Underworld poll

i know 'sunshine' wasn't officially released

It finally was a few months ago.

Second Toughest

Everything DVD

Dubnobasswithmyheadman
Beaucoup Fish
Everything, Everything [live]
A Hundred Days Off

one of these, will figure it out later
(prob BF)

Beaucoup Fish.

really the only reasons I'm not slam-dunking this for BP are "...mmm skyscraper i love you...", "Dirty Epic", "Two Months Off" and "Lutein"

Everything, Everything

all the time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUIDMM0LD8Y

Dubnobasswithmyheadman. That was the only time I was really interested in them, and even then I didn't like the vocal stuff as much as I did the instrumental tracks, like the original version of "Dirty". Though "Cowgirl" is a classic tune still.

Also, "Why Why Why". Was that on any of the albums?

Everything, Everything

I'll probably wind up voting for Everything, Everything but this poll should have included the 3CD Live in Tokyo 25th November 2005 set. Listening to that now. It's fucking awesome.

Why, Why, Why was not on an album but the Japanese 2cd reissue of Dubno has a 3in bonus disc with Why, Why, Why and Rez.

second toughest for sure. i really do love underworld.

Dubnobasswithmyheadman
Second Toughest in the Infants
Beaucoup Fish

Pretty unbeatable 1-2-3 of albums IMO. A difficult choice, but I think Dub... has to take it for me.

Lovely Broken Thing
Pizza for Eggs
I'm a Big Sister, and I'm a Girl, and I'm a Princess, and This Is My Horse
The Misterons Mix

Never heard these ones, how do they compare to the better known stuff?

Beaucoup Fish for me, it's just so... banging. I mean really thumping.

Lovely Broken Thing
Pizza for Eggs
I'm a Big Sister, and I'm a Girl, and I'm a Princess, and This Is My Horse
The Misterons Mix

I just assumed these were a joke and didn't actually exist.

weird I put on everything everything last night for first time in ages...for me that's still one of my all time favourite albums. juanita/kiteless is just so fucking incredible.

dubnobass easy

Lovely Broken Thing, Pizza For Eggs and Big Sister all feature about 5 or 6 tracks each in a continuous mix. Mostly ambient and experimental but there are some great tracks hidden in each. The Misterons Mix was a compilation of the best bits by Steve Hall (I think) that came free when you purchased the other 3. Each came with a pretty big photo gallery of pics taken by Karl.

2d toughest for sure. love this group so much.

I have these two versions of the Dark & Long CD single, together well over 90 minutes of excellent mixes.

http://www.discogs.com/Underworld-Dark-Long/release/15659
http://www.discogs.com/Underworld-Dark-Long/release/79866

Lovely broken thing > I'm a big sister >>>>>>>> pizza for eggs

i have the dark & long cd singles too

Second Toughest is an absolute game changer in terms of my music taste, they've done lots of other good stuff but fuck giving my vote to anything else tbh

That record beat most of the drum 'n bass guys at their own game IMO.

3CD Live in Tokyo 25th November 2005 set

would very much like to hear this

second toughest is my pick as well, i bought that during a road trip between ny and chicago and listened to it multiple times en route, i associate it most with driving through the steel mills in gary, IN at about 2am.

Underworld are up there with Kraftwerk as music for travelling. My major association with Beaucoup Fish when it first came out is travelling by bus through Malaysia and Thailand.

Second Toughest is an absolute game changer in terms of my music taste

Seconded - it destroyed my narrow minded duh, alt rock punk/schmindie listening monopoly.

I'd probably go with BFish though.

They were one of the best bands I've ever seen live too .Thank fuck Ian Brown can't sing and we went to the tent instead . Reading - mid/late 90s?

