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

Forty years of music by Smith / Hyde. Twenty years of posts about it on I Love Music. Twenty-five ballots received before we closed the polls. Several hundred songs, tracks, remixes, albums, projects, demos and B-sides voted for, by bands with half a dozen names.

Two people helping each other, forever.

https://i.imgur.com/Z5FaeTL.jpg

Please report to the dancefloor.

― an, uh, razor of love (sic), Thursday, June 4, 2020 4:07 PM (nine seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

o7

change the weather too low

The voting thread was here.

Most people ranked their albums, from an eligible 16. And one person who voted too late had their album points counted anyway.

The top 77 tracks will roll out next week, in which any work by either Karl Hyde or Rick Smith was eligible, but let's run through ILM's top 13 Albums Credited To Underworld now.

13. UNDERNEATH THE RADAR
12 points, 2 votes
1988 Sire LP, 48:06
Top chart position: #32, Australia

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

theres like 5 songs I legitimately like from this

listened to it once and said "life's too short for me not to listen to everything else 500 more times" and moved on. maybe i'll give it another try but it wasn't my thing!

oh I haven't heard it in years but it was definitely a guilty pleasure when I was 18

the songs are all too long though

I guess I should get around to checking out the stuff from their big hair days.

I taped it off my sister and Walkmanned it over and over and over, but tbf there weren't any other Underworld albums to listen to at the time

Title track is really excellent ripoff Depeche Mode.

12. BREAKING and ENTERING
21 points, 3 votes
2006 V2 OST by Underworld & Gabriel Yared, 57 minutes
Underworld and Gabriel Yard - "Breaking and Entering"

https://i.imgur.com/pe1gEx2.jpg

Title track is good, a few other tracks not that bad, the rest can be safely deleted

Also I just want to express my joy and gratitude that the rollout has begun.

that's about underneath the radar of course

oh I haven't heard it in years but it was definitely a guilty pleasure when I was 18

the songs are all too long though

― frogbs, Thursday, June 4, 2020 5:47 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

aha. Same here til I gave it a spin for voting. Could not get into it, but did like a big chunk of "Change the Weather". Ah well, they are pretty similar!

i think it was brotherlovesdub talked up a couple of tracks from Breaking and Entering, which I hadn't bothered with before. They were great and I voted for both. I even watched the movie---that part is not recommended

Yeah, those tracks in the campaigning thread were great (but I still didn't get time to listen to the album :( )

Only two people bothered to list Underneath the Radar? including me at #15 or whatever? Or is there some maximum ballot length there?

my logic was that, as I can't vote for freur LPs, I'm not voting for any LPs which are worse than freur LPs.

still voted for 10 LPs though

I'm glad we're having these conversations. Respect.

B&E soundtrack is pretty good but I didn't vote for it sadly

11. MANCHESTER STREET POEM
26 points, 3 votes
2017* digital album, 64:50

it's short...but! there is apparently an entire album of this stuff.

https://i.imgur.com/Q4ZiKm3.jpg

I just didn't have time to listen to collaborative LPs, sadly.

Did nobody vote for Change The Weather then?

* played in situ 2017, released as purchase for charity 2019

Did nobody vote for Change The Weather then?

whoa we're really asking for spoilers this early?

Surprise #1?

I listed it. and got piled on really bad in the voting thread for mentioning it

but I will continue to

https://youtu.be/nxdNS8WNSOY

Stand Up isn't bad exactly, but that video! Just because you've had a hit in Australia doesn't mean you need to turn into Midnight Oil.

btw nice writeup at top, sic. That "two people..." business that was in the Listen To Their No copy is too sweet.

10. RIVERRUN
77 points, 8 votes
2005-2006 digital EP and physical singles project, approx 90 minutes in most common form

New Underworld EP Release: 'Pizza For Eggs'

https://i.imgur.com/f6KFBcF.jpg

Only 8 votes? Did some people decide to go tracks or movements only since it's not really an "album"? Whatever. Love it all together but didn't come up with much from it in my track ballot at the end.

My #10. Ending of Pizza For Eggs is the best bit.

