TS: Underworld "Jumbo" vs. Orbital "Halcyon"

We can also talk about how the tracks are similar/how they differ, though. I'm real obsessed with the idea tonight.

Underworld kicks my ass.

So "Jumbo" in a walk.

BUT special distinction to "Halcyon (Live)" for wowing me back in the day with the whole Belinda Carlisle/Bon Jovi thing. Oh youth and innocence...

Of interest, perhaps: Polynomial-C vs. 444 vs. Papua New Guinea

I listen to more guitar music (for want of a better phrase) than electro stuff(for want of an even better one)but these are two of my favourite songs ever.

The author of this thread is absolutely spot on. Both these songs for some reason well up a very similar, joyously sentimental rush.

Spot on about the Jumbo remixes too (prefer the Jedis Sugar Hit)

Anybody, please recommend me more in the same vein

I always thought that Jumbo was 'not rated' which made me feel like a weirdo for liking it so much.

'Jumbo' for it's gorgeous pulse.

By the way, they *are* anglers having a discussion about bait containers from Walmart at the beginning aren't they?

"Jumbo" is one of the only Underworld tracks I've heard where the album version has completely pwned every live version I've heard. The "click" is integral to the power of the song and it is a little slice of melancholy awesomeness but I can think of five songs off the top of my head on Beaucoup Fish alone that are better-constructed, more emotionally-involving and just plain better ("Push Upstairs", "Winjer", "Kittens", "Moaner", "Cups"). Also, "Luetin" goes over the same territory in a much more satisfying manner; there isn't another Orbital song that encapsulates that sense of open-eyed wonder in the same way as "Halcyon".

I would love to hear the "Jumbo" remixes, though; I don't know them at all.

I'm just reading over the lyrics to Jumbo, and I've realized that I never heard the "click...you disconnect from me" as referring to a phone conversation. More like legos. :x Am I insane?!

Also: I always thought that Jumbo was 'not rated' which made me feel like a weirdo for liking it so much.

I was under the impression it was considered one of the most beautiful house tracks of all time. Is this not so?

also, i've never heard "jumbo" so this was an easy one!

Dan, I've just relistened to Luetin based on this post, and you're otm that it's great, but I don't think it's as satisfying for some reason.

As for no live versions living up to the album version...perhaps. However, the Peel Session version is awesome. That whole Peel Session needs to be mastered properly and sold in shops. I've got a great copy but it could be a touch cleaner.

Today I prefer Jumbo over Halcyon but if I were stopped at the gates of heaven and had to answer which was the bigger-better track for all humanity to remember, i'd have to say Halcyon. From 94-98 this was the defining "progressive" tune. I've recently found an extra copy of the US CD single with The Naked and The Dead/Dub on it! Bonus round!

there's something very understated and beautiful about the lyric "click/you disconnect from me"...have i said this before?

Don't think so. That said it also immediately makes me think of Gary Numan.

Worth saying repeatedly. What a great track. What an amazing album really. Someone upthread that "Jumbo" sounds like it could come out today ("today" being 2005), and not only is this still the case but I can almost imagine it always being the case.

That line is just gorgeous. (I still prefer "Halcyon", tho)

me oo...Halcyon and on and on and on...

the opening tracks on 'beaucoup fish' is just incredible

are just

The rest of Beaucoup Fish beyond the first four tracks has also aged much better than I thought it would. I finally love "Bruce Lee."

I don't know that I will ever join you on "Bruce Lee", Eric, but "Moaner" and "Something Like A Mama" are both completely monstrous and wonderful to me now.

Moaner is almost everything I want from Underworld in one lethal shot.

Yeah, I kind of can't believe there was a point where I hated that song. WTF, me from 10 years ago?

I liked it back then too, but I've always seemed to like Underworld at their most relentless. "Tin There" is blissful carnage.

also it is amazing the amount of nostalgia orbital 2 currently provides.

-- cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, October 19, 2005 12:30 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Link

yes

I know...you throw on that album, and you are instantly transported back to 1992...it's like you enter this twist in the fabric of space, where time becomes a loop...where time becomes a loop...where time becomes a loop...and so forth...

Underworld "Jumbo" vs. Orbital "Halcyon" vs. Caribou "Niobe"

srsly

my thumbs on a tetris keyring

good tunes

also it is amazing the amount of nostalgia orbital 2 currently provides.

