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Underworld is the principal name under which British electronic music duo Karl Hyde and Rick Smith have recorded since the late 1970s.
History
Hyde and Smith began their musical partnership with the Kraftwerk and Reggae inspired sounds of The Screen Gemz while studying together at Cardiff Art College, and in 1983 recorded two albums for CBS Records with a proto-electroclash New Romantic band whose name was represented by a symbol rather than an actual name. However, this being a new band the early 1980s (and many years before The Artist Formerly Known As Prince could be abbreviated to TAFKAP ) it was decided that the band had to represent the sounds of the squiggle with a proper name, and so the act was marketed as Freur.
In 1986 Freur renamed themselves Underworld and tried a more guitar-orientated funky electropop sound on two albums for Sire before disbanding in 1990. Though prior to disbanding their title track from the debut album "Underneath the Radar" was chosen for the opening scene in the Miami Vice season 5 debut episode in 1989.
After a break (to concentrate, among other things, on art/design project Tomato), Hyde and Smith recruited Essex DJ Darren Emerson and, after several minor releases and remixes as Lemon Interupt and Steppin' Razor, Underworld produced danceable techno as a trio until Emerson left in April 2000, and as a duo since then.
Born Slippy .NUXX is one of Underworld's best-known tracks, and is celebrated worldwide as one of the greatest dance tracks of the decade. It was originally released in 1995 as a b-side to Born Slippy, but failed to catch on until it was included in the 1996 film Trainspotting. NUXX has since appeared on countless compilations, mashups, and remixes.
The band has been regarded by some as key pioneers of the modern electronic music movement.
Albums (Underworld MK2 and MK3)
Dubnobasswithmyheadman
The addition of Emerson completed Underworld's techno/rock fusion and seemed to moderate some of the poppier elements in the original duo's work. Their first album, dubnobasswithmyheadman, was considered more accessible than the group's earlier material and crossed a large spectrum of dance music. The signature Hyde lyrics were in place: poetic, hypnotic and whispered; mixing conventional songwriting with the use of found material from overheard conversations, answerphone recordings and the like. Hyde had been the lead singer in Underworld Mk. I but the original Hyde/Smith dance material was lyric-free as was most of the electronic music emerging from the aftermath of acid house.Second Toughest in the Infants
The band's 1996 album, Second Toughest In The Infants, was their second studio album with Emerson and achieved no small degree of commercial success, due in part to its release coinciding with that of the film Trainspotting. The film featured the band's most commercially successful track to date, 'Born Slippy .NUXX', which was originally released as a single before the Second Toughest album and does not feature on the original version of it. Both the single and the album showed Underworld maturing as a trio, mixing elements of techno, house, drum and bass and pop music to spectacular effect. The unusual name of the album as released derives, allegedly, from a comment made by Rick Smith's six-year old nephew when asked on his progress at school.Beaucoup Fish
After the release of third studio album Beaucoup Fish in 1999, Hyde declared in his interviews that he had sorted out earlier problems with alcoholism but all the members admitted that the sessions had been fraught with problems, with the individual members working in their own studios and only communicating via mixes of the raw material passed back and forth on DAT. After the release of the album a large number of mixes of the album tracks seemed to surface on singles, magazine promotional CDs and similar ephemeral formats perhaps indicating the number of revisions the tracks had gone through to get to the point where they were acceptable to all three. The album's name derives from a sample of a Cajun fisherman in Louisiana on the track 'Jumbo'. The band originally wanted to call the album 'Tonight, Matthew, I'm going to be Underworld' (a catchphrase used by contestants on the UK ITV programme Stars In Their Eyes), but were persuaded by their record company, Junior Boy's Own, that the name would not be easily understood outside the UK. Finally, after all the singles had been released, a boxset, Underworld Singles Box Set, which was a retrospective of all 4 singles came out.Everything, Everything
Underworld embarked on a spirited and well-received tour in 1999, which resulted in a live CD and DVD drawn from several dates on the tour. Called Everything, Everything, the project captured the live Underworld experience very faithfully.A companion DVD was released separately soon after the album's release. The DVD features live footage of the band mixed with videography and artistic effects by the design group Tomato. The DVD also features several songs not on the album - "Moaner", "Puppies", "Kittens", and "Rowla".