#6 here

i voted for it pretty high

it's alright sober too

I didn't cross-reference the ballots, but I assume most people chose to either vote per "song," per EP-as-track, or in albums for Riverrun*... but also it's just way less known, and was one of their least-visible projects to begin with.

*though I did one of each

9. BARKING
142 points, 6 votes
2010 Cooking Vinyl 2xLP, 54 minutes
Top chart position: #26, UK

Underworld - Barking (Sept 13 2010)

https://i.imgur.com/jnO5oC8.jpg

(slightly) too low!

Too many songs with the same palette and purpose was this album's undoing for me. Hamburg Hotel possibly my favourite thing on it as a result.

Not meaning to undersell the evident variety of at least 50% of it.

Rediscovered "Between Stars" here. I loved "Scribble" at the time but now I get the fan love for "You Do Scribble" over the single/vocal version. Massive track. I had the album at an even lower rank, but still so much to love. Crazy.

Crazy.

― maffew12, Thursday, June 4, 2020 2:21 PM (six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

crazy crazy crazy crazy crazy

hey my internet is back! guess my hacking the results joke led to some bad webkarma

huge points jump from 11 to 9!* (*i don't pretend to know how points work)

love Barking and I agree 9 is too low but idk what I'd bump for it

i had it at 4 but i think i was being challopsy putting it above 2 stone cold classics

the version of Barking that exists only in my head is definitely one of their best albums though

so, who's been to Barking?

I voted for Riverrun, I hadn't heard any of it prior to this poll but as a whole thing I like it more than any of the proper post-'90s albums.

i've been to barking for years WOOP WOOP WOOP WOOP WOOP

surely someone still has this thread bookmarked and can tell me what underworld song/songs this video game battle track is very much reminding me of!

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

def feels inspired by underworld at least to me but i am a rube feel free to tell me i am incorrect

(let it get to about 75-80 seconds for the part that made me do the leonardo dicaprio point in real life)

it's got a similar feeling to "king of snake"?

but there might be something else you're thinking of idk

could be that! i think i short circuited my brain trying to find it/remember it, playing bits of a bunch of different songs, so nothing sounds right now

Deep Arch? Imagine a Box?

Dinosaur Adventure 3D?

Could be a live version of King of Snake, perhaps Rowla?

The part 80 seconds in reminds me most of the synth riff that closes out Born Slippy .NUXX tbh

(So yeah “Deep Arch” otm)

definitely has a similar beat to king of snake, maybe just slightly slowed down

I was listening to it and my mind went instantly to the "Tom and Jerry" verse of king of snake, you could probably just put those vocals on top of this track and it would work

yeah now that i have let myself not think about it for a day, and gone back to this thread, it really feels like king of snake is what i was thinking of!

anyway when i got to the ONE BATTLE IN THE GAME that has that song i was like "oh wow i kinda don't want this battle to end". whole soundtrack is fun, but not underworld fun until that one part of that one song

UW do a ton of those propulsive rolling bass lines though, it's kind of a signature sound for them

Speaking of UW and video games, look what I found while clearing out old stuff...

https://imgur.io/a/7TNCVrN

I forgot they had a ps2 game!!

rong

not a bad list, I appreciate that Ova Nova is in there, but yea kinda boring finish. feel like I'm kinda alone in thinking NUXX is not a top 20 UW track. nothing against it they just have a really great catalogue.

"dune" at 10 is a fun choice

NUXX is classic but almost the best thing about it for me was how it served as a most excellent gateway drug to the rest of their work.

I could easily make an alternate top twenty with zero overlap.

The UW Drift group on FB lost their mind over that a couple of weeks ago lol.

It's like, calm down it's just one person's opinion and doesn't invalidate any of your personal favourites

my nighttime routine with my 6 year old daughter now involves playing music on my phone, she really likes ambient stuff and luckily my phone is loaded with it. the other day I decided to play some Underworld, first the track "Most 'Ospitable" which was always a favorite of mine. listening close I noticed a number of things - first of all, I guess I get why it's called a "Dark & Long" remix, it does have the same choral noise in it. so there *is* a little similarity there. secondly a lot of the odd noises that float in and out - specifically that ka-thunk guitar noise, I think actually dates back to their mk1/Freur days. I think that aspect makes their ambient stuff unique, not just the sounds but also the way snippets of Karl's voice and recorded conversations weave around everything, reminds me more of what The Orb does than anything else. next up I put on "Wedge/Showlder" and realized it's kind of the same template. such a beautiful piece of music too.

