Burts" are more of standard jamming based off of random samples of "Dark and Long". So what you get is really an EP that could stand to be a lot shorter, considering that only "Thing in a Book" and "Dark Train" really develop, but man are those tracks great. I guess it's worth noting that there's actually a second Dark and Long EP out (actually, I think this one is the second one, but whatever), that has an edit of "Dark Train" (that's only about half a minute shorter), something called "Most 'Ospitable" and another really long track called "215 Miles", but it's pretty tough to find.

Dirty Epic/Cowgirl EP (1994)

It's really tough to actually give this a rating, because it's rating pretty much depends on how much of it you've got already. I'm not sure if this was intended to be a companion piece to dubnobasswithmyheadman, or maybe like a teaser for the actual album, or what. I can't give it a bad rating because it's got the two best tracks from dubnobass on it, "Dirty Epic" and "Cowgirl", as well as the fantastic "Rez" (probably just to give it more of on actual home). Also included are "Dirty" as one of the "Dirty Epic" remixes and "River of Bass" for pretty much no reason at all. But I can't give it a good rating since most Underworld fans already have all these tracks, leaving something like three remixes to be had. So here it is. "Dirty Guitar" is pretty good, basically a cross between "Dirty" and "Dirty Epic" - kind of the missing link, complete with a bunch of rambling from Karl in the background. Lots of guitars, too. The "Cowgirl" mixes aren't as good, with the "Irish Pub in Kyoto" (I have no idea what they're referring to here) mix being the better of the two. It's also the one that has anything to do with the original at all. The "Winjer" mix is really just a 6-minute pointless jam that stops being interesting real quick. Either way, the best tracks are obviously the ones that are available already, so something tells me Underworld didn't really spend a lot of time on this.

Born Slippy (1995)

I won't give this a rating because it's just a single, but it's a damn fine one. The title track is an amazing house slammer (obliterating POGs everywhere), complete with "Pearl's Girl"-type beats (which didn't exist yet in 1995) and a bunch of low and high-rising synths (that eventually add a bunch of tension) layer over everything. The guys start to shift toward house even more than before, which explains the next track, "NUXX". This later got it's own single with a billion remixes, so I'll explain it more then...just know it's an awesome(ly repetitive) barrage of bass hits and a bunch of Karl talking about whatever. The third song, "Telematic", I suppose is another remix of the title track (although it has as much to do with it as "NUXX", which is pretty much nothing). But this one's great too...it's a little more bluesy, foreshadowing "King of Snake" in a way (or is it just me?). Either way, all three songs are pretty much great, so if you can find this...

Second Toughest in the Infants (1996)

