Underworld (band)

Underworld is the principal name under which British electronic music duo Karl Hyde and Rick Smith have recorded since the late 1970s.

Related Topics:
Electronic music - Karl Hyde - Rick Smith - 1970s

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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, 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.

Related Topics:
Kraftwerk - Reggae - The Screen Gemz - Cardiff Art College - 1983 - CBS Records - Electroclash - New Romantic - Freur - 1986 - Funk - Electropop - Sire - 1990

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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.

Related Topics:
Tomato - Darren Emerson - Lemon Interupt - Steppin' Razor - Techno - 1996 - Floorfilling - Trainspotting - April 2000

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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.

Related Topics:
Hardfloor - Dubnobasswithmyheadman - Found material - Acid house

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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.

Related Topics:
Beaucoup Fish - 1998 - Alcoholism

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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.

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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.

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This band has been regarded by some as one of the pioneers of the modern electronic music movement.

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