I personally find this very true, even in spite of having first heard Orbital in 98, (and despite actually getting an introduction beyond halcyon, it, at 10 years old, was my favourite song - a position that would actually be nearly regained many years later after having forgotten about most of the music I had been introduced to by my older cousin at 10 and subsequently rediscovered years later.

rising in the morning stopped to you (beneath the feet of the city)
click
you disconnect from me
click
when you're gone you take your century

telephone breath between us the whole world is between us
only these wires
dust between the wires
and the green grass

^^^best moment

I think "Jumbo" has aged much better.

Still love them both.

If there's one lyric that brings tears to my eyes it's "Telephone breath between us/There are no borders between us/Only these wires"; although 75% of that is the way it's sung (those might not even be the real lyrics)

Great thread...I have to choose "Jumbo" as it's one of my favorite electronic tunes ever, just absolutely beautiful in a way only "Neon Lights" really approaches. But "Halycon" is total classic as well

jumbo is the sound of a city i want to live in

Hah, it sounds like London to me, but then I did spend an hell of a lot of time travelling round town with Beaucoup Fish on my Walkman.

It's a brilliant travelling around town album IMO.

lol BF was like my "paper route" album (I was 13 when it came out), back when I thought Fatboy Slim was tits and that the first 9-10 minutes of "Cups" was like a practical joke. even then I thought "Jumbo" was one of the best things I've ever heard.

BF is permanently in the car.

And it will get played again tonight, probably.

And Jumbo is where I turns it up.

if you haven't already cranked the volume by the end of "Cups", I think you're doing it wrong

Nononoooooo...

It's up for then.

It's very up for Jumbo.

It's down a bit for Moaner. I used to think it wasn't good, but actually it's alright as long as it's not overloud.

Oh, and once again, Jumbo sounds like Mute-period Wire.

the underrated part of that album (besides "Winjer") is the ambient noodling of "Shudder" bursting into the intro to "King of Snake"; it's kind of cheap tension/release but it works SO WELL

Mark - what Wire songs sound like "Jumbo"?

BTW "Kittens" is such an ace track, it's just like a pure shot of smack to the brain. When they do it live Rick actually plays the keyboards in real time which makes it even more epic.

The vocal is very Colin.

specifically, can't say.

OK, try "40 versions" from 154

- brother there's a little sale on, uh, vests at, uh, Walmart?
...nine dollar.

- Oh yeah?

- eight some, yeah...nice little vest, light.

(hammer pounding)

click...

i need sugar i need a little watersugar
i get thoughts about you and the night it wants me
like a little lost child
locked in a safe place
lookin out the window
the dark move fast past
the window
the dark on the otherside of
the locked door

click...

my thumb's on a tetris keyring moving in brilliant timing
you pick up the phone
and i'm imagining

click...

tiny wires in her ears
(slide into the city)
tiny wires in her ears
(slide into the city

click...

- expected early in the mornin'

rising in the morning stopped to you (beneath the feet of the city)
click
you disconnect from me
click
when you're gone you take your century

telephone breath between us the whole world is between us
only these wires
dust between the wires
and the green grass

in the distance
i am your tourist

- expected early in the mornin'

moving in brilliant timing...

- i search for this spot then find you fellas hangin around at the same
stump...and you're right there with 'em

- well, i've never fished here, but i caught beaucoup fish in reverend
burton.

- i never did catch fish here

- beaucoup fish in reverend burton

i need sugar...
click...
- expected early in the mornin'
you disconnect from me...

I fucking love Jumbo.

used to think it was 'Tiny was in arrears' and he was talking about Tiny Rowland

Yeah I always thought it was "Telephone breath between us/There are no borders between us"; still sounds that way to me actually

God damn listening to this over and over again makes me realize this song may be the GOAT

I still like "Halcyon" more

would be an even greater thread if you threw in "Niji" by Denki Groove which is the same type of song

totally "too much time on ilx", or too much time on ilx in 2005, but i can't hear the opening of "jumbo" without thinking of stevem being annoyed of the sound of the dude banging on the boat

i love these songs equally

"Halcyon" > "Halcyon + on + on" >>>>>>>> "Jumbo"

i think about this song a lot, i think bc Underworld is such a human and generous and joyful band and this song is for me their most moving one. i said this upthread eons ago of course.

Telephone breath between us
There are no borders between us
Only these wires
Dust between the wires
And the green grass
And in the distance
I am your tourist

also i think their new one is an album full of jumbos, maybe not in sound but in the occasionally hushed sincere sentiments, which is why i think it's probably actually nearly on par with their '90s albums.

Telephone breath between us
There are no borders between us
Only these wires

Can't think of anything in any other song that makes me feel the way those lines do. I can't explain it but it's always a gut punch, one of my favorite moments in any song really

Actually I did think of another - "Gradated Grey" by YMO