Monday's Long Song

 

The British electronic duo Karl Hyde and Rick Smith, better known as Underworld, launched a project in 2019 and released a song or video every Thursday for a year. They named the collection of all these releases Drift. A year later, they released Drift 2 under the title Atom. 

Underworld skillfully alternate between functional techno and clever electronica, straightforward rave and ambient passages, as well as dub. Whilst remaining deeply rooted in the 1990's, they continue to evolve. Perhaps no other track of theirs from that era captures this better than the nearly 15-minute Threat Of Rain, a 15-minute journey through ambient-infused techno.

Underworld - Threat In Rain

Estelle

 

In the mid 80's one of the most hip places in Europe was a café located on the seafront in Sant Antoni de Portmany in the Cala des Moro bay on Ibiza. It became famous because the local DJ José Padilla regularly played a set at sunset, which consisted mainly of relaxed numbers by mostly unknown artists at the time. The term chill-out music was born and later solidified under the name Balearic ambient. 

So what could be more obvious than to publish compilations of these songs? In 1994, the first Café del Mar compilation was released, which included Sabres of Paradise, Underworld, Penguine Cafe Orchestra and A Man Called Adam. To mark the 30th anniversary, AMCA has now released various remixes of Estelle in the last few days. A song that is still a highlight thanks to its instrumentation with flute, interspersed word fragments and its Latin American arrangement.

Monday's Long Song

 

This Monday, Germany is affected by a strike the likes of which I have not experienced for a long time. The entire public transport system will be on strike. There are no buses or trains, not to mention planes. From my point of view, the strike and the union's demands are absolutely justified. Permanently rising energy costs and the cost of food are bringing many people to the brink of affordability. The fact that the employers refuse to pay more is due to the system and also, if only with difficulty, comprehensible. But I have no understanding when employers spend a lot of money on managers' salaries or absurd purchases and do not think at all about how their employers can make ends meet financially. I have decided to take a day off because I don't see any way of getting to work and supporting the strike in this way.

Today's long song is the opening track from Underworld's third album Dubnobasswithmyheadman from 1994 showing them on a high class level. I could use almost every song from this album in this series.

Underworld - Dark and Long

Monday's Long Song

 

A few days ago I watched again The Beach, the movie by Danny Boyle from 2000 with Leonardo DiCaprio as a main actor. It is far away from my favorite movie but I still like the landscape because I traveled through Thailand several times during these days and I remember Phi Phi island as a peaceful and great place. In all his movies Boyle had a fantastic taste for the soundtracks. Most of them showing new bands and they got a greater audience. So it was no wonder that Underworld appeared on the soundtrack with 8 Ball that wasn't released on any of their albums before. A trippy beat, reduced guitars and the voices made this song outstanding and worth to be featured in this series.

Underworld - 8 Ball

Monday's Long Song

 

I always had a huge fondness to Underworld since they released their first songs in the late 80's. During this time the they released many anthems in electronic music and I was seldom disappointed about the releases. Now they are back with a live rework of Juanita, a song from their second album. It still sounds fresh and new. Stomping beats over a synth based floor. Nothing more or less than a great version.

Cool Kids Of Death

 

Tiger Bay was the third album by Saint Etienne an indie-dance band from London released in 1994. I have to admit that I always liked them because they their name not only was lent by French football team AS Saint Etienne that had their best times in the mid 70's when they played in the pre Champions League and lost the final in Glasgow unfortunately against Bayern München. The main thing about the band was that they were able to combine different kind of genres like folk, rock, dance club music into their very own sound. Their debut Foxbase Alpha from 1991 was a groundbreaking record for me, introducing this sound to my ears. Their third album Tiger Bay three years later is an underrated album in fact of following albums by artists that made great first records their following albums bear the fate of repeating the same once again. But listening to this album I think there are so many great songs on it that are worth to be listened to decades later. Cool Kids Of Death by the remix of Underworld shows once again that their songs are so good and worth to be remixed.

Saint Etienne - Cool Kids of Death (Underworld Remix)

Monday's Long Song

 

Underworld made a series about new releases where they experimented with new sounds and forms. I loved them when they came out during the last year. Now I found a song from this series when they played it live in Amsterdam . After 30 years developing new electronic sound Underworld still sounds fresh and innovating. It is a soft flowing electronic gem only interrupted by spoken words. 

