Underworld - Classic or Dud?

I recommmend _dubnobass..._ because that's the best Underworld album and it's a genuinely good album. _Second Toughest..._ isn't nearly as strong and hearing "Push Upstairs" and "Jumbo" put me off of getting _Beaucoup Fish_, which I'll admit might have been a mistake because "King Of Snake" and "Cups" both rank up there among the best songs they've ever done. (But is it another case where the single is stormin' and the album is limpid? I don't know.)

But "Beaucoup Fish" is worth getting. Both "Push Upstairs" improve the more familiar you are with them - both seem insanely repetitive to begin with, but I found both grew on me enormously once I went walking around the city with them on my headphones. Plus, you're missing out on "Cups" (deep house par excellence), "Bruce Lee" (hip hop meets Detroit techno), "Kittens" (a storming epic), "Something Like A Mama" (jungle-inflected track like "Pearl's Girl" with its tongue in its cheek) and of course "King Of Snake". It's a strong album.

Admittedly, I am biased (met them live several times) and I am more of an ambient/idm fan (ala FSOL & AFX) & some trance (Juno Reactor), and have been for over a decade, so there's your caveat and explanation of my fangirl-ishness.

I could listen to that all day. Or at least for about 4 minutes, when I'd get really irritated and want to bust up something. Still.

For the most part I find Underworld a bit boring but I still have their CDs because I like some of the songs. They're really not a classic or a dud, to be honest. They're more an existance.

Strange - that's what initially attracted me to Underworld; and was the first step I took towards electronic/dance music - I hadn't heard any interesting throwaway cutup soundbytes-strung-together fractured- narrative stuff before, and the music seemed to be the perfect accompaniment to this - I couldn't imagine Karl Hyde-isms succeeding over a guitar backdrop etc. And as someone a very long way away indeed from Underworld's BritCity; it seemed oh so very exotic&mysterious&sexy. Inauthenticity of musical tourism, and all that guff; but Underworld were something I could be palpably excited by; and a doorway to a whole new world of music, apologies for RAGING CLICHES.

And I love Karl Hyde's lyrics.

i like all of their albums but [i]dubnobass..[/i] is defintely my favourite. i love the fact that the albums contain pure dance floor killers next to more downtempo tracks like [i]dirty epic[/i] and [i] m.e[/i]

they are also jaw-droppingly fantastic live - i've seen them seven times - and they were really the pioneers of taking dance music into the live arena and in so doing paved the way for bands like [b] orbital, chemical brothers[/b] and [/b]the prodigy[/b] to follow in their footsteps.

there's plenty of their live gigs available on audiogalaxy including the superb european club gig. fans should also check out [url] http://www.underworldlive.com[/url] which is an official site where you can download soundboard recordings of some of their gigs as well as some recent studio stuff such as the blue mountain sessions.

Those two tracks are great. I think I need to live with them a little more before they really sink in, but so far they're much better than, say, the ambient tracks on the "Pearl's Girl" single. (None of them can touch "Tongue", though.)

now, on to my ancedote, which is about how the promo vinyl we got for 'King of Snake' was a 12" and os I put it on at 33 and it was SUPER FUNKY like WOW until Karl's vox came in and it sounded like he was a dying robot from planet Opium. So I put it on 45 and it turned into house music, which while quite good was not nearly as enjoyable as the 33 version.

echo...

I also went to one of the concerts (Broadcast on Radio 1!!!!!) at around the time of "Dubnobass...", (The same night as they found the body of Kurt Cobain!!!!) and it was grebt/GRATE/etc!!!!! Unlike the recent "live" album, it was one big long DJ mix style jam, mixing in various bits of their songs. The track on the live album which mixes "Cowgirl" and "Rez" is nearest equivalent- imagine a whole concert like that with most of the tracks from "Dubnobass..." and an early version "Born Slippy"!!!! (I've actually got a tape of it somewhere, taped of the radio...)

Anyways, Underworld is still classic because did I mention that "Tin There" is basically my favorite techno barnburner ever?

The kickass house/blues romp "Big Mouth" (with some guy named Philadelphia Slim whom I've never heard of on harmonica!!) is another awesome underrated early Underworld song. Underworld kicks ass.

(I'm sorry I won't pimp out that article ever again, this is the millionth time, prob haven't written anything decent for free since, it was 18 months ago)

Denver Luna was the highlight for me

Also Rick jamming on Kittens

Both exquisite

King of Snake was an ecstatic experience, and I almost died of smiling during Juanita.

Feeling so bummed I can’t just quit my job and follow them.

lol I admit I was looking for flights to Seattle right after the Chicago show just in case

same

you all should have

looks like they may be considering more US dates :)

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLDLfDWt-8t/?igsh=MWtiZ2VzeTg0MTV0Mw%3D%3D

Toronto pleeez

Montreal?? dare to dream

well...we got LA and Denver I guess

Jesus

Christ on crutches

DENVER YESSSSS

Would I mind seeing them in SF again, of course not. Will I go to Portola to see them again, even if is essentially down the end of a long street for me? Haha no.

Portola was announced around the same time as the previous tour (and the lineup is great)

my bae bought me a birthday ticket for DENVER hell yeah

score :) my brother moved back to LA recently and I'm seriously considering timing a visit to catch that show now

i'm thinking about going to LA to visit your brother for the very same reason

:)

hmm, I am supposed to go to a conference for work that ends November 13, the Denver show is the 14th and my conference is in a city with a major hub airport. hmm! hmm!

you'll just have to go

Boiler Room set is up!