Best Song: Banstyle/Sappy's Curry

    Recently the Dirts and I did this poll (I wasn't in it) where everyone was asked what their favorite ten albums were. They would then be ranked on a point system according to what was listed first, second, and so on on their lists. And guess which album won by a landslide, why, it's the one I'm reviewing right now. It's also an album I'm not listening to right now. I'm actually listening to the Chemical Brother's latest attempt at this music-making thing called "PRES BUTAN" about a month before the rest of you get to be disappointed by it. Except I'm not really paying attention because I'm trying to remember exactly how this album sounds.
    Right, it sounds pretty gosh darn good, which is probably why my people, the Dirts and I, rated it as the BEST ALBUM EVER. Actually, I think dubnobasswithmyheadman is a little better but Second Toughest ain't no slacker. It was named for one of Rick's newphews who was like the second biggest kid in Kindergarten or something. That means that there was only one kid bigger than he was, kinda like how this album has only one that's better than it.
    I think the main reason why it's so respected is probably because of these first two tracks. Maybe it's only a fourth of the tracks but it's almost half the album because Underworld just can't let a good thing die. Take opening track "Juanita", named for that girl who keeps talking all over UW's songs (like in "Surfboy"). It starts with a driving beat, but after about five minutes of constant building turns into one of the coolest and most hypnotic grooves in the history of Second Toughest in the Infants (thanks again to that guitar I guess). After that it dissipates a little and turns into a really long jam session but I don't mind because the song is so awesome anyways and at least it goes somewhere. After about 17 minutes of that there's another really long but awesome song called "Banstyle" and "Sappy's Curry". "Banstyle" ain't so impressive, or at least it wouldn't be if not for that really paranoid atmosphere it gives off. Not that Karl ever lets his lyrics known but I'm pretty sure one of the first lines is "If they don't know then they don't know but they're gonna find out, soon enough". Now that's a cool line isn't it? But after about five minutes it turns into the next part, featuring probably my favorite techno build-up ever (I'm sure I can think of a better one, but only "Juanita" comes to mind) (About two months after I wrote this I realized I like "Thing in a Book" a lot too). It's just a mess of guitars a-pluckin' and keyboards a-pressin'. But it turns out to be this really cool groove and there's a great ending to it all. I guess I could do without that high-pitched whiny synth noise somewhere at the end but hey, maybe the 'boys' wanted to show how 'out of control' they were.
    There's a whole six songs left (well maybe five once you count out the catchy but short guitar riff "Blueski"). After the first two songs comes the house part, starting with the "thump, thump, thump" of "Confusion the Waitress", backed by this hypnotic "she said...(lyrics)" vocal line, and a wholly unintersting yet hypnotic keyboard line. Then there's "(C)Rowla(ne)" named after a sign with some missing letters. Like the sign, the song is missing something, like an aim I guess, because as it stands it's just six minutes of "eeowwwwunnhhnmmaananana" over and over again. If you like house or "the house" you'll probably like this anyways. Not that I don't enjoy it frothingly (to quote Cassimissa of IGN (drink Pepsi)) at times anyways. But just in case there's always "Pearl's Girl" which I suppose would be the big hit of the album. It's a strange one because I haven't really found out why the track's so good because there's no hook in it. No real melody at all - there's this synth line that's in the beginning and end, but it's not really a big part of the song. Just a bunch of thumps, helicopter noises, and Karl attempting (and succeeding) to old school gangster rap about the rainbow, marking officially where Karl's lyrics go from making sense to just being a pile of random nonsense (to everyone but Karl). But once you learn the lyrics it's hard not to sing (rap) along because somehow the song turns into the best club track since "Cowgirl".
    That only leaves the jam "Airtowel", which is more of a cool jam track. It has some nice points where Karl sings those higher notes which makes it fun to listen to. Oh, and closer "Stagger" which, in the words of this band called "Underworld" (with Alfie Thomas), "Show(s) Some Emotion". It's based once again off this proto-ambient keyboard line (as is a lot of this album) while Karl sings about some more nonsense (but there's a lot of great lines in there if you're really listening). It gets really good once those big bass thumps come in near the end - real great closer, bringing the album to a fantastic stop. There's a great version of this track up at underworldlive.com (as well as a lot of great MP3s and some live stuff too). In fact, I'm listening to it right now because that Chemical Brothers album is over (being that I really don't have my Second Toughest CD or MP3s here, much less really any MP3s other than "PRESS THAT BUTAN") and what a surprise that I can't remember what a single song sounds like off of it. Maybe because these "brothers" didn't realize that having a guest vocalist doesn't mean that you can just skip writing music and just do a slighty-better-than-average rap song. What the hell is going to be the single off this thing? I'm thinking "Galvanize" because it's the first track and all Chemical Brothers first tracks become hits. Unlike Second Toughest in the Infants, which really didn't have any hits at all (but just wait, they had a huge one this same year).

Born Slippy .NUXX (1996)

In 1996, Underworld got their big break as filmmaker Danny Boyle was trying to make this film called "Trainspotting". He was apparently really into Underworld during the development of the movie (particularly dubnobasswithmyheadman, as that was the only album out at that point), and wanted to make the film score all Underworld. Well, whoever produced the movie (no, I'm not going to look it up) didn't like this idea because nobody's really heard of Underworld. So Dan cuts all the Underworld songs save for two - "Dark Train" which plays during the withdrawal scene (think baby on a ceiling) and a "Born Slippy .NUXX" (that part in the end where Renton steals the bag of money) (you might not want to read that), and fills the rest of the soundtrack with just generic British dance stuff that everyone's heard.

It just so turns out that ".NUXX" becomes sort of a techno-anthem that sells the soundtrack, because

A) The song is played at a pivotal point.

B) It's different than pretty much every other song in the movie, and

C) The song was poised to become a hit from the start.

I mean, you get Karl rambling on in his most famous rant and you think people just aren't gonna notice? Well, someone did (the techno police, who put this song on about a billion compilations). Unfortunately for me, there's also about a million versions of this single. The one I have has the 12-minute version, the 3-minute version, a Deep Pan remix, and two Darren Price remixes. The bad news is that none of the remixes are very good...Deep Pan is really really damn repetitive (and doesn't really have much to do with ".NUXX"), while the Darren Price mixes seem very amateurish, in that they just don't seem very innovative outside the original song, but that said, they're decent, especially the first one. Thing is, it's hard to remix a track like ".NUXX"...after all, it's very simple in that the whole song is basically "THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP", and the vocals are hard to remove because they're so associated with those respective "Thump's". But most importantly, the single helped really bring out Karl's personality. A shame that the "lager lager lager" bits became the most famous because it led many people to believe it was a drinking song. Karl must have hated this, being a recovering alcoholic and all, in fact, he did something that's truly a singularly in the Underworld catalog - he released the lyrics. You can look them up, but it'll probably just leave you confused.

