Underworld - Anthology

  by Jon Rogers

published: 6 / 12 / 2003

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Review

As the latest trends in 90's dance music came and went, often with the lifespan of a butterfly, with its subdivisions and splinter groups an astoundingly silly mumble-jumble of deep-techno-acid-thrash-jungle-dub house; or whatever the style police were dictating was the fashionable thing to be seen shaking a leg to at some vastly over-priced club that week - Underworld somehow managed to stay aloof from the fickle nature of dance culture. In essence, they were one of those crossover dance acts, like Leftfield, Orbital and the Chemical Brothers, that were a certified dance outfit but also managed to appeal to the indie brigade too. The trio of Darren Emerson, Karl Hyde and Rick Smith largely gained a wider audience with their outstanding debut 'Dubnobasswithmyheadman' back in 1994, which featured the mesmeric rhythms of 'Mmm Skyscraper I Love You', complete with a surrealist stream of consciousness lyric which managed to name-check Elvis of all people. Underworld took the lush, driving rhythms of Kraftwerk and put their foot on the accelerator. Picking up the likes of Brian Eno and even New Order along the way. It seemed that they were always desperate to get to wherever they were headed. They certainly arrived when their ode to a drunken night out in Soho featured on the soundtrack to Danny Boyle's 'Trainspotting'. 'Born Slippy', with its refrain of "lager, lager, lager" at once epitomised and ridiculed the then prevalent mood of laddishness and gave them a hit record. Stripping down to a duo, the album 'A Hundred Days Off' last year also saw the single 'Two Months Off' become a hit in the Ibizan summer.All the tracks you'd expect are here - 'Dark and Long', 'Moaner' and 'Cowgirl' and although 'Anthology' doesn't paint a complete picture it does give an excellent state of play so far.

Track Listing:-

1 Bigmouth
2 Dirty
3 Mmm Skyscraper I Love You
4 Rez
5 Spikee
6 Dirty Epic
7 Dark And Long (Dark Train)
8 Cowgirl
9 Born Slippy Nuxx
10 Pearls Girl
11 Jumbo
12 Push Upstairs
13 Moaner
14 Shudder / King Of Snake
15 8 Ball
16 Two Months Off