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Underworld (band)
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Underworld is an English electronic group, and principal name under which duo Karl Hyde and Rick Smith have recorded together since 1980. The band is perhaps best known for "Born Slippy .NUXX", a track made popular in the hit 1996 Danny Boyle film Trainspotting.
and Smith began their musical partnership with the Kraftwerk and reggae-inspired sounds of The Screen Gemz while studying together at Cardiff Art College.
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Underworld is an English electronic group, and principal name under which duo Karl Hyde and Rick Smith have recorded together since 1980. The band is perhaps best known for "Born Slippy .NUXX", a track made popular in the hit 1996 Danny Boyle film Trainspotting.
History
Early years: 1980–1986
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. In 1983 they recorded two albums for CBS Records with a proto-electroclash new romantic band whose name was a graphic squiggle, which (this being a relatively unknown band and many years before Prince became "Love Symbol") was soon given a pronunciation, Freur.
Underworld MK1: 1987–1990
Freur disbanded in 1986. In 1987 members of Freur created the band Underworld and tried a more guitar-oriented funky electropop sound on Underneath the Radar and Change the Weather for Sire Records before disbanding in 1990. (The Underworld of this period is now often referred to as "Underworld Mk1".)
Darren Emerson joins the duo: 1991–1994
After a break (to concentrate on, among other things, 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 readopted the Underworld moniker. They produced danceable techno as a trio ("Underworld Mk2").
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, answering machine recordings and the like. Hyde had been the lead singer in Underworld Mk1. But the original Hyde/Smith dance material was lyric-free as was most of the electronic music emerging from the aftermath of acid house.
Trainspotting breakthrough: 1995–1997
The band's 1996 album, Second Toughest In The Infants, was their second studio album with Emerson and achieved a degree of commercial success, due in part to its release coinciding with that of the film Trainspotting. The film featured "Dark & Long (Dark Train)", as well as the band's most commercially successful track to date, "Born Slippy", which was originally released only as a B-side of a single and does not appear on the Second Toughest album. 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 from a comment made by Smith's six-year old nephew Simon Prosser when asked on his progress at school.
"Born Slippy .NUXX" is one of Underworld's best-known tracks, and is celebrated 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 Trainspotting. The track has since sold over a million copies, and appeared on countless compilations, mashups, and remixes.
Beaucoup Fish era: 1998–2001
After the release of fifth 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, Beaucoup Fish Singles, which was a retrospective of all 4 singles came out.
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".
Back to a duo: 2002–2003
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.
A 2 disc anthology was released in 2003, called 1992-2002, which covered the previous Underworld MK2 to Underworld MK3 era. This was the first appearance on an album of previously unavailable single tracks and B-Sides, such as "Bigmouth", "Spikee", "Dirty", and "8 Ball".
The RiverRun Project and soundtracks: 2004–2006
While touring in the summer and fall of 2005, the duo was joined on stage by Darren Price, a DJ and producer well known by the band who had remixed Underworld releases in the past. During their tour, they released a 3xCD set called Live in Tokyo, which was sold after the concert in Japan. Copies were also later sold online.
In late 2005 they released two compilations of new songs with accompanying photographs on , 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 instalment 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 composed of tracks from the three previous Riverrun releases. This was an exclusive free download for those customers that had purchased all three previous Riverrun releases.
In September 2006, Underworld released five limited edition (10,000 copies each) 12" vinyl releases, containing remixes of various Riverrun tracks. These tracks were also made available for purchase by digital download on the Beatport website.
In 2006, Underworld and Gabriel Yared composed the music score to Anthony Minghella's film Breaking and Entering. The soundtrack was released in the UK on November 6, and in the USA on December 5.
Oblivion with Bells: 2007–present
Underworld's seventh studio album, Oblivion with Bells, was released on October 16, 2007. The first single from the new album, "Crocodile", was released on September 5, 2007. A full world tour has been announced to support the new studio album. Currently, tour dates in the United States, Europe, and Japan are scheduled for this fall, with more shows expected in the future. U2's drummer Larry Mullen Jr helped out on the track Boy, Boy, Boy.
Underworld completed the soundtrack to the Danny Boyle film, Sunshine, in late 2006. Well over a year after the film's release, the official soundtrack was released on iTunes on November 25, 2008. The soundtrack is a collaboration with composer John Murphy.