Pearl's Girl EP (1997)

Best Song: Oich Oich

Today is the Super Bowl! I'm not actually watching it right now, but I did watch enough to know that I still don't really care a lot about football (and the Packers aren't even playing!). Hockey, now there's a sport we can all enjoy! Instead of watching the Patriots win the game (which they probably will, it's 14 to 7 and the Patriots are better than Philly anyway), I'll sit down and review this "Pearl's Girl" EP. When I first started to get into Underworld, I thought that merely having all the actual albums was enough, so it wasn't until recently that I picked this up. That's a pretty big mistake, since Pearl's Girl is really like a whole new album in itself. It's a lot like the Dark and Long EPs - this one's about an hour long, with 9 tracks. Only two of them are redundant - obviously "Pearl's Girl" itself is already on Second Toughest, and there's also a short edit in there (which are both placed somewhere near the end for whatever reason). The two mixes of "Pearl's Girl" in the beginning are "Tin There" and "14996". "Tin There" sounds a lot like the original "Born Slippy" (which is sort of a coincidence since "Pearl's Girl" sounds a lot like ".NUXX). "14996" is more of an ambient jam-type song, cutting up the lyrics and spreading them all over. The result is listenable but kind of boring. The real gems are the new tracks - specifically "Puppies" and "Oich Oich". The former is shorter, but catchy as hell...it's based off an ambient synth line, which conveys a real happy mood until Karl's slowed-down vocals take the song to a new level - it's creepy, but that good kind of creepy. "Oich Oich" is one of those songs that probably shouldn't have gotten cut from Second Toughest, being that it's really the kind of thing Underworld does so well...it's both danceable and lush at the same time, especially when they lay down this really cool guitar line that puts the song on the same level as that early "Minneapolis" song. Plus, the bass parts are especially good (although something tells me this was lifted from "Psycho Killer"). The other ones, "Mosaic" and "Deep Arch" aren't quite as great as the previous two, sounding more like regular B-sides than anything, but they've both got their share of good parts. Karl's sliced vocals on "Deep Arch" are absolutely amazing, and even "Mosaic" has a really catchy keyboard part. Other than that, there's also a mix of "Rowla" called "Cherry Pie" - good stuff as well, in fact, many Underworld fans claim it's even better than "Rowla". It certainly would have fit into Second Toughest a little better, as it sways more toward smooth layering than grating house acid, but I like them both. So what you get really ends up being an essential Underworld release, and probably the first one I'd go to once you get all the albums. While I don't like this as much as any regular four star album, it's rated that way because it is just an EP - really not much different than a single, in that it contains edits, remixes, and B-sides, except not many singles contain all three, and most EPs won't even so as far as to include 4 totally new tracks. Unfortunately, this and the Dark and Long EPs would be the only ones that they'd release that included so much material - further singles more or less followed the rules, and therefore aren't very exciting.

Beaucoup Fish (1998)

Best Song: Jumbo

Listening to this album you can't help but wonder if Underworld had let themselves get caught up in all the '96-'98 electronic hoopla, namely Fatboy Slim's "The Rockafeller Skank" (it's the "funk soul brother" song) that attracted so much non-stop attention right around now. Big beat techno was starting to make a stand, with songs like "Block Rockin' Beats", "Smack My Bitch Up", and "Battleflag" actually getting radio airplay! Now Underworld wasn't completely inexperienced in these matters - all they needed to do was come up with an album that was basically "Pearl's Girl" over and over again and they'd be sure to recapture the mainstream success that they'd never achieve again. Actually, if that was what they wanted, they could have just signed to one of the many labels that offered after that whole ".NUXX" fiasco (not to mention the Wesley Willis Fiasco), but they decided to stay loyal to the JBO label. What, then, could explain such a strange change in direction for Underworld? Maybe they were sick of their live set and wanted to infuse it with a bunch of new tracks to get the crowd shakin'? Well, whatever it was, while Dig Your Own Hole was getting all the praise and You've Come a Long Way, Baby was getting all the airplay, Beaucoup Fish was really better than the both of them.

