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Underworld (band)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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 Underworld live in New York, 2007. Left to right: Karl Hyde, Rick Smith, Darren Price.
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| Background information | |
| Also known as | Lemon Interupt, Steppin' Razor, Mr. and Mrs. Christmas |
| Origin | Romford, Essex, England, UK |
| Genre(s) | Electronic, techno, progressive house, progressive trance, alternative dance |
| Years active | 1986–present |
| Label(s) | Junior Boy's Own, V2, Wax Trax!, Sire, underworldlive.com, Traffic, Different Recordings |
| Associated acts |
The Screen Gemz, Freur |
| Website | underworldlive.com |
| Members | |
| Karl Hyde Rick Smith Darren Price |
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| Former members | |
| Baz Allen Bryn Borrows Alfie Thomas Darren Emerson |
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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 1980s. The band is perhaps best known for "Born Slippy .NUXX", a track made popular in the hit 1996 Danny Boyle film Trainspotting.
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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.
Freur disbanded in 1986. In 1987 members of Freur created the band Underworld and tried a more guitar-orientated funky electropop sound on two albums (see: Underworld discography) for Sire Records before disbanding in 1990. (The Underworld of this period is now often referred to as "Underworld Mk1".)
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.
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 .NUXX", 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 the 1996 film Trainspotting. ".NUXX" has since appeared on countless compilations, mashups, and remixes.
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, 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".
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. An updated version of "Born Slippy .NUXX", 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".
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 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 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.
Underworld have completed their fifth studio album, Oblivion with Bells, which has been released on October 16th, 2007[1]. The first single from the new album, "Crocodile", was released on September 5, 2007.[2] 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[3]. U2's drummer Larry Mullen Jr helped out on the track Boy, Boy, Boy.
Underworld completed the soundtrack to Danny Boyle's latest film, Sunshine, in late 2006 [1], however a definitive release date for the soundtrack has so far been elusive, despite the film's release. The soundtrack is a collaboration with composer John Murphy. [2]
On June 16, 2007, Underworld were forced to cancel their show at the Ejekt Festival in Athens, Greece. Approximately 30 masked Grecian anarchists, armed with CS gas, iron bars, and baseball bats, 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.[4].
On October 19, 2007, Underworld cancelled the remaining dates of their European tour due to illness in the band[5]. As of November 19, 2007, Underworld has rebooked most of the cities with new tour dates.
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.
- 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 - guitar (1986–1990) (also in Freur)
- Bryn Burrows - drums (1986–1988) (also in Freur)
- Baz Allen - bass (1986–1990)
- Pascal Consoli - drums (1989–1990)
- Darren Emerson (b. 30 April 1971, Hornchurch, Essex) - keyboards and mixing (1991–2000)
- Darren Price - keyboards, mixing and live assistant (2005–present)
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- 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
- ^ Oblivion with Bells. Retrieved on 2007-07-31.
- ^ The information of Underworld and new work sale. You record also the first bonus track in band history in the new album. Retrieved on 2007-07-18.
- ^ Underworld live events. Retrieved on 2007-07-31.
- ^ Underworld's Smith Injured During Festival Riot. Retrieved on 2007-07-31.
- ^ Underworld cancel tour after severe illness member. Retrieved on 2007-10-24.
- Underworld Live
- Underworld at MySpace
- Official Traffic label website for Underworld
- The "official unofficial fan website"
- Discography: Freur/Underworld/Lemon Interupt - Detailed discography to 1999
- Unofficial FAQ
- Band History page
- Underworld at Rolling Stone
- Karl Hyde of Underworld interviewed in Chaos Control Digizine (Fall 2007)]
- Karl Hyde, on Underworld and the New Anthology Album: An Autobiographical Poetry - 2003 Interview with Karl Hyde in JIVE Magazine, written by Jewels
Categories: Cleanup from June 2006 | All pages needing cleanup | Articles needing additional references from August 2007 | Articles with trivia sections from June 2007 | Underworld | British dance music groups | British electronic music groups | British techno music groups | British house music groups | British trance music groups | Synthpop | Remixers | English musical groups | 1980s music groups | 1990s music groups | 2000s music groups | Ableton Live users