Monday's Long Song

Back in 1995 Underworld released Born Slippy as a single not knowing what will happen to this song. Released as just another song in the rave ear this song was known as the trademark of rave after it was on the soundtrack of Trainspotting the great movie based on Irvine Welsh's novel about the drug scene in Edinburgh. In Born Slippy the highs and low-pressure areas of a whole era banged on each other. The absent-mindedness of the dance and drunkenness, famous „being fallen in love in nothing“ and the depression afterwards which got again in the reality melted within 04:24 minutes (single version) to the symbol of the hedonistic 1990's years. This song functioned in the bedroom, in the pub, in the club and in the stadium. Not only this song lead me to a new kind of music and I am glad about this.

Underworld - Born Slippy

60

It is made limited - today I will be 60 years old. In my younger days I couldn't imagine to get this far. But now I can look back to a lot of decades with ups and downs, good days and bad days and more great times than bad times. I am not going to celebrate this day but I will meet some friends at the pub next door to have a good time, talking and drinking a few pints. I tried to figure out some tunes with the 60 in it's title and couldn't find more than Bow Wow Wow that should be featured today. It is a song that accompanied me during the last decades and I never got rid of enjoying this song. 

Bow Wow Wow - C30 C60 C90 Go!

Another song that I can't listen often enough during the last years was Underworld's Rez. A song that had a hypnotic groove and made a level for many other bands and it is hard to beat.

Underworld - Rez

Monday's Long Song

Today's track Threat of  Rain  is by Underworld and a part of their Drift project.

Underworld began their year-long Drift project on 1 November 2018. A public experiment in creativity and possibility, Drift sees the band releasing material on Thursday each week via their website. During each Drift episode, music and film are often created and mixed reactively to the previous week’s work, and the material collected together to form Drift episodes. At the end of each episode, all parts are fused together into a single resolve told in music, images and words. Between episodes, the band release previously unheard archive material, remixes and curios. The next Drift episode begins on 28 March.

It is another techno groove modified with loops and analogue noise for our pleasure. 

This Years Record 2/18

If I can name only one EP in the review of this years album than it can be only the collaboration between Underworld and Iggy Pop with Teatime Dub Encounters. They came together for the production of Trainspotting 2 and at the first time I heard about this I couldn't believe that the result would be that big. It appeals for the dancin what streams there from the boxes, bangs, floats. Then a known voice: Iggy pop tells about times in which he has consumed cocaine and cigarettes in airplanes, he can catch it even hardly, his voice overturns, leads to laughter and short circuits. It seems like the old man had real fun recording this record and looking back to an eventful life. Looking forward if he can reach this level once again.

Alone In Fear

The recent days I was informed that The  Lucid Dream, one of the leading figures in UK psychedelic from Carlisle, will release their upcoming fourth album in October. Their sound was always a mixture of Acid House, dub and cosmic Krautrock. Their new single is a techno-punk inspired little monster. Of course you can hear that they learned by Underworld's Born Slippy but you can also find elements of Primal Scream. And the singer sounds like an angry John Lydon in the days of Rise.

I'll See Big

A few days ago Swiss Adam introduced us to one of the finest and unexpected EP's this year. The collaboration between Underworld and Iggy Pop were such and outstanding release. Only four songs by Underworld's sounds with the voice of Iggy in the background. Adam said it all and this one more song that will be in my best-of list for this year. Belles & Circles are a monument of rhythm for Iggy's memories of the golden age of air travel when you're able to smoke. I'll See Big is Iggy philosophizing about friendship, girls a friendship at all in the late part of his spectacular life. Wise words from an old man and Underworld made the perfect soundtrack to his words.

God Only Knows

A few days ago T2: Trainspotting was released and also the soundtrack to this movie. It took 20 years to make a sequel of one of the best British film ever. I like Trainspotting for its genius combination of visuals and music. And the OST of it is probably the best soundtrack I've heard. Simply a perfect combination of classic songs from different decades. I am not a big fan of sequels but I want to know how the story goes on and if it is different to the novels by Irvine Welsh. The heartbeat of Trainspotting was Underworld's Born Slippy and it it hard to find another one in the sequel. Director Danny Boyle decided for Edinburghs hip-hop band Young Fathers. And it wasn't a bad decision. Not the same class as Born Slippy but a forward pushing piece of hip-hop, gospel and industrial.

16 From 2016 16/16



At the end a record by a band that was one of the reasons I turned into electronic Music. Underworld released their Barbara Barbara, We Face A Shining Future early this year and I listen often to it. And their combination of Techno/house-influenced sounds with some rock elements works well at any places I listened to it. The leading track of this record in my opinion is Low Burn a wonderful combination of a pulsive Techno and ambient sounds.

 

I Exhale

Underworld are back with a new record. Their new single is one more a mumbled speaking/singing voices with big chants over a fundament of post-punk, industrial and trance. Not a bad way to start into the new week.