The thing is, while Rick Smith could have changed his name to Norman Cook and tried to loop the most annoying vocal samples off of 60's surf-rock songs, he decided to just stay on the Underworld course and release an album that really didn't derivate terribly from the previous two, but at the same time produce a whole new set of house tracks that would move the band into a different direction. Opener "Cups" really says it all. It's long as hell, bringing back similar epics such as "Skyscraper" and "Banstyle", but this time employing a different tactic - while the opening groove is chilled enough, the boys really saw no way to develop it any further and decided to turn "Cups" into the best house anthem since "Sandstorm", except I fucking hate "Sandstorm" and "Cups" is way better. After this comes the first single, the piano driven rave-up "Push Upstairs". It's not as complex as you'd expect from Underworld, but the real hook is just Karl's voice. He sounds like a gangster from the 50's, growling the lines through the song. The chorus, "Push, push innn, push innn, push....wuughhh, wuughhh, wuughhh" is even kind of funny (not to mention really really catchy). After that's the best song of the lot, "Jumbo" (and to think that Karl actually wanted to can it!). It's both danceable and ambient at the same time, with little reflective beeps and bloops echoing off the walls. It's a song about phones, even though to me the imagery provided by the music is clear (it's about riding on a plane). They haven't done anything this perfect since "Cowgirl"...even those who see Beaucoup Fish as the biggest disappointment of all time (next to St. Anger and any Cars or Devo album after the first) admit that this song is pretty good. Following this is another house anthem, "King of Snake". It starts with the "Shudder" part, which is Karl playing an out-of-tune guitar (or maybe it's a 3-year old kid) (or maybe Karl forgot how to play, just like how I just forgot the locations today of all three of the Super Mario 3 warp whistles), but goes from there into a running acid synth line complete with piano parts and God-knows-what-else (it's kind of frustrating to have to describe everything as a 'synthesizer', because I'd bet a lot of it isn't). And, once again, Karl's the best part of all this, yelling out "sssssssssssssssssssnake!" every so often.

The first four songs stand in a stretch all on its own, like the first two songs of Second Toughest in the Infants or the "Tongue"/"Dirty Epic"/"Cowgirl" combo of dubnobasswithmyheadman. It's pretty obvious the whole record can't be that good, after all, the boys start to run low on ideas afterwards. Thankfully, the ideas they do have work really well - there's more ambient things like "Winjer", a song I can't even really describe - it's almost a regular stomper, except the vocals are really calm and the beats are underneath everything. There's the beatless "Skym" filling in the role of the other two album's shorter tracks, and "Push Downstairs", which uses the same lyrics as "Push Upstairs" but is a lot more chill (in fact, I really didn't like this track at all until I heard it with a good subwoofer). The only time they seem really starved on ideas is with the kung-fu style beats of "Bruce Lee", featuring Karl as a full-on rapper (hey, it worked once). I like the song way more than the average Underworld fan would like to admit, even if it is a little shallow. "Kittens" doesn't seem very inspired either at first listen - it's really just a hugely overblown drum solo (with some synthesizers to augment it), but if there's ever a techno song that can provide instant gratification, it's this one. The way that Underworld do so much with what is apparently so little is just mindblowing. This only leaves an "Airtowel" knock-off, "Something Like a Mama" (except the beats in this one are waaaay more complicated), and the closer, called "Moaner", which goes back to the anthems of the beginning of the album. The frantic atmosphere in this song alone is worth it, complete with Karl's loony rantings about a girl who left him, or something (who the hell knows what he's talking about). It's not as good as, say, "King of Snake", and maybe that's only because it's really a lot like "King of Snake" (but a lot more grating, for one). Either way, this is a near-perfect album that only suffers from a few minor infractions - the balance of house/ambient is way up, which isn't as cool as you'd think, as well as a few minor gripes with individual tracks. Still, it's really not much worse than the first two albums, even if it seems like they just had less to work with. Or maybe that's because they weren't really working together as much this time around?

Push Upstairs (1999)

And now I go on the long process of reviewing a whole bunch of Beaucoup Fish singles just to give the impression that I'm a completionist or something who has a huge Underworld page on the internet! (e-penis +1) To be honest, the Beaucoup Fish singles aren't much to get excited about - if you want them, the best thing you can do would be to just get the Singles Box Set which has all of these. Actually, that's what I've got, but I'll just review them individually anyway. The Push Upstairs single isn't actually the first one to be released - there was a Moaner single to promote the Batman soundtrack in 1997 (I saw it as a $10 import from a used CD place that just shut down, but never bought it because the cover with Batman and Robin on it looks ridiculous), but this is the first to be released from the album. Anyways, it's nothing too spectacular - you get three mixes that are really only okay, seeming to use more and more of the original song as they go on (the Adam Beyer remix uses only the grunting noise, while the Darren Price mix borrows from it pretty heavily). Which reminds me - with the Born Slippy .NUXX single notwithstanding, this is the first time they'd let other artists remix their work. This makes these singles a hell of a lot different than the Pearl's Girl or Dark and Long releases for sure. Although there is one new track on here, called "Please Help Me". It's sort of a proto-ambient track at first before falling into business as usual. It's actually a pretty good track (with the really echoey vocals giving it an atmosphere similar to the really good parts of "Deep Arch"), and I could definitely see it filling in for "Skym" on Beaucoup Fish in order to make the album a little more consistent concept-wise.

