Underworld - Classic or Dud?

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)

But I must ask: If Underworld's a dud, who's classic?

...Ball ist rund. Spiel dauert 90 Minuten. Soviel ist schon mal klar. Alles andere ist Theorie...

I love how each record they make gets more and more minimal, but it doesn't diminish the impact at all.

With the benefit of hindsight, Darren Emerson leaving seems to have been beneficial.

That said, they are one of my faves.

I think it would ride pretty high in my best of the 90s, FWIW. For all I know I might have bypassed electronic music almost entirely if not for that album and 'In Sides'

"Juanite/Kiteless/Confusion The Waitress" would pass muster if it wasn't 8,000 years long.

Mencap, me too! I owe it al to STITI. It's the record that got me into electronic music, house music, DANCE music even.

gem, is that comp really worth buying? Couldn't I just burn it myself? What's the appeal?

qobuz has the track times. looks like mostly short tunes though "Gene Pool" is 9 minutes

https://www.qobuz.com/nz-en/album/strawberry-hotel-underworld/wbjl275992f9a

Got an email this morning about it. https://store.underworldlive.com/collections/strawberry-hotel?ml_sub=2563069657544135994&ml_sub_hash=g9y3&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=new_underworld_album_coming_october_2024&utm_term=2024-09-06

Lot to parse on that sleeve.

ml_sub=2563069657544135994&ml_sub_hash=g9y3&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=new_underworld_album_coming_october_2024&utm_term=2024-09-06

Lot to parse on that tracker.

rest of the album = who knows

god, what are you doing, “best mamgu ever” is on there

Faxed Invitation too, man did that track grow on me

Don’t blame me, blame “Ring Road”

i really like “ring road” bc there’s something wrong with me

"Techno Shinkansen" is on a game soundtrack, so we're able to hear all of side A now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfI1X9SMxZI

xp Lol I actually don't mind the vocal as much as Boy Boy Boy's. Anyway I like the whole album. I just can't get with the moodier bits of Hundred Days and Beaucoup Fish.

website's updated. iifu.club domain is live ("i'm in fucking underworld" - i think was on a recent tour shirt?) but is just a mailing list signup form. New merch that doesn't yet make any sense without hearing the new songs (no strawberry jam girl shirts??). Nice looking double vinyl but no super duper not-sold-in-stores editions. Wallet safe for today.

ya Techno Shinkansen rules. i can't wait to play it on the Shinkansen someday lol

very glad to be wrong about 11-15 being bonus tracks, I really do want "Gene Pool" on vinyl, that track is gonna be amazing

listening to Underneath The Radar for the first time. well ... I like the cover.

I Need a Doctor is a fun song

The two Freur albums are definitely worth a listen, that second one especially has some damn catchy tunes on it

yeah that's the one song I liked

did they ever do any of the old stuff live?

No although Karl did do Doot Doot live during his solo shows

Would be hilarious if they just broke out “Stand Up” or something though. I still love that song.

wonder if there's gonna be any deluxe stuff on this. something I love about their 93-96 period is that they've released so much material from it (or it's been otherwise discovered), you get to hear how different songs developed, but all the in-between versions are good in different ways. you can really hear all the different guises their music can take using the same elements. I mean just look at how amazing all the "Dark and Long" stuff is. part of why I loved Drift is because it sorta got back to that

i saw some speculation that IIFU is going to be some kind of extra release thing, new and/or archival. One of the new merch things has "iifu mix" of one of the new tracks written on it. So there's something there.

i signed up for the list on iifu.club but no idea if that's just the existing newsletter.

I’m not liking the newish post-Drift songs :(

what were your fave Drift bits? Curious. Every record does feel like something new. But Drift was so all over the place that none of the newer songs would've been out of place there, for me.

for an act that's put out some seriously moody records, i think of them overall as so euphoric. I adore the new "single". I can't get enough of "Two Months Off" these days during workouts. The live version and (new) old version they put out a year or two ago are immense.

Found the 12 inch with Spoon Deep and Thing in a Book on it, almost forgot how good the B-side is, you could live inside that track

I have two different Dark & Long CD singles APR002CD and JBO19CDS) with 139 minutes (if you don't count the two tracks that are on both) of possibly my favourite music by Underworld.

Yeah it’s tremendous music.

Those two Dark and Long cds were their peak. I don’t know to what extent all the tracks were created from the same ingredients, but I really enjoyed when they would remix and transform the same track over and over

at one point I did try to work it out...that choral/mellotron sounding bit from D&L shows up in Most 'Ospitable, the beats are remixed for "Dark Train", I think "Thing in a Book" uses the vocal bit...hard to say for sure since the tracks sound nothing alike. Pearl's Girl is even harder to figure out.

Nice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61ufLW2PmxM