Americans discussing purchasing a vest

is Hyde not the "nice little vest, light" guy?

boring finish

i think this poll ended the same way, by combining Rez and Cowgirl's votes?

The real answer is Rez.

is Hyde not the "nice little vest, light" guy?

I really don't think so, idk who it is though. I thought it was just some overheard conversation Karl recorded, iirc he used to carry around tape recorders a lot in those days which is where a lot of the weird dialogue you hear in UW tunes comes from

though it could be Rick as well? I remember once upon a time he did a sound installation for something which was mostly ambient music but there was a really cool aspect to it, he was using these emotionless robot-sounding voices that seemed to be having real mundane conversations, almost as though he had recorded like 15 minutes worth of small talk over dinner and input every word into a text-to-speech app, it sounded pretty unnerving actually

Most Ospitable is so great, still can't believe that it wasn't until the poll that I acquainted with it properly.

What is "Wedge/Showlder" ? Google not giving me any results

they're tracks on i'm a big sister...

I still think “If Rah” is the Barbara track of choice

I don't have much of a problem with that list ... or at least I don't have much of a problem with its top 8

If Rah is boneheaded trash imo. It’s jock jams / big beat shit to my ears. This list was pretty trash too actually. First 8 are ok, the rest are from someone who must have lost the ability to hear or they are intentionally trolling.

i feel that way about Dinosaur Adventure 3D, though i loved it at the time.

i like the sentiment of a completely alternate top 20, above, but cmon the heavy hitters are undeniable

Yeah I mean an alternate top 20 wouldn't necessarily be 100% accurate, my own number one would probably be Juanita/Kiteless/To Dream of Love.

My top 20 might lean slightly more on OWB and BBWHASF.

What is "Wedge/Showlder" ? Google not giving me any results

― I am using your worlds, Saturday, January 13, 2024 2:45 AM (eight hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxK7AyNMUBQ

the entire EP is very much worth a listen but the bit I'm referring to starts around 15:00

also very much recommend the first two tracks on this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2Y6KBSukHU

and this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-CyQ6pAgrk

hints at a more New Wavey direction they could've gone in but didn't. always cemented for me how different these guys were than the rest of the 90s UK dance scene, none of 'em would've come up with tracks like this

Ah thanks. I have the riverrun eps downloaded, but hadn’t split and tagged the individual tracks. I’ll listen again.

Wish these were cds that were widely available rather than 192kb mp3s

Yeah I mean an alternate top 20 wouldn't necessarily be 100% accurate, my own number one would probably be Juanita/Kiteless/To Dream of Love

Turns out your number one is 100% accurate omar

I couldn't even stomach a fully alternate top twenty, I'd be lying to myself and God without that one at the top.

looked back at my ballot and had completely forgotten "beautiful burnout" was my no. 1. i'm right

would put "peach tree" at no. 2 these days tho

despite what i said yesterday, Juanita was my #1 too

hmm, you could put Juanita 2022 on top as kind of a cheat for your alt list. in isolation (not putting on STITI) i prefer it!

an alternate top 20, off the top of my head:

Thing in a Book
Most 'Ospitable
Oich Oich
Cherry Pie
Banstyle/Sappy's Curry
Mo Move
Luetin
Food a Ready/Back in the Fears
Peach Tree
Wedge/Showlder
Holding the Moth
Faxed Invitation
Between Stars
Bird 1
You Do Scribble
Ova Nova
Parc
Get Your Shirt
Custard Speedtalk
Listen to their No

can we redo this poll so i can put "denver luna" in my top 20

ok

I too will try to game how to make "Tin There" place higher if we repoll

you wanna know something crazy I played "Custard Speedtalk" during my DJ set yesterday and someone correctly identified it as "the guy from Freur", adding "it's too bad he passed away"

OMG, lol!

Whilst I love both tracks, I'm still bitter that Rez and Cowgirl's votes were combined

I spent most of the drive home trying to figure out who he could've been thinking of and my best guess is Keith Flint