Jumbo (1999)

I remember downloading this one mix of "Jumbo" called "Deep Dish Remix" or something. I really wish I could find it, because it was amazing. Sort of like a mix of the song taken underwater or something (there's a "Main Dish" mix on here that sounds a lot like it, but it's not as good). Then again, the original's atmosphere is sort of like that, shown again in the jerky "Future Shock Worlds Mix", which is just as lush as the original (it adds a string section too!). That's probably the best mix of the bunch, although the "Jedis Sugar Hit" mix sounds pretty good too, like it's trying to bring the track back to the house roots it never really had. The Jedis also made this "Electro Dub Mix" that doesn't even sound like the original. In fact, it sounds like something from the 80's. It uses the same style of synthesizers as the original, but sounds a lot more like a modern Kraftwerk than anything.

King of Snake (1999)

This one begins really nice - it starts with an edit of "King of Snake" that goes into a really cool "Barking Mix", which sounds a lot like someone's getting bored at the knobs. Unfortunately, this single does not include the awesome ditched first part of the original song that they used to do live (check the Blue Mountain gig at underworldlive.com). But the Barking Mix does contain a lot of cool new elements - everything layered together is the main part of the song, but they keep doing all these weird breaks ("great times") ("doin' it). This then goes into the "Fatboy Slim Mix" by way of the "snake fighting with knife" sample. It's really the same thing you can expect from Mr. Slim, but at least it's entertaining, which is good because the other two mixes are really, really bland. The "Slam Remix" is just a bunch of thumping and low-pitched noises, and the "Dave Clarke" remix is just a standard plain-as-Jane remix of the song.

Bruce Lee (1999)

This final single really doesn't include a whole lot, but it's still not bad. There's two mixes of the title track - the Micronauts mix is really more of their own song, with the "Bruce Lee" rap thrown over the top of it. It's okay, probably better if it wasn't so many minutes long. There's also a really strange "Doprobet" mix that uses that Juanita sample from the song (if you don't know who that is, she's the woman who appears on a number of Underworld tracks, but most famously this one) (she also had a song named after her). It's actually just a bunch of looped crowd noises with a beat - interesting, but really not something I'd listen to a lot. However, the best song on here is the other one, which is actually a mix of "Cups". It's not even a potentially annoying spin-off of the final part either - it's the first eight minutes with more of a running beat through it.

Everything, Everything (2000)

Best Song: Rez/Cowgirl

After the release of Beaucoup Fish, the group ventured on a huge tour, spanning 2 years and 8000 countries. This gave the boys in the band a lot of live material, so they decided that they ought to release something about it. Everything, Everything is the result of this massive tour - sort of a landmark and testament to it. Legend has it that Rick locked himself up for weeks until he picked the perfect performances for it. And I must say, he did a damn good job - not one of the eight tracks has anything less than perfect sound quality and a stellar performance. And he even downplays the fact that they're from separate concerts - the first three tracks all sound like they're from the same venue, and only "Pearl's Girl" has a noticeable break ending it. Thus, if you've never heard of the idea of 'live' techno, something that by definition probably shouldn't exist, you might want to check this out - not only are the songs great live, but they even differ like you might expect a normal rock band to do! So let's get to it. For the most part, the songs are from Beaucoup Fish - no surprise really, since that's not only their newest album but also their most tour-friendly. They do the first four tracks, except that "Cups" only has the latter part (and is more of a segue between "Juanita/Kiteless" and "Push Upstairs"). There's also a pair from Second Toughest, those being "Juanita/Kiteless" which opens the show, as well as a totally energetic "Pearl's Girl", which pretty much drills the "crazy crazy crazy crazy" sample into your head even more than the original. The other tracks include ".NUXX", of course, which is pretty much an anthem by now, as well as the amazing closing combo of "Rez" and "Cowgirl". The songs were related from the start, but segueing from one to the other is a pretty cool effect. It's really the perfect closer to the show, as it's performed as flawlessly as anything (except in the very end where Rick goes for the big finish and presses the button a little too soon), with an amazing ending, where Karl pretty much goes nuts yelling all over the place.

