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Underworld Information
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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 1970s.
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, and in 1983 recorded two albums for CBS Records with proto-electroclash New Romantics Freur, who renamed themselves Underworld in 1986 and tried a more guitar-oriented funky electropop sound on two albums for Sire before disbanding in 1990.
After a break (to concentrate, among other things, on 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, Underworld have produced danceable techno (including the 1996 floorfilling hit "Born Slippy", which featured in the movie Trainspotting) as a trio until Emerson left in April 2000, and as a duo since then.
The addition of Emerson completed Underworld's techno/rock fusion and seemed to moderate some of hardfloor 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, answerphone recordings and the like. Hyde had been the lead singer in Underworld Mk. I but the original Hyde/Smith dance material was lyric-free as was most of the electronic music emerging from the aftermath of acid house.
After the release of Beaucoup Fish in 1998, 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 point where they were acceptable to all three.
Despite these problems, Underworld embarked on a spirited and well-received tour which resulted in a live CD and DVD drawn from several dates on the tour. Called Everything, Everything, the project was said to capture the live Underworld very faithfully.
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 dubbed the project Underworld Mk. III and recorded a new album, A Hundred Days Off, which was released to general approval. In early 2005, after much rumor, Underworld announced that the group had became a trio again - this time joined by Darren Price, a DJ that was well known by the band and had remixed Underworld releases in the past. Currently the trio is recording their fifth studio album.
This band has been regarded by some as one of the pioneers of the modern electronic music movement.
Discography
As "The Screen Gemz"
Singles
*I Can't Stand Cars / Teenage Teenage (1979)
As "Freur"
Albums
* Doot Doot (1983) (Reissued 1994)
* Get Us Out of Here (1985) (Remastered, reissued 1998)
* Transmutations (Underworld) (1985) (A film soundtrack)
* Live at the Marquee (1999) (Remastered)
* Dun Difrunt (1999) (Remastered)
Singles
* Doot Doot (1983)
* Matters of the Heart (1983)
* Runaway (1983)
* Riders in the Night (1984)
* The Devil and Darkness (1984)
* Look in Back for Answers (1984)
* The Piano Song (1986)
As "Underworld" (mark I, funk rock)
Albums
* Underneath the Radar (1988) #139 US
* Change the Weather (1989)
Singles
* Underneath The Radar (1988)
* Glory! Glory! (1988)
* Pray (1988)
* Show Some Emotion (1988)
* Stand Up (1989)
* Change the Weather (1989)
As "Lemon Interupt"
Singles
* Dirty / Minneapolis (1992)
* Eclipse / Bigmouth (1992)
As "Tomato featuring Underworld"
Singles
* Mother Earth / The Hump (1992)
As "Underworld" (mark II, electronic)
Albums
* Dubnobasswithmyheadman (1993) #12 UK
* Second Toughest in the Infants (1996) #9 UK
* Beaucoup Fish (1999) #3 UK, #93 US
* Everything, Everything (live) (2000) #22 UK, #192 US
Singles
* Mmm... Skyscraper I Love You (1993)
* Rez (1993)
* Spikee / Dogman Go Woof (1993)
* Dark and Long (1994)
* Dirty Epic (1994)
* Cowgirl / Rez (1994)
* Born Slippy (1995)
* Rowla (1996)
* Pearl's Girl (1996)
* Born Slippy.NUXX (1996)
* Moaner (1997)
* Push Upstairs (1999)
* Jumbo (1999)
* Shudder / King of Snake (1999)
* Bruce Lee (1999)
As Underworld (mark III, without Emerson)
Albums
* A Hundred Days Off (2002) #16 UK, #122 US
* 1992-2002 (2003) (Hits compilation)
* Back to Mine (2003) (Music which has inspired Underworld)
Singles
* Two Months Off (2002)
* Dinosaur Adventure 3D (2002)
* Born Slippy.NUXX 2003 (2003)
Online Mixes
* Lovely Broken Thing (2005)
* Pizza For Eggs (2005)
UK hit singles
* 1994 "Dark and Long" #57
* 1995 "Born Slippy" #52
* 1996 "Pearl's Girl" #24
* 1996 "Born Slippy" (re-issue) #2
* 1996 "Pearl's Girl" (re-issue) #22
* 1999 "Push Upstairs" #12
* 1999 "Jumbo" #21
* 1999 "King of Snake" #17
* 2000 "Cowgirl" #24
* 2002 "Two Months Off" #12
* 2003 "Dinosaur Adventure 3D" #34
* 2003 "Born Slippy 2003" #27
Did not have a US Top 40 single (highest position was #69 for "Stand Up" in 1989).
Singles
| 'Year' | 'Title' | 'Chart positions' | 'Album' | | US Hot 100 | US Modern Rock | US Mainstream Rock | UK | | 1989 | "Stand Up" | - | #14 | - | - | Change the Weather |
Trivia
* The post-Screen Gemz manifestation was originally designated only by an esoteric symbol (see "Doot Doot" single cover, top right), until forced to provide the "Freur" pronunciation
* Remixes in the Lemon Interupt/Steppin' Razor period included such varying acts as Shakespeare's Sister, Saint Etienne, Björk and Simply Red.
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