Can't decide between Second Toughest and Beaucoup Fish, may cheat and vote EE as way to get BF tracks and still have Pearls Girl

Tomorrow in London

http://www.serpentinegallery.org/2009/06/poetry_marathonsaturday_and_su_1.html -> Sunday 18 October: (...) Brian Eno & Karl Hyde (...)

everything everything may be my favourite 'live' album, but 2ndTitI (as all the kids call it) *was* everything to me at the time as an entire album

Can't decide between Second Toughest and Beaucoup Fish, may cheat and vote EE as way to get BF tracks and still have Pearls Girl Juanita/Kiteless

Second Toughest. I am apparently alone in thinking Everything, Everything sounds terrible.

That record beat most of the drum 'n bass guys at their own game IMO.

It's a great record but this kind of claim is almost always bullshit.

ha, i tried to ignore that comment. besides bits of pearl's girl, there is no drum and bass on that record

"Banstyle/Sappy's Curry" too I guess.

Drum'n'bass in 1996 was much more interesting than what Underworld was doing on TSTITI. I guess they might've served as a gateway drug for indie rock fans, but despite the (boring, in my opinion) indie vocals, there's nothing that spectacular going on in the beat department. I think their trancey stuff was more interesting than whatever attempts they made at doing d'n'b.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QwzkaHekn4

I mean, if you listen stuff like this, no way did Underworld "beat them at their own game".

That doesn't sound a fucking thing like Underworld!!

second toughest sounds the freshest out of any of their albums to me

No, it doesn't. But this was what drum'n'bass was like back then, and no way were Underworld outshining D&B producers in "their own game". Their drum'n'bassy tunes had basic sped-up breaks, no special beat science or anything.

(x-post)

My point was, that whatever their game was, it was something not that close drum'n'bass, and the d'n'b elements they incorporated into their music around 1995/96 were hardly their strongest point.

i prefer karl hyde in whispery/conspiratorial/vocoder robot mode, not as much a fan of him in shouting/dance anthem mode. which is maybe why 2nd toughest is my #1 by some distance.

I forgot about Bootleg Babies, <3ing it all over again

http://rtsr.rowla.com/#projects (only link that still works there = artwork)

and a recently still working download link :

http://boogah.org/k

Okay, since I've been called on my drum 'n bass claim, I should qualify it: the fairly limited range of d 'n b that came my way around that time was bettered, I think, by what Underworld were doing on Second Toughest.... Feel free to suggest some other good d 'n b from that time, but I don't want to derail this thread!

Yeah, sorry, I didn't mean to sound so harsh. I'm sure you could get the sort of things out of Underworld that you couldn't get out of d'n'b of the era, because Underworld were never really d'n'b... But when you said that they "beat most of the drum 'n bass guys at their own game" I felt you were implying that they were also better than most d'n'b producers own their own field(s) of specialty (such as constructing breakbeats), which sounds patently untrue.

It was also almost certainly the case that you were acting on limited information Neil - it is the way of such things.

Check this thread: Top 100+ great drum'n'bass tracks - old and new!

You can trust any recommendations by me and strongo and Jacob and Alex in SF too.

xp Fair enough. I realise that they were doing different things, but I thought at the time that Underworld had nailed a lot of the stuff that some d 'n b guys were also trying to do, e.g LTJ Bukem style "intelligent" d 'n b.

Anyway, back to the Underworld discussion!

And thanks Tim!

Neil, I'll make this very easy for you.

Hooray, thanks!

WTF they've released SEVEN albums since A Hundred Days Off??? (fully aware that some variation of what i just wrote has appeared on this thread 3 or 4 times already but seriously)

only one is a pressed-on-CD-studio-album-that-you-buy-in-shops

The first three are about half an hour each and the fourth one is a mix of those. Some good stuff, nothing too unmissable.

Oh. Brotherlovesdub already explained. Sorry.

I'm a Big Sister, and I'm a Girl, and I'm a Princess, and This Is My Horse

can I just lol

That record beat most of the drum 'n bass guys at their own game IMO.

Alex Reece actually turned in a nice remix of Banstyle. B-side to Pearls Girl I think.

Seconded - it destroyed my narrow minded duh, alt rock punk/schmindie listening monopoly

OTM, totally. Second Toughest has some great breaks on it which still stand up today, although I think it would benefit from a thorough remastering. That album has always been in my all-time top ten. Dark, noctournal and while I'm on a cliche-tip, narcotic in a 6am kind of way. Reminds me of my first tentative steps into clubland and what a vibrant and creative time it was for UK electronic music as a whole. Wicked artwork too. I thought BF was a little self-concious sounding, trying too hard to be dance-floor friendly. I blame Emerson for that, so in a way it was a relief when he left so he could be mates with Eric Morillo. 100 Days Off is a great little album too. Some great b-sides from that period. Check out Ansum if you haven't heard it.

I thought BF was a little self-concious sounding, trying too hard to be dance-floor friendly.

Trying just the right amount i'd say. I know lots of people dislike it but I think "Push Upstairs" is amazing and I wish they had more stuff in the vein of that and "Moaner" - neither of which sound much like the progressive stuff Emerson started pushing as soon as he left the group.

I think I will be eternally baffled by Second Toughest... love. Catching a live performance of the material off of it before actually hearing the recorded versions really ruined that album for me; I think in comparison almost everything on it sounds flat and listless aside from "Pearl's Girl" and, occasionally, "Juanita".

Agreed on Push Upstairs. Warped and quite different from stuff their contemporaries were putting out at the time. I was thinking more along the lines of "Kittens", but even the more obtuse material on that album sounds a bit forced.

(x-post)

If "Juanita" was the only track on STitI, it would still be enough.

not sure what you mean really. making v dancey tracks for the sake of it? its not like any of their big bangers from that time are bad so what's the problem? xp

eric h. otm

juanita is maybe one of my favorite songs of the 90s

Normally this is the point where I say something like "ppl who booster Second Toughest... over all of their other output are listening to Underworld for the wrong reasons" but after hearing Oblivion With Bells I'm starting to think maybe I'm the one listening to them for the wrong reasons ;_;

(although maybe not because as far as I can tell no one really likes OWB and maybe at this point Underworld is making music for the wrong reasons, lol)

not sure what you mean really. making v dancey tracks for the sake of it? its not like any of their big bangers from that time are bad so what's the problem?

Maybe I'm not being very articulate here. I'm not saying they shouldn't be making tracks that people can move to, I just get the impression that it was not exactly a harmonious situation making that record, members starting to pull in different directions as noted above. I don't think BF is a bad album, not by a long way. Its' just not my favourite album by them. Maybe its' the track sequencing thats the problem for me. I always thought "Moaner" was an odd track to close with.

"Kittens" was actually the track that made me give BF a chance after hating STITI so much.

(although maybe not because as far as I can tell no one really likes OWB)

Guess you missed me and brotherlovedub gushing over recent Underworld in the OWB thread a couple days ago, then.

I'm obsessed with "faxed invitation" right now, you might want to give it a re-listen.

haha yes, I did miss that

I like "Crocodile" well enough and wouldn't turn off "Beautiful Burnout" but can't seem to make it past or remember any of the other songs on that album.

i'm fairly cool with a 'the reason you love STITI so much is because you didn't really hear much Underworld before that apart from 'Rez', 'Cowgirl' and 'Born Slippy (NUXX)' and never saw them live until '99' type argument against it as that's my situation. but anyone dissing the LP is still wronger/more baffling :)

voted Everything Everything anyway tho

Furthermore, my biggest problem with Everything, Everything is because their live version of "Juanita" is atrocious.

I saw Underworld at T In The Park 95 it was a great gig. I have a bootleg recording of it somewhere.

Best Mamgu Ever and Faxed Invitation are fantastic. Peach Tree, from one of the singles, is also great. Lukas, did you hear the live version of Faxed from an 05 show in the Netherlands or Belgium? Much faster. Underworld have a handful of incredible tracks they've played live but not released. I'm not sure of other bands who still work on ideas while on stage in front of 10K-20K fans. They did a version of Ring Road on one of their live broadcasts where they used Minneapolis as the backing track. Worked out great. Anyway, I love Oblivion With Bells and seriously consider the last few years to be the most creative of Underworld's career. No other band has given their fans so much to digest in such a short time. Truly a multimedia group now. Properly embracing the web and not crying about how many copies their selling.

My history with Underworld was pretty weird... I first heard the instrumental, 11 minute version of "Dirty" on trance comp (it's usually credited to Lemon Interrupt, but on the comp the artist was billed as Underwold) in 1993 or 1994. I really, really loved that tune! After that I heard "Why Why Why", and thought that Underworld specialized in melancholic, not really dancey trance music, like Lazonby or Biosphere. Then I bought Dubnobasswithmyheadman, and was kinda confused by the abundance of "indie" vocals, but thought the general sound was still nice. Then in 1995 came "Born Slippy", and while the beat was banging, the harder rock vocals made it even more distracting than the stuff on Dubnobass... Then they released STitI, which was even more "rock", and soon after Trainspotting shot them into superstardom, and only then I found out that they'd actually been an indie band who'd turned to electronic music. So the thing that got me interested in them had never really been their "thing" in the first place. I haven't followed their career after 1996.

"indie" vocals

Yes.

plz expand on INDIE VOX

why indie as opposed to rock vocals, tuomas?

Because the vocals are restrained, nasal and melancholic, and never ROCK OUT. On Dubnobass, that is.

I mean, listen to that album. You can't trace that vocal style to house or disco or to Mick Jagger or Bruce Springsteen, just to indie.

"trace back"

here comes CHRIST ON CRUTCHE-ES

The original "Dirty" had a really cool and intriguing, wistful sound to it, I'd never heard anything quite like it in electronic music. Whereas "Dirty Epic" diluted what was great about the original with bland singing.

yes thank you, we already know you are crazy

No problem.

dirty epic rules

i can see how karl hyde has rock vocals but not indie. its not like underworld part 1 were indie. they were a electronic rock/funk act who supported Eurythmics. theres no indie lineage at all.

Color me shocked that this band has this many albums.

i dont consider all of those albums

i think Hyde's softer monotone murmuring mode (as opposed to the louder manic "punkish" mode) e.g. much of 'Dark & Long' or 'Jumbo' befits the indie tag as applied by Tuomas

and I hear ELLLLLLVIS

Elvis singing on Underworld tracks would be a definite improvement over Mr. Hyde.

are you being fake-ignorant again or do you really not know that song

say what you want about hyde. he's an enigmatic frontman in that he's terrible most of the time--but somehow it WORKS and i love him for it.

he doesn't know the song, he doesn't even like underworld. tuomas why are you even in this thread?!

hasn't listened to the group since 1996 and we have to hear his opinion about them

Drum'n'bass in 1996 was much more interesting than what Underworld was doing on TSTITI.

by and large I agree with this statement, tho

What, Underwold actually have a tune with Elvis singing on it?!

yes

omfg

Which one? I want to hear it!

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it's an early, early hyde project. his first underworld incarnation was in 1976 when he was i think 17 years old. elvis was on a call-in show and hyde called and asked him to sing something off the cuff. elvis did and hyde secretly taped it, releasing it a few months later. it was a synth pop demo type of track but certainly had elements in common with their later work.

do a search for blogspot + elvis track + radio + underworld + 1976 and it should come up.

underworld also collab'd with denny vertigo

Er, of course I know when Elvis died, but I thought you were referring to some tune that samples him.

it's his guitar that you hear on dirty epic i think

well technically it does sample him!

I love all of you, do you realize this

Gee, thanks for getting me all excited about nothing.

"Drum'n'bass in 1996 was much more interesting than what Underworld was doing on TSTITI."

I don't even see how this is controversial.

The new Underworld vs. Misterons - Athens mix is jazztastically delicous. holy beesknees, this is great fun to listen to. Unexpected and quite provocative.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Dubnobasswithmyheadman
Second Toughest in the Infants
Beaucoup Fish

are all I've heard. Dubnobass that a profound effect on me, in many ways showing for that dance/clubby music could be

I've gone off Second Toughest in a big way. Beacoup Fish was pretty great at the type, a nice sleeky-ness for the most part.

Of all their stuff, i'd rate Dark Long Mixes, Dogmangowoof, Spikee and the Pearl Girl EP with Cherry Pie as the essential stuff. You don't really need any more ('cept maybe Mmm Skyscaper, Dirty Epic, Cups)

Beaucoup Fish.

― Tim F, Friday, October 16, 2009 6:39 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

the opening three traxx are perfect

Yes.

Standard line is to complain about how brief the big rave part of "Cups" is on the album, but I think the way it just deliquesces and drops immediately into the stark kickdrum of "Push Upstairs" is one of the most thrilling transitions I can think of.

voted for underneath the radar

yeah Cups, Push Upstairs and Jumbo are terrific tryptich. Cups, maybe a bit too long, imo.

But I never liked the rest of Beacoup Fish esp Bruce Lee or King of Snake.

Second Toughest, though I haven't heard everything.

I've said it before and I'll say it again; the best thing they've ever done: "Big Mouth"

But that's not on the list, so I'll just go with boring old dubnobasswithmyheadman

this list is going to be fucked, not in terms of the result, but by making the recent stuff look much worse than it is. some amazing tracks on the last two.

googlers beware

I borrowed DubNo from a library, but I didn't "get" it, it sounded like 12" dubs of The Beloved to me.

2nd Toughest I bought pretty much when out, that definitely turned them in my head, but it probably helped that people raved about the 1st and I had thought "I'm definitely not getting something, aren't I?"

Oh, and Jumbo sounds more like Wire than Elasica ever did! (which is a good thing, of course)

BF is amazing because every song on it is flat-out amazing except "Skym" which is forgettable and "Bruce Lee" which is terrible.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

nice turnout

but I think the way it just deliquesces and drops immediately into the stark kickdrum of "Push Upstairs" is one of the most thrilling transitions I can think of.

wit u on this

and i love Bruce Lee

I approve of the results. Perfect order.

no singles/eps poll?

would you say underworld has aged well or not? DNBWMHM still sounds pretty fresh to me.

I still adore dubnobass and BF tons

Poor old Bruce Lee. Loved it when it was a single, not my favourite track on the album now but it's still good to hear it.

keep in mind dan is the rare 2d hater

live versions of those tracks are still pretty good tho

so if you saw them live today, playing those songs, you would thing it has aged well

*think

2nd is great but dubnobass is the masterpiece.

The live versions of Best Mamgu Ever and Peach Tree were pretty spectacular. I love new Underworld as much as the old stuff. They're still making great music. Check out Strumpet, Between Stars and Diamond Jigsaw from the recent tour.

i think beautiful burnout was an amazing single

so if you saw them live today, playing those songs, you would thing it has aged well

I would think, as I've always thought, that those songs come across much much better in a live setting than on a studio recording. In the context of live performance, yeah I'd probably say they've aged well; that still doesn't make me like the studio album all that much.

Only 2 votes for Oblivion With Bells is surprising. I'd think a lot of ILXors would dig that one.

I like it but I think it's a couple steps below 'a hundred days off' and a few below the 'dubnobass'/'second toughest'/'beaucoup fish' trio. Surprised it got two votes tbh!

Beaucoup > dubno > Barking > A Hundred Years > Everything > Oblivion > 2nd Toughest imo

2nd Toughest is your LEAST favourite? Woah.

lol, have you never discussed Underworld with me before? I feel like that is what I am known for

Sure I've been on Underworld threads with you before. My brain must've suppressed this disturbing fact.