Even if you've got the studio albums, there's a few differences you might appreciate here. "Juanita/Kiteless" is shortened, removing most of the fat from the middle and even adding a few new elements. Speaking of which, one of the coolest parts of this release is the crowd - there's tons of people here, and they don't just cheer whenever a song starts - they cheer whenever a new element is added to the song. So the build-ups are even cooler. But anyways, besides that there's new stuff all over "Push Upstairs" and "King of Snake" as well, including some of the older parts of the latter that got cut for the album. I guess what I'm trying to say is that you should really get this album if you've got even a fleeting interest in the band, as it's probably the best live album since King Crimson's Absent Lovers. Yeah, it's techno, but it's not as though this takes no skill - Rick and Darren keep plenty busy, and Karl still has to sing the parts, and dance, which you can't really see unless you also get the coinciding DVD release. I don't have the DVD yet, but I have seen the first half of it, and it's really good.

Bootleg Babies (2001)

Best Song: Compared to the originals, Dark Train

Not an official release, but an important one nonetheless. It's from the guys from the RTSR (short for the lyric "ride the sainted rhythms" from "Dirty Epic") mailing list, who had been collecting bootlegs for some time. Seeing the success of the Everything, Everything album, these guys decided to create their own version of it, called "Bootleg Babies" (from "Skyscraper"). The big difference is that it's two-disc - if you found Everything, Everything to be too straightforward, you'd probably like this one quite a bit. And best of all, you can get it for free here.

Once again, it starts out with "Juanita/Kiteless", only this time it's 22 minutes long. Already you can see that this is really made with more of the hardcore Underworld fan in mind. Now obviously, the appeal in this collection lays in the length of some of the songs - most of the good stuff is consequently extremely lengthy. Like the "Born Slippy"/".NUXX" combo that ends Disc 1 - although ".NUXX" is still awesome, the props go to the original track which is so fierce and otherworldly that it was almost too hard to imagine what the crowd must have been feeling. But the best track is, once again, "Rez/Cowgirl" - this time it's 17 minutes long, beginning with a really slowed down version of "Rez"...and it's phenomenal, really. There's lots of interesting touches throughout the set - check out the church bells in "Confusion the Waitress", the reggae guitar in "Dark Train", the explosion of new hooks in "Skyscraper", and the awesome yell that begins "Moaner"...lots of great stuff in here that makes this a great set for anyone who hasn't heard many Underworld bootlegs.

Perhaps the coolest thing in here is the sequencing - you have to give lots of credit to the RTSR crew for sequencing this all together, making it seem all like one concert. It's pretty surprising that the "Juanita" and "Rowla" aren't from the same concert, even though they're almost perfectly put together. Really my only problems with the set are:

A) the sound quality isn't always crystal clear (of course, that's really not their fault), and

B) sometimes two and a half hours of techno is too much to take at once.

Explaining B a bit, it's not that a looooong techno release can't be good, but this one does get tedious in certain parts. I mean, I was halfway through the first track and already Underworld-ed out the first time I heard it. This is basically the Welcome Back My Friends, to the Show that Never Ends of techno - while there are a few breather tracks (although they're pretty much all after "Juanita"), it's pretty much just one techno epic after the other. At least Everything, Everything had "Cups" on it...the fact of the matter is that Disc 2 tends to get really tedious if you're not up to hearing "Push Upstairs", "Confusion the Waitress", "King of Snake", "Jumbo", and "Moaner" pretty much all at once. Still, this is an amazing collection, and props to the RTSR guys for putting it together.

A Hundred Days Off (2002)

Best Song: Two Months Off

So one day, DJ Darren decides to leave the group in order to look after his so-called family and work on his solo career (hint: only one of these things exist). For a while, Underworld fans had thought that the group had broken up and that they had ended on the live album, but Rick and Karl went on without them, leaving them to work as a duo for the first time ever. Luckily, the album proved that Darren wasn't necessary integral to Underworld - it was Rick, sitting in the corner the whole time who made the band worth its salt. Unfortunately, there still is, or was something missing from it. It's definitely more like Second Toughest in the Infants than Beaucoup Fish, but it's really not as good as either. See, when you're a well-respected techno artist who has put out three studio and one live album that have all been absolutely mind = blowing, chances are you're going to slip up and release something that's merely "good" instead of "great". Because where the first two albums had long epics and nice ambient passages, and where the Fish had some great house tracks, A Hundred Days Off is only a little of each. There's only two real house stompers here - one is the single, "Two Months Off", which fits in with the track record of excellent singles from the band. There's one hitch though - it's the bands only real 'happy'-sounding single, as opposed to frantic ("King of Snake", "Pearl's Girl") or desperate ("Moaner"). But who am I to complain - it's a really nice change of pace. The other is "Dinosaur Adventure 3D" - which just takes the underlying hook of "Dark Train" and turns it more into acid. However, Karl's exciting vocals save this one and put it juuuust below the level of the Beaucoup Fish singles, although its lack of originality is the only downfall to an otherwise magnificent track. And on the other front, there's really nothing too epic here - "Two Months Off" is the longest track, coming in at just over nine minutes.

