http://www.side-line.com/news_comments.php?id=43573_0_2_0_C
sounds like a good time
Sounds like a good combination. I love Underworld. Still need to see them live someday.
It’ll be either absolutely splendid or a huge disaster.
Eno released what is arguably the prototypical ambient album (Music for Airports) after producing one year earlier what I consider the finest album of the '70s (Bowie’s Low). So no worries there.
Underworld also released what I consider the best full-length “techno” album ever with Dubnobasswithmyheadman in '93 but they’ve been slowly running out of energy and inspiration ever since (IMHO).
The most infuriating about UW is how they seem to be harbor so much disdain for their fans—they’ve basically ignored their huge backcatalogue for years, released exhorbitantly overpriced “limited” CDs at certain gigs, and in general acted quite uppity for no good reason.
For example, I and many others would have gladly bought “Footwear Repairs…” had it ever been released on DVD but have instead had to resort to poor quality unofficial VHS–>DVD transfers. Hmmm, just ICYDFLSU huh?
Rick & Karl’s disregard for their earlier work (Freur all the way up through basically the '92-'93 material) might only be exceeded by Uncle Al’s disdain towards his 80s work.
P.S. One REALLY obscure Freur track from '85ish, Alabaster White Thing, might be the finest slice of ambient music I’ve EVER heard (and I’m not a big ambient fan). If this collab with Eno comes anywhere close to it, I’ll shit myself.
Underworld also released what I consider the best full-length “techno” album ever with Dubnobasswithmyheadman in '93 but they’ve been slowly running out of energy and inspiration ever since (IMHO).
Agreed. That album is killer.
I think their DJ’s arrival and subsequent departure had alot to do with their brief period of genius
Rick & Karl’s disregard for their earlier work (Freur all the way up through basically the '92-'93 material) might only be exceeded by Uncle Al’s disdain towards his 80s work.
P.S. One REALLY obscure Freur track from '85ish, Alabaster White Thing, might be the finest slice of ambient music I’ve EVER heard (and I’m not a big ambient fan). If this collab with Eno comes anywhere close to it, I’ll shit myself.
my mate produced and recorded Freur, as well as playing bass for them and underworld on tour. don’t know if he did Alabaster White Thing, but i’ll ask him in a minute.
Very cool, much obliged for whatever info you can provide. So I assume your mate filled in for Alfie and or Baz? Any good stories he’d care to share with the board?
I don’t know what it is, but I really think that a great deal of the Freur material is quite superb (especially from the seldom-seen 2nd album & the Transmutations soundtrack) but gets overlooked by 99% of the “new” UW fans. They’re too busy laughing at the band’s hairstyles, clothing etc. Much of Freur’s material was very ahead of its time and even some of the UW mk1 stuff is rather enjoyable, considering what it is (a late 80s synth funk-rock guilty pleasure).
I think Alabaster White Thing was posted a few years ago by UW on their Underworldlive page for a day or so and/or played on UW Radio. I of course missed it there and its subsequent re-posting by some dirty.org members on a few file sharing sites. A search for it just last night turned up nothing except for sale on a couple dodgy Russian online mp3 stores.
Very cool, much obliged for whatever info you can provide. So I assume your mate filled in for Alfie and or Baz? Any good stories he’d care to share with the board?
I don’t know what it is, but I really think that a great deal of the Freur material is quite superb (especially from the seldom-seen 2nd album & the Transmutations soundtrack) but gets overlooked by 99% of the “new” UW fans. They’re too busy laughing at the band’s hairstyles, clothing etc. Much of Freur’s material was very ahead of its time and even some of the UW mk1 stuff is rather enjoyable, considering what it is (a late 80s synth funk-rock guilty pleasure).