On June 16, 2007, Underworld were forced to cancel their show at the Ejekt Festival in Athens, Greece. Approximately 30 masked Grecian anarchists stormed the stadium while the Beastie Boys were performing. Rick Smith was one of the people injured in the ensuing violence, and he was taken to a nearby Athens hospital for treatment.
On October 19, 2007, Underworld cancelled the remaining dates of their European tour due to illness in the band. The tour was picked up again on January 28, 2008, with a concert in Cologne, followed by 16 dates in Europe, including some festivals.
On August 8, 2008, Underworld appeared at the All Points West Music & Arts Festival festival in Liberty State Park, New Jersey. Radiohead dedicated their final song Everything in its Right Place to Underworld with a special remix.
Underworld has released two new series via their underworldlive.com site,
in mp3 and WAV formats. The tracks are 020202, and the phonestrap/autotrader series.
Charity
In 2008 the band participated in a music album called Songs for Tibet, which is an initiative to support Tibet, Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso and to underline the human rights situation in Tibet. The album was issued on August 5 via iTunes and on August 19 in music stores around the world.
Discography
Remixes by Underworld (Darren Emerson, Rick Smith, Karl Hyde)
Remixes in the Lemon Interupt/Steppin' Razor period included such varying acts as Shakespears Sister, Saint Etienne, Björk and Simply Red.
For a complete list of the remixography, see Underworld discography.
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)
- Darren Price - keyboards, mixing and live assistant (2005–present)
- Darren Emerson (b. 30 April, 1971, Hornchurch, Essex) - keyboards and mixing (1991–2000)
- Alfie Thomas - guitar (1986–1990) (also in Freur)
- Bryn Burrows - drums (1986–1988) (also in Freur)
- Baz Allen - bass (1986–1990)
- Pascal Consoli - drums (1989–1990)
Trivia
- Song Change the Weather was used as background music in an episode of the TV series Hunter (TV series)
- Underworld has not had a US Top 40 single (highest position was #69 for "Stand Up" in 1989).
- Freur provided the original music for the 1985 Denholm Elliot film Underworld (aka Transmutations).
- The title track from Underworld Mk1's debut album Underneath the Radar was chosen for the opening scene in the Miami Vice season 5 debut episode in 1989.
- Baz Allen (Underworld Mk1) is now in D-Influence.
- Hyde played guitar on Debbie Harry's 1991 tour. The Wembley gig on this tour was broadcast live on Radio One and has been bootlegged.
- Hyde played guitar on PIG (Raymond Watts)'s album The Swining.
- Freur appeared in Tim Pope's "I Want To Be A Tree" video.
- Former Big Brother 2006 Australia housemate Danielle Foote released a cover of Underworld's "Underneath the Radar" as her debut single.
- The song "Big mouth" is used on the opening and closing credits of Argentina's reality cop show: "Policias en Acción"
- In 1998 "Born Slippy" became famous in Argentina when an advertisement company, Agulla y Baccetti, made a commercial song for the world cup, but the lyrics were changed
- Song "Cowgirl" was featured on the soundtrack to the 1995 film Hackers (film)
- Song "Rez" was used as a background dance track during the club scene in Vanilla Sky
- Song "Rez" inspired the title of the PlayStation 2/Dreamcast/Xbox Live Arcade title of the same name.
- "Two Months Off", the first single from the album "A Hundred Days Off", appears as a playable song in the arcade version of Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA2 as a cover by TECHNO MASTERS.
- The Songs "Glam Bucket" and "To Heal" from the album ""Oblivion with Bells" both appeared in the game Need for Speed: Undercover.
- The album "second toughest kid in the infants" was named by a band-members nephew, Welsh all-round legend, Simon Prosser (friend of The Renowned Joseph Willis)
See also
External links
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- [ftp://ftp.swcp.com/pub/users/lazlo/discographies/freur Discography: Freur/Underworld/Lemon Interupt] - Detailed discography to 1999
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- at Rolling Stone
- interviewed in Chaos Control Digizine (Fall 2007)]
- at UKEvents.net
- - 2003 Interview with Karl Hyde in JIVE Magazine, written by Jewels
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