Other great stuff includes the opener "Mo Move", whose rumbling bassline and stretched out vocals are downright hypnotic, with plenty of cool elements thrown in to show you "we've still got it". There's also the short Eno-like "Ballet Lane", which is actually really interesting. It's keyboard driven, with a catchy as hell main melody, except that all the good notes come at once, if that makes any sense to you. And finally, the last track, "Luetin", closes the album on a strange note - it sounds like a toned down version of one of their good house tracks, but I mean that in a good way. The main synth part is great, and even though I was a little upset at first that it never seemed to develop past that, it doesn't matter. It's as danceable as something like "King of Snake" is, but way more chill.

This leaves the five middle tracks which leave a lot of people divided. "Twist" is inoffensive enough, based off a "Banstyle"-like electric piano rhythm and backed by all sorts of tribal percussion - it's very good, but it just seems stuck and stale at some points. When they did it live they added guitars - exactly what the track needed, but they aren't here. "Sola Sistim" is another more downtempo track, similar to "Stagger" but not as interesting. Karl's beaten his alcoholism by now, which seems to only really come out in how this track is really supposed to be depressing but isn't really. And why doesn't that synth note ever rise like I was positive it did when I first heard it? Then it's "Little Speaker" - again, it's sort of house-like, but also chilled. It's based off of piano and a lot of rolling bass (speaking of which, this CDs volume is pretty high and the bass levels are huge), with Juanita's voice pretty much providing something to listen to (I can't make out much other than "weird growing disease", which is the same line that everyone always quotes about this song). The second half is more interesting - lots of disjointed piano noises that almost led me to believe that it was skipping at the end, with ambient hoopla scattered throughout. It's really quite pleasant, even if the piano parts seem to cancel out the ambient parts - still, the effect is sure unique.

There's still two throwaways after that, but they're short - "Trim" is a country (?) song that is actually quite catchy, but doesn't have a whole lot of musical value, and "Ess Gee" is just Karl playing the semi-blues for only two minutes, and still manages to be the most boring part of the album. Maybe it's just the calm before "Dinosaur Adventure" - then again, they never really needed to do this. Even so, it really doesn't drag down the album. In fact, listening to A Hundred Days Off again, I can tell you that it certainly deserves no less than four stars, as it's still a pretty great techno album despite some shortcomings. True, we can look at the departure of Darren and think, "hey, what if...?", and realize that Underworld really didn't have much of a direction to go after Everything, Everything, so why not start over? Quite possibly a transitional album, although it's worrisome that every incarnation of Underworld's first album has been their best (Doot-Doot, Underneath the Radar, dubnobasswithmyheadman). There are enough good elements on here to make me believe that Underworld does still have it, they just need to find it again.

Two Months Off (2002)

In order to comply with UK chart rules, Underworld reduced the running time of their singles to only around 20 minutes. Of course, with supposedly enough unreleased material to make A Hundred Days Off a double disc, it's a little frustrating that we don't get like a "Two Months Off EP" in the style of the "Pearl's Girl" one a while back. There's about a bizillion versions of this single out there, but I've pretty much got all the tracks that appear sans a second John Ciafone mix. So anyways, is it just me, or is the edit of this song really good? I love the way it just...you know...fades in like that. Anyway, as for the remixes, they stick more to the original, with the King Unique mix emphasizing the mood and the John Ciafone mix emphasizing the dance elements. There's two B-sides as well..."Tiny Clicks" is really just a short toss-off, but "Headset" is damn good...sort of a "Mosaic"-like atmosphere, but a lot more ambient.

Dinosaur Adventure 3D (2003)

God knows how many versions of this there is, but once again I've collected most of the tracks I could find from it. The remixes on it are split between 'good' and 'bad'. The disco Chickenlips version is really interesting - they really just use some vocal samples, as most of the track is original, and the Sharpside mix replaces the hooks with something more interesting while keeping the exciting vocals. But the other two mixes I have, the RCM mix and Funk D'Void, are pretty damn bland. It's as if they didn't even bother to spend more than a couple of hours on it. The B-sides are pretty cool too - "Ansum" is over 16 minutes, but don't expect another "Skyscraper" or nothing...it's an ambient piece that's really pleasant for the first ten minutes or so until it turns into the latter half of "Little Speaker". It's actually really good ambient music too, if you can believe that. "Like a Swimmer" is decent...another more chill track, using a flailing saxophone this time for whatever reason. But that's at least something that they've never done before, so props on that.