I think Alabaster White Thing was posted a few years ago by UW on their Underworldlive page for a day or so and/or played on UW Radio. I of course missed it there and its subsequent re-posting by some dirty.org members on a few file sharing sites. A search for it just last night turned up nothing except for sale on a couple dodgy Russian online mp3 stores.
i forgot alex is on holiday in france till monday, so i’ll ask him when he gets back. he’s old mates with both karl and rick from back when they were based in cardiff. i know he still gets roytalties from ‘doot doot’ (primarily because of vanilla sky i think). i think the last time he played with them was the '97 tour.
Never really a fan of Underworld.
Back in the day I was obsessed with the Detroit pioneers Derrick May, Robert Hood, Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson and of course Mad Mike Banks and the Underground Resistance crew. Infact I still am obsessed with those guys although I buy very little Techno nowadays. For me nothing touched Robert Hood’s legendary 93 album “Minimal Nation” when it comes to techno albums.
I imagine this new Underworld record should be pretty good though considering the experience of Underworld and Eno.
Bomb The Bass realeased a new album not too long ago which was fucking awesome so I won’t be surprised if this new Underworld has the goods too.
The '97 tour? By that point UW was fully immersed in the electronic thing with Darren Emmerson as DJ, with just Karl’s guitar playing remaining from the old days. By '97 they were the “next big thing” after the smashing sucess of the Trainspotting soundtrack and Born Slippy Nuxx from that film and also their 2nd Toughest album the previous year.
The last known instance of them playing any of the old Freur/ “rock” Underworld material was in late '91 in an interesting jazzy live performance in Hamburg that has turned up a few times online. They were in the process of transitioning from a “band” to an electronic act but they did play Doot Doot one final time at least at that particular 1991 gig. I think their final full tour was opening for the Eurythmics on their farewell tour in 1989-1990ish.
Also, FWIW, your mate should be getting a few more quid from Doot Doot royalties, as the song has been featured pretty prominently (in addition to the Vanilla Sky appearance) in an metaphysical (for lack of a better term) ad campaign for the new Palm Pre smartphone on Sprint that just started about 2 months ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSMj5RoYdEI&feature=player_embedded
So tell him to make sure no one’s robbing him of any royalties on that one!
The '97 tour? By that point UW was fully immersed in the electronic thing with Darren Emmerson as DJ, with just Karl’s guitar playing remaining from the old days. By '97 they were the “next big thing” after the smashing sucess of the Trainspotting soundtrack and Born Slippy Nuxx from that film and also their 2nd Toughest album the previous year.
The last known instance of them playing any of the old Freur/ “rock” Underworld material was in late '91 in an interesting jazzy live performance in Hamburg that has turned up a few times online. They were in the process of transitioning from a “band” to an electronic act but they did play Doot Doot one final time at least at that particular 1991 gig. I think their final full tour was opening for the Eurythmics on their farewell tour in 1989-1990ish.
Also, FWIW, your mate should be getting a few more quid from Doot Doot royalties, as the song has been featured pretty prominently (in addition to the Vanilla Sky appearance) in an metaphysical (for lack of a better term) ad campaign for the new Palm Pre smartphone on Sprint that just started about 2 months ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSMj5RoYdEI&feature=player_embedded
So tell him to make sure no one’s robbing him of any royalties on that one!
it may have been '96, alex can be a bit flakey about stuff like that. he may have done the hamburg stuff, but he said the last time he toured with them was just before born slippy. but from what i understand it was proper underworld, not freur i.e. they just played underworld tunes. he’s not too fussed on collecting royalties either, i’ve bugged him about it loads of times - he didn’t even know which film it was featured in lol. i still need to lend him the dvd. in my job, i also deal with underworld in another not so direct manner - i occasionally work with with the A&R guy from mute records who’s also in charge of Live Here Now, the guys that do the whole cd burning on the night of the gig thing. they were responsible for all those ‘limited edition’ live albums of underworld’s, and consequently i have a load of cds and a crew tshirt or two of theirs. when they played brixton last year UW had about 12 people on stage, so i know they’ve not given up on the band thing just yet!
[ he’s not too fussed on collecting royalties either, i’ve bugged him about it loads of times -
What?!
He’s mad as a cut snake!