Send "Underworld Anthology " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 Even when Underworld weren't big, they always aimed at being huge. I don't just mean the widescreen progressive house they made, two decades of which are collected on the 25 tracks of the new Anthology, but their brand of not-quite-trance/not-quite-techno floor-fillers were indeed self-consciously epic and transportive. Following the late-1980s acid-house revelation that turned so many UK synth-pop also-rans into DJ kings, Underworld came to specialize in the kind of dance music that felt constrained in a tiny club space, records with enough space and depth to lose yourself in the swirl and flow, whether you were standing in a festival field surrounded by thousands of other bodies or strapped into a pair of headphones on your lonesome.Underworld had a live rock band's feel for pacing and drama, but were born-again house music evangelists, through and through. "Dark and Long (Dark Train)" was the structuring principle for music of their peak music, as well as the title of one of their deepest, moodiest cuts. Despite Karl Hyde's nagging half-spoken and half-sung mantras, Underworld never really flirted with "songwriting." Though his fragmentary, pre-millennium tension babble could be equally silly, Hyde wasn't the grimacing focal point of Underworld, as the two MCs were in the Prodigy. Even when they were stars, taking to festival stages rather than DJ booths, Underworld never tried to be personalities, letting DJ culture continue to dictate the shape and force and presentation of their music. Unlike unrepentant hookmeister Norman Cook, Underworld also didn't go for big-stoopid-chorus and earworm-loop immediacy, even when forced to shave their singles down to broadcast length. They simply attempted to recreate the peaks-and-valleys of a club cut in miniature. "Born Slippy .NUXX" may be more head-wrecking at its proper length, but the video version was like a hyper-condensed advert for the same effect, angelic intro giving way to massive hard house drums that are the song's real hook....full text |
| Cookingvinyl |
| head of a flurry of activity in 2012 to mark the twentieth anniversary of their first proper single release, Underworld announce the release of two compilations of singles, rarities and collaborations. Firstly, the band have revisited the 1992-2002 anthology and refreshed it with more material to go some way to complete the picture of the first two decades of Underworld in a 3-disc set. Since releasing ‘Barking’ late in 2010, Rick Smith and Karl Hyde have toured extensively across the globe. Their last UK show was a sold out headline gig on Clapham Common. They have also sound-tracked Danny Boyle’s hugely acclaimed award-winning production of Nick Dear’s Frankenstein at the National Theatre....full text |
| Mezzic |
| When Underworld released their initial Anthology in 2002, ten years after their first album as an experimental dance act, they probably felt it was apt to wrap up what was in a sense the end of one era and the beginning of another. The young DJ, Darren Emerson, who many believed had transformed the duo from their big hair, synth-pop, euro roots of the 1980s into what became the most cutting edge experimental electronic group of the 90s, had just broke from the group to pursue his own DJ career; for many the game was up. The core duo of Karl Hyde and Rick Smith were given little chance of recreating the sort of ground-breaking sound that they had achieved in the 90s, eyes and ears started looking back to their big hair days in bands like Freuer (with hits like “Doot Doot”) and the first incarnation of Underworld (With a little more attitude and a lot less hair, in songs like “Underneath the Radar” from 1988). How wrong they were. Ten years later they are not only were they recently named in MixMag’s top 20 greatest dance acts of all time (No. 7) but are now musical directors of the 2012 London Olympics Opening Ceremony. Not bad! In an interview with Billboard in 2002 concerning their current album A Hundred Days Off Hyde set out what would define the next era of Underworld: “My hero Miles Davis once said that in order to remain vital and progress as an artist, you have to destroy the past,” Hyde continues. “This record is our new beginning. We’ve matured, both personally and professionally. We’ve stopped chasing the charts and album sales figures in order to focus on creating an album that was much more diverse and inclusive of the various musical mediums we find interesting, relevant, and viable.” This “new beginning” would have the duo create more challenging and introspective works like A Hundred Days Off (2002) and Oblivion With Bells (2007) while also focussing on new mediums and platforms for their music, releasing some collections like The Riverrun Series (2005-2006) exclusively through their website underworldlive.com. On top of this the duo would also expand their sound by creating unique and engaging soundtracks for films like Anthony Minghella’s Breaking and Entering (2006, with Gabriel Yared), Danny Boyle’s Sunshine (2008, with John Murphy) and even most recently for Boyle’s acclaimed stage production of Frankenstein (2011). They returned emphatically to the limelight with 2010′s Barking arguably their most commercial album to date and one which reminded all those sceptics in at the start of the naughties that Underworld was very much alive and more creative and dynamic than ever. This time around the release is two fold. On the one hand there is the comprehensive Anthology that brings together a broad range of Underworld’s musical highlights, from 1992′s Dubnobasswithmyheadman right up to Barking in 2010. On top of that they have included a third CD featuring some of the lesser known but much loved B-Sides and rarities (This is where you get more than your moneys worth). On the other hand they have also released A Collection which is exactly that, one assortment of tracks from their back catalogue that attempts to introduce the new listener to their sound, in short but powerful musical stabs. This is also where Underworld’s more recent foray into the mainstream is most apparent, rich with their recent collaborations and the radio-edits of all their big hits – essentially if you want it short and sweet this is the way to go....full text |
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