Wonder Wonderful Underworld
Veteran Brits' new anthology highlights a decade of pushing dance music forward
In the early '90s, a Bush was in the Oval Office, the country was still recovering from war with Iraq, Saddam Hussein was on the loose, the economy was in a slump, and people were questioning the very direction of the Western way. Crap rock ruled the airwaves, and the bubble was about to burst for the outlaw rave scene: Ecstasy was out of hand, and dance-music fans raced for the nearest club.
Sound familiar? But, perhaps unlike today, it was a great time for electronic music. It was a new dawn. The Prodigy hit the American scene with the release of its breakbeat odyssey, Experience. Moby unleashed his inaugural and self-titled full-length. Leftfield represented future house with "Release the Pressure." Ambient trippers The Orb went No. 1 in the U.K. with U.F.Orb. And, sneaking beneath the radar, British trio Underworld was reborn, giving new life to American-bred dance music.
What strikes you about Underworld's work of that era is how contemporary it is. "Bigmouth" (recorded under the trio's Lemon Interrupt alter ego in 1992) is a Mobyesque train ride with knee-slapping harmonica loops. "Dirty" sounds as spacy as it is funky, combining a breakbeat house rhythm and simple piano riffs that roll ahead at a running man's pace. The two tracks would fit right in at a big-room performance by one of today's superstar DJs. They also kick off Underworld's two-disc anthology, Underworld 1992-2002, due out Tuesday, December 2.
The collection is a snapshot of not only the group's evolution, but of the development in e-music in general. Perhaps reverentially, it includes only one track ("Two Months Off") produced after DJ Darren Emerson left in 2000. Many believed he was the driving force behind the trio's ascendance to dance-music headliner royalty (before he joined them, Karl Hyde and Rick Smith were but late-'80s new-wavers trying to get a grip on the rave-o-lution). But the downsized duo came back and delivered platinum with 2002's A Hundred Days Off.
"We are the core of that music from the early '80s, and we've seen some lovely and very talented people like Darren come and go," Hyde says. "The constant has been Rick and myself. As sad as it is to lose a friend and great vibe, no change was effected by losing that friend, not musically. Sad to say, A Hundred Days Off was our first platinum record. I wish he'd stayed and enjoyed success with us. I really do. I like the guy. Anything there was magic. I feel vindicated, but it's sad to say that, too."
Meanwhile, as Underworld 1992-2002 runs through the band's history, one can hear the loops get smoother and the robots make way for the seamless alchemy of software production and synthesis. ("When the first things like 'Big Mouth' came out and we were putting stuff out from the back of the car," Hyde says.) Busy, up-tempo energy is a constant, but there's also a sense of pushing the music forward at each step. By the mid-'90s, the trio's rocking live shows pushed the post-rave scene into the arena concert world while warding off the "prog" label with simple lighting and a DJ-style continuum. All the good stuff is on Underworld 1992-2002, including our pick for the group's piece de resistance, "Dark and Long," the harrowing backdrop for a particularly disturbing scene in the movie Trainspotting.
Whatever you call its sound, by the millennium, Underworld was wholeheartedly embraced by the omnipresent "progressive house" scene. "Cowgirl," with its dirty, bouncing keys and rambling bass line, became a staple of the super-club circuit. By the time 1999's Beaucoup Fish hit the shelves, the trio's sublime, Technicolor sound was smooth and light and almost nostalgic.
"We are fusing styles of music that work on the dance floor or in your car or in your head," says Hyde, the group's longtime vocalist. "When we were labeled progressive house or techno or trance, it was a wake-up call that you have to move on fast, or else you're going to go down with that scene. It's a sign the clock's ticking. You are now current. Pack up your bags and move further up the road."Published: 11/26/2003
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