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

I wish they played more Barbara, Barbara stuff live

Yeah. They're obviously banging live but they've probably been playing about 80% of their set at every gig for the last 30 years now.

so there is another new video today! And hopefully it's the start of that https://iifu.club thing ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj4210u5xvg

features clips and prep for Boiler Room plus a longer set they did the next day, where they actually did,for example, Low Burn (Barbara fans). Would be really cool if they released a longer set like that. https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/underworld/2025/audley-end-house-saffron-walden-england-43586fb3.html

I had never heard Arpeggio12 or the harder Cowgirl etc etc until this Boiler Room set...wow.

cuz i was curious: 5/12 Boiler Room tracks are from this century... 9/22 from Audley End

look I've always loved their more experimental and esoteric live sets where they'd whip out Spikee or some Riverrun stuff but the impression I've gotten lately is they're reaching a lot of people who have never seen them live before, like me, and they are playing exactly the set those people are hoping for. like I've never dug Born Slippy NUXX as much as I do 50 other UW tunes but I for sure wanted to hear them play it

so stoked to see them in denver. the outta play 'denver luna' feel like it would be appropriate somehow hehe

boiler room/set 2 in general these days is really as hard as they've ever gone. This Cowgirl and everything... like i get it now. lol. I'm going to be playing the shit out of this

xp I would lose it for the G Town Euphoria mix in this kind of set

I'm sure you'll hear denver luna, it went so hard when I saw them, arguably the highlight of the night

contingent on whether my workplace sends me to a conference in November that'd dump me at an airport hub one day before the Denver show, I will be at the Denver show!

if so, I will do a better job of chatting with map than I did with seeing frogbs in Chicago

sorry man, my friend has the bad bowels and back and we were time limited because he has problems with public toilets lol

That would be cool dog. I’ll bump this thread again closer to showtime.

the Pinkpop Archive youtube channel posted the highest def version of their 1999 show so far (among dozens of other full shows from other artists)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80shyCMUwVo

anyone need a ticket for the Denver show? GA2 section. my travel plans changed and unless I play around with timing, the resale value appears to be pretty low so I'm up for just transferring it to someone who would appreciate it

i saw them in denver! i was pogo-ing and fist-pumping to a lot of it :). so many highlights. "two months off" into "cowgirl" was unreal. had to put my hand on my heart at the end of that run. i loved all the beaucoup fish numbers because that's my personal favorite underworld album: "push upstairs," "jumbo", "king of snake", "moaner"!. a few things from the new album -- they opened with "gene pool" and it was perfect. "cut a hole in the news!" "arpeggio12" seems to be a newer song? it sounded great. "dark & long" was so sexy. as was "confusion the waitress". the only thing karl ever said was near the end of the show - something about looking forward to easier breathing at sea level lol. ugh it was so good. i knew it would be good but they exceeded my expectations.

So jealous. I think Beaucoup Fish is my favorite album too.

I was at the Denver show as well. We were close to the stage - a lot closer than I was when I saw them in SF a few years ago - and it sounded so good. It was such a physical experience. Really great set. Loved the visuals as well.

yes to all of that - sound was amazing - clear and powerful - and light show was perfect. i loved the white / rainbow flash bulbs for "born slippy nuxx" at the end. true rave annihilation! still so much hardcore energy from them. "denver luna" into "s.t.a.r." was lovely too. linking mickey mouse references... one from their wide-eyed past and one from ... a sort of dream-reality past and then a waking realization. that life is all about connection. kstl's a capella section in "denver luna" was just beautiful and moving. he has so much charisma, it was just so great to finally absorb some of it in-person! for all their arty qualities they're definitely still rough n tuff lads lol.

They’re inspiring dudes, truly. The BBWFASF/Drift/Hotel run mixed in with the Eno/Hyde albums is really something else, just a stellar example of a band giving the people not what they wanted, but what they never knew they wanted. And seeing Karl pogo around onstage in his late 60s gives me life.

why do so many Underworld songs reference Mickey Mouse? have we ever gotten to the bottom of this?

God why is life so unfair that they don’t do a comprehensive US tour like Autechre.

yea I agree there was def something inspiring about this show, I mean every act has their era of peak popularity and a crowd from that era that shows up, hard to forget this period for them was nearly 30 years ago, but the best acts still have a way of sounding current even if they're not really updating their sound a whole lot. nothing about this felt retro at all, nor toned down from the glory days, every single one of the new tracks went down really well, hell "Denver Luna" may have been the highlight of the night...also really loved how they kicked it off with "Gene Pool", usually you save a cut like that for when people need a breather, instead opening with that (and the 2nd set with "Jumbo") felt like a warm up, because after that it was just one banger after another

had I not known I would never have guessed how old they were. the main reminder was the fact that several folks had to be taken out in stretchers...kinda wondered how many in the crowd were doing molly for the first time in a while and forgot how dehydrated they would get

i saw a heartening number of young people! we were waiting in line and a group of twenty-something guys passed us and i said "wow, youngsters!" and the guy in front of us, similarly aged as myself, turned to me and smiled.

I would like to state that I am genuinely happy for you guys who saw them this go-round.

watch the man in the stonewashed jeans

otm

Glad to have a kid who will with a fair amount of frequency ask me to play strawberry hotel