A Hundred Days Off
After the release and promotion of Everything, Everything Emerson decided to leave Underworld to focus on his solo projects and record label. Hyde and Smith decided to continue, once again, as a duo. They recorded a new album, A Hundred Days Off, released to general approval. Despite its status as the band's first studio album since Emerson's departure, its general sound and feel was, perhaps surprisingly for many Underworld fans, not completely dissimilar to the previous albums on which Emerson had had input.1992-2002
A 2 disc anthology was released in 2003, called 1992-2002, which covered the previous Underworld MK2 to Underworld MK3 era. A re-released version of Born Slippy, called Born Slippy .NUXX 2003 came out as a single. This was the first appearance on an album of previously unavailable single tracks and B-Sides, such as "Bigmouth", "Spikee", "Dirty", and "8 Ball".Live 2005
While touring in the summer and fall of 2005, the duo was joined on stage by Darren Price, a DJ well known by the band who had remixed Underworld releases in the past. During their tour, they released a 3xCD set called Underworld Tokyo 2005, which was sold after the concert in Japan, and later through a special online offer, copies were sold by the band to fans who could not be there.The Riverrun Project
In late 2005 they released two compilations of new songs with accompanying photographs on Underworld Live, Lovely Broken Thing and Pizza for Eggs. These were only released online, with no physical release (except for a promo CD). On June 5, 2006, they released their third installment in the Riverrun series, I'm a Big Sister, and I'm a Girl, and I'm a Princess, and This is my Horse. On July 10, 2006, they released a special retrospective mix, called The Misterons Mix, which is comprised of tracks from the three previous Riverrun releases. This was an exclusive free download for those members that had purchased all three of the previous Riverrun releases. There are move Riverrun releases planned for the future.Future Projects
Underworld have completed the soundtrack to the upcoming Anthony Minghella film, Breaking and Entering, which will be released in October. They are also working on a new movie soundtrack. They have announced they will self-publish a few 12" white label releases this year, as well as tour later this year. Rick, Karl and Darren are currently recording their fifth studio album, expected to be released in 2007.
Band members
- Karl Hyde (b. 10 May, 1957, Worcester, Worcestershire) - vocals, guitars (1986-present)
- Rick Smith (b. Richard Smith, 25 May, 1959, Ammanford, Wales) - keyboards (1986-present)
- Alfie Thomas - bass, keyboards (1986-1990)
- Darren Emerson (b. 30 April, 1971, Hornchurch, Essex)- keyboards and mixing (1991-2000)
- Darren Price - keyboards, mixing and live assistant (2004-present)
Trivia
- Did not have a US Top 40 single (highest position was #69 for "Stand Up" in 1989).
- Freur scored (or at least appeared on the soundtrack to) the 1985 Denholm Elliot film "Underworld" (aka "Transmutations").
- Baz Allen (Underworld mk1) is now in D-Influence.
- Karl played guitar on Debbie Harry's 1991 tour. The Wembley gig on this tour was broadcast live on Radio One and has been bootlegged.
- Karl played guitar on Pig (Raymond Watt)'s album The Swining.
- Freur appeared in Tim Pope's "I Want To Be A Tree" video.
- Karl's "Top 20 Albums", as per the Guardian of Friday, 19 Sep 1997:
Discography
For more details about the discography, see Underworld discography.
Remixes by Underworld (Darren Emerson, Rick Smith, Karl Hyde)
- Remixes in the Lemon Interupt/Steppin' Razor period included such varying acts as Shakespeare's Sister, Saint Etienne, Björk and Simply Red.
- For a complete list of the remixography, see Underworld discography.
External links
- The official website (dirty.org)
- Underworld Live
- Discography: Freur/Underworld/Lemon Interupt - Detailed discography to 1999
- Unofficial FAQ
- Band History page
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"Underworld (band)"