UNDERWORLD, it depends upon your persuasion I suppose, is either the knicker factory in Corrie, the 2003 Vampire vs. Werewolf film starring Kate Beckinsale in a slinky catsuit, or the seminal techno/dance band you may know from their worldwide hit Born Slippy.
There feels like an almost spiritual link between these boys from Essex and the Manchester crowd.
Underworld (the band, that is) have a genesis much older than you’d think (back to 1980) and a back catalogue much wider than the ‘one hit wonders’ that tend to pervade what has become to be known as ‘EDM’ (Electronic Dance Music). Underworld’s roots are firmly grounded in guitar driven synth rock, but the genre they have created since defies easy pigeon-holing.
Contemporaries of the band are a broad and eclectic mix of artists, including Faithless, Orbital, Hybrid, The Chemical Brothers, Boards of Canada and even The Prodigy. What defines Underworld’s style is the stream of consciousness lyrics, fused to hard synth driven dance music. Across the eight studio albums, the band have produced melancholy and soulful songs, sleazy tunes, uplifting, euphoric and Balearic beats as well as the band defining tracks that get the dance floor jumping. Its not all ‘Lager Lager Lager’.
Back in January 1994, Underworld released their third Studio album, Dubnobasswithmyheadman including tracks that would appear on the celebrated Trainspotting soundtrack. Following the first two albums that were more rock driven, and a disillusioned hiatus, the third album ushered in a new band member, Darren Emerson, who brought a Dance DJ element to the duo of Karl Hyde and Rick Smith, creating a ‘Mk2’ version of the band, something more relevant and contemporary – and far more dance, techno and progressive house-themed. The album won critical acclaim from the music press, garnering positive reviews and reaