why don't you poll me I feel like flying to... the UNDERWORLD Poll Results thread -- produced by Smith & Hyde for ILM Artist Poll #102

none of my absolute faves have come up yet and i am starting to wonder does that mean they're never coming or are they just all at the top (prob the latter most of them are v popular tracks i reckon)

but i did rank a few of the manchester street poems in the 20s-30s and i am starting to think they may just not appear!

i had a dream last night that i went to an underworld concert but i got kicked out after the second song because i wandered around the back of the stage to get a better look at the part of the song where rick smashes a viola (?!?!??!)

(then i got a costume and snuck back in lol)

Those live street poems are Rick's consolation prize to you.

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

With 399 points from 7 votes, including 1 #1, the 1992 12" Dirty by Lemon Interupt would have placed at 57 on individual votes.

full-length 12 inch rip
live audio 1992

yeah cool to see a bit more shine on the Manchester work.. that should raise a little more money for the project with album sales. Judging from the album poll, I'd be shocked to see any tracks place. Shocked!

The project coming out as "oh and here's a bonus double-LP-length album you can also buy this week" during Drift presumably meant that it got more two-time listens, but less dedicated attention, than one of their score-type-things normally would. "Yeah this is good but I'm already dealing with the two hours of material you've released this month!"

it's a nice listen but imo not really on par with the other Drift stuff. though "Meredith" is really great.

Rick's "Bungalow With Stairs" LP is really nice if you can find it. an hour of deeply odd ambient music. It takes some rather mundane conversations and then runs them through a text-to-speech app, it's pretty surreal.

oh man the version of "Seven Drone Music" on this thing is great

http://ghostable.uk/public/ilx/underworld/u052-387424.png

52. Schiphol Test
432 points, 10 votes
2019 free-to-mailing-list mp3 as part of Drift

video by Simon Taylor & Ibrahim Muasher for Tomato

How far we have come. From stuggling to put enough music through trakker on an Amiga, with a bench full of kit, toggling sounds coarsely with keys, making sure we had enough space to save everything to floppy ... to sitting in an airport laying down tracks with as many channels as you want, filters galore and thousands of instruments and sounds at our fingertips

The title comes from Rick writing the track on an iPad while waiting for a plane in Amsterdam's Schipol airport.

Gobsmacked by how much good music they're pumping out. They're my undisputed #1 and I feel stupidly lucky to have so much new material from them to listen to 8,432,876 times.

I can't believe how much y'all produce. Music is just flowing out of you all the time. Thank you for it all

https://i.imgur.com/zrDcef7.jpg

if you were waiting for Most Ospitible, Who Rings the Bell, and King of Snake to have a baby, this one belongs to you.

I like!

― maffew12, Friday, May 31, 2019 8:15 PM

would love to know what Rick was using on his iPad. best guess is Garageband and then imported into Logic (they have some recentish images of Logic in their studio on Instagram).

oh man for my money this is the best drift track not named "custard speedtalk"

Finally went for the Drift box. Has the price come radically down, or am I misremembering?

I guess you bought the new, smaller box aimed at "many people's changed circumstances" and it'll arrive in the fall! Wonder if there's a trade-in program for the big box

http://ghostable.uk/public/ilx/underworld/u051-091684.png

51. Another Silent Way 
441 combined points, 12 combined votes
2018 digital single initiating Drift

with 334 points from 9 voters, the original would have placed at 68 alone
Rockingham Drift Car Racing Circuit video by Simon Taylor
extended EP audio

Wait so is this original? Are you essentially writing the score for gorgeous displays of driving?

They're up to some interesting stuff on paper, but this song is complete shite. Karl's vocals are awful, as they have been lately. Rick needs to edit him more aggressively. The music is also laughably retro / trying to recapture what made them special in 1996, but ends up sounding like a parody / weak version of UW circa 95/96. I just want to hear Rick make ambient albums and let Karl go do paintings. His painting is miles better than his lyrics at this stage in his career.

― brotherlovesdub, Friday, November 2, 2018 4:48 AM

the "moving on..." bits are so great

(make mine a 99?)

107 points from 3 voters were for Another Silent Way / Drift Poem / Better Than Diamonds from Drift Series 1 box set
album suite audio

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

for all those people whinging over the years saying that underworld suffered with the loss of Darren Emerson welcomed back with open arms and relentless legs

I love both this song and bld's hot spicy takes

yea the 15 minute version is really where it's at

I think I completely forgot to put Cherry Pie on my ballot

Damn, I forgot to include "Deep Arch" on mine.

http://ghostable.uk/public/ilx/underworld/u050-800816.png

50. Little Speaker 
451 points, 11 votes
2002 album track from A Hundred Days Off

audio

too fuckin low!!!!!

Early thoughts, obviously stand out tracks seem to be Little Speaker, that piano riff towards the end is absolutely hypnotic, just spins you round and round.

― Ronan, Wednesday, September 25, 2002 12:30 AM

Little Speaker is such a sharp tune as well, very subtle but I could imagine it working really well live too, it's just so perfectly layered at the end, like really good techno except more soul and less machine.

― Ronan, Wednesday, September 25, 2002 8:23 PM

piano cover

https://i.imgur.com/8moyUy6.jpg

I like parts of it such as the wobbly off-beat rhythm on "Little Speaker" or the ambience of "Twist" (the live versions blow this out of the water by the way) but a lot of it feels uninspired for this band...particularly "Dinosaur Adventure" which seems like an analgam of past UW successes constructed just for single purposes; "Sola Sistim" doesn't really go places and much of "Little Speaker" is kinda lame, especially as the bass drowns out everything else. I still like the album and think it's actually quite good for a post-2000 release from an electronic act but it was definitely a drop off from the first three. Come With Us I'd rate on the same level - not as good as the first three, does have some great tracks, just not enough substance for me

― frogbs, Tuesday, February 5, 2013 2:18 AM

I retract that now, Little Speaker ain't lame & the album has plenty of substance

too late buddy! everything anyone says on the internet once has to remain their opinion forever

http://ghostable.uk/public/ilx/underworld/u049-033767.png

49. Oich Oich
461 points, 11 votes
1996 CD5 b-side

audio

nice young men

too late buddy! everything anyone says on the internet once has to remain their opinion forever

lol don't I know it. I've accidentally argued with myself on a music board more than once

anyway..."Oich Oich" is incredible, my favorite off the Pearl's Girl EP. wish there was an even longer version

Actually, there's one called Oich Oich that I like a lot too... Maybe that.

― KeefW, Thursday, May 18, 2006 8:27 AM

There is a 'jam' version from their old website. It's pretty good too.

― brotherlovesdub, Wednesday, April 22, 2015 12:55 PM

jam audio

https://i.imgur.com/YqfDAx9.jpg

A life without Faxed Invitation, Peach Tree, Trim, Best Mamgu Ever, Oich Oich, 8 Ball, Thing In A Book, and River of Bass is a life not worth living.

― brotherlovesdub, Thursday, May 31, 2018 2:19 AM

God tier three track single right there

https://i.ibb.co/Tmhhtp7/zepp-karlface.gif

I probably put "Oich Oich" too low. That dreamy guitar hook has been haunting me since we voted. It's a dark-sounding track with an incredible lightness to it

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

With 456 votes from 9 voters, the white label remix Dirty Guitar by Lemon Interupt would have placed at 52 on discrete votes.

audio
audience audio 1998

Ouch Oich Jam is new to me. Wonder why they didn’t include that on the box set. I never kept up with their website, sounds like there might have been lots of other alternate takes I’ve. Issued out on.

*missed

They did looooads of sketches & demos & things in the early duo years, some low-bitrate live shows, and a handful of alternate or early versions. The Dark Train that's on the "cutting room floor" mix was released as a standalone, and a few more MAY OR MAY NOT turn up in this poll yet!

The Something Like A Mama / Nuxx jam upthread was a website giveaway - here's another Mama-related joint, for fun.

oh wow i'd never heard "mama / nuxx jam" and "oich oich jam" before, both rule

voted for a bunch of recent tracks: "brilliant yes that will be" is one of their best ambient tracks, "glam bucket" is gorgeous, what really makes "another silent way" is that piano. i absolutely should have had "something like a mama" higher, that sort of mode is one of their best and i love that bassline

oh phew I did vote for Toluca Stars

now did I leave the stove on....

You're getting a banging donk on it already

https://media.giphy.com/media/Yn5tD2eBfI30BlDA03/giphy.gif

Many, many, many, many people have asked me "Rick, how do you approach a remix?"

Rick Smith : How to Remix

Is everyone having a chilled morning?

Cute videos

I'm good

you know who is chilled?

http://ghostable.uk/public/ilx/underworld/u048-920115.png

48. Ova Nova 
466 points, 11 votes, 1 #1
2016 single from album Barbara Barbara, We Face A Shining Future

video by Tomato / Simon Taylor
KCRW session video 2016 (link at 41:45)

Respect to whoever gave this a #1.

Fantastic tune

"low burn" and "ova nova" are very og underworld while the rest is verrrryyyy different

― BradNelson, Tuesday, March 8, 2016 5:48 PM

btw NPR is offering "Ova Nova" up as a streamable song and it's kind of incredible

http://www.npr.org/2016/03/07/468737177/songs-we-love-underworld-ova-nova

Between this and "I Exhale", I feel like they've finally hit upon an iteration of the "Bruce Lee"/"Ring Road" template that works extremely well for me rather than making me want to die.

― DJP, Wednesday, March 9, 2016 4:58 AM

instrumental audio

https://i.imgur.com/zp21ip3.jpg

fan cover

"Ova Nova" is so damn good, I'm getting chills from it

― frogbs, Tuesday, April 26, 2016 4:02 AM