2nd toughest is def the least underworldly of all underworld v 2.0 albums but it remains my favorite, maybe because i really like Hyde when he's a little more mumbly or buried in the mix a tad more, like early stipe. Not because it's good to hide him but I think it was just particularly effective there.

I like it but I think it's a couple steps below 'a hundred days off' and a few below the 'dubnobass'/'second toughest'/'beaucoup fish' trio. Surprised it got two votes tbh!

IMO it's a lot better than AHDO. It sounds like a deliberate step forward, or at least a step sideways - it doesn't follow any of the prior albums, a lot of the songs are brand new things, not stuff like "Dino Adventure 3D" which felt a bit like a rehash of things they did well before. It's also an incredibly deep album - how many little bits are there in "Best Mamgu Ever" that gets squirreled away?

the big problem with OWB is that "Ring Road" is a worse momentum killer than "Bruce Lee"

i like both those tunes!

I love Ring Road. Killer 12" artwork too.

Yeah, DJP on 2nd Toughest is legendary (also, legendarily wrong).

Toughest > Beaucoup > dubnobass > AHDO > the rest of the stuff I don't really care about that much

Have you listened to Barking, Eric? Four or five killer tunes.

2 or 3, iirc

Oh, and ...

DJP : Second Toughest :: me : Everything, Everything

Though on the whole it sounds less nuanced and detailed than their earlier stuff.

re Barking

I mean, sure, "Always Loved a Film" is maybe the best thing they've done since 2002 apart from "JAL to Tokyo."

Barking rules super hard

Always Loved a film is great, but for me Between Stars is the superior house stomper on the record.

Too much EDM residue on that one for my taste.

Don't think I even knew what EDM was when it came out, so doesn't bother me.

DJP : Second Toughest :: me : Everything, Everything

booooooooooooo

Though on the whole it sounds less nuanced and detailed than their earlier stuff.

i feel like this is the entire point of barking and i love it for that

What is with the weird ass ops 4 u in this thread.

2nd toughest>beaucoup>dubnobass>EE>AHDO>barking>obv

Karl's best start to finish story is in Bird 1 (aka Strumpet).

'a moped started up, sounded like a chainsaw, tiny firecrackers'

and he smelled time again

first 3 tracks on barking are insane, love them. The rest is fun but nothing that hits me.

a fly came in along a shaft of sunlight
coming through the open door
he watched it cross the room and get
halfway and then it
turned around and left
he laughed

I recommend going back to "Grace" and "Between Stars", they are really great (esp "Grace", which IMO gets better as it ages)

The only thing that I don't like about Barking is that the second disc (which I was hoping would be what Barking would sound like without outside producers) really sounds like the unfinished demos instead of the more nuanced stuff like the version of "Moon in Water" they played on their radio broadcast. A full studio version of "You Do Scribble" with vocals hasn't come out yet. Nor an official take on "Silver Boots", which totally rules.

oblivion with bells is always incredible while i'm revisiting it and then i forget most of it. "glam bucket" tho

Yeah Bird 1 is amazing, it doesn't really sound like anything they'd done before.

I'll rep for "Diamond Jigsaw". First time I heard it, it was on some bootleg, the guitar was barely even in the song, instead it was these big goofy Van Halen synths. Sounded awesome. The Barking version rules though I feel like Paul Van Dyk botched the flow of it by kinda blowing the chord changes before the chorus. Plus he leaves the wrong drum setting on for a measure. Still it's a corker.

Urgh, it's the once song I really don't get.

full disclosure: I love the albums they did as Freur. And "Diamond Jigsaw" (at least in its original form) sounds a lot like the goofier, stupidly addictive stuff that Freur did. So I'm in!!

"diamond jigsaw" is so bright and dumb and lovely

exactly. its the kind of song I never thought UW would have been doing in 2010 (or even 2000!)

It threw me as an Underworld song at first (I guess a few tracks on the album did), but now I really dig it.

But strangely, the track I keep going back to is "Moon in Water". Every now and then an artist hits this loop that's super compelling to me, can't explain why. That song has it.