1992-2002 (2003)

Having been "Underworld" for ten years now (well, not counting the 80's outfit, and quite frankly, I'd have loved to see "Underneath the Radar" on here, although the real Underworld fans would have hanged them), the 'world decides that sort of an anthology was in order. Since techno was really coming into its own around 1991, the fact that it's still going was a testament to its viability, with bands like Underworld who had been there from the beginning in a prime spot to release such career overviews. Orbital and The Chemical Brothers did the same thing too, but Underworld did it best. The Chemical Brothers filled their anthology with hard to find tracks and new material, but didn't really cover their greatest hits, leaving out many of their greatest songs. And Orbital totally botched theirs, trying to fit a career full of awesome 10-minute epics onto one disc and using crappy 7" mixes instead of the real thing. Underworld not only has their best material on this album, but also included a few (but not too many) harder to find tracks, all while retaining the original mix. In fact, in some cases, the mixes are even longer ("Push Upstairs" is here in its full version, with an extra verse, and "Moaner" has an extended outro). This left only room for about 16 tracks, and since the discs are full, the average length of the song on here is about ten minutes. That's really the only downfall if you're a new listener - even though I'd recommend this awesome collection in a heartbeat, like the Bootleg Babies compilation, it often seems like it's just too much at once. Still, anyone who enjoys the music would probably like hearing Underworld's hits back-to-back.

Despite this, the track selection is pretty uneven, but since it covers mostly the singles, it's to be expected that a fourth of this is just Beaucoup Fish material. dubnobasswithmyheadman gets three of it's tracks on here, "Mmm Skyscraper I Love You", "Dirty Epic", and "Cowgirl" (complete with the "Dirty Epic" lead-in even though it's unnecessary because they aren't next to each other). Second Toughest in the Infants only gets "Pearl's Girl", and A Hundred Days Off only gets "Two Months Off", but whatever. Maybe if this was three discs we would have gotten "Juanita" or "Luetin" or something like that. Anyways, the cool thing about this anthology is that only nine of the sixteen tracks are album tracks - three of their biggest hits were never on an album, those being "Rez", "Dark Train", and of course "Born Slippy .NUXX". Even though any Underworld collector worth his weight in salt probably has these already, if in whatever case that you don't, this provides a good way to find them all. The other hard to find tracks are the Lemon Interupt singles "Bigmouth" and "Dirty" (providing the collection's only real flaw; having both "Dirty" and "Dirty Epic" is a little repetitive, even if they are spaced apart). The early single "Spikee" is also on there, which is great because the song is awesome - it starts out with typical jarring beats and Karl's cut up voice again, but in the last two and a half minutes Karl lays down his awesome riff that transforms the coda into an amazing ending to the song that I keep wanting to put on repeat over and over. Also is the song "8 Ball" which Underworld post-Darren wrote for the movie "The Beach" in 2000. It's seriously the song that "A Hundred Days Off" was missing, and if it had it would easily be a 4 1/2 stars, but for whatever reason it's just on this soundtrack. It's got the same happy vibe as "Two Months Off", and once again it's the guitars that really push it over the edge...I guess like "Two Months Off" met "River of Bass" or something. Overall, this is an amazing compilation, and I urge (URGE!?) anyone who has even a fleeting interest in techno or electronic music to check it out.

Born Slippy 2003 (2003)

Sort of a companion piece to the anthology, the boys decide to remix a remix (as Mitch would say, "it's back to normal") and pull out a new "Born Slippy" for the 21st century. Really it's just the same thing with a piano part (but it's missing the original synth lines). It's pretty good, although it still doesn't sound like anything new. Gives them a new thing to do with the song when they play it live, I guess. There's a few mixes (although they don't really do anything with the new '2003' part, just more ".NUXX" mixes really) on here. Notably the "London Electricity" mix, which is exciting as all hell. The "Atomic Hooligan" mix was also pretty good, although going from the sped-up vocals on the London mix. There's also a Paul Oakenfold mix, which is exactly how I thought it would sound. Look, between you and me, Mr. Oakenfold isn't exactly much of a Disc Jockey when you really think about it. I mean, his best work was called Tranceport and was really boring most of the time. But anyways, Rick also threw in an ambient mix, which sounds like a beatless, floating version of ".NUXX" (with re-recorded vocals) (supposedly the 2003 mix had different vocals too, but I can't tell the difference). Some versions also get this Atomic Hooligan mix of Cowgirl which is really unremarkable, except it's interesting to hear how it becomes more and more like the original as time goes on.

Underworld are set to release a new album before summer 2005, so you better check back when that happens!

Links:

Dirty.org, more or less the official Underworld page

A page maintained by Karl which contains lots of live MP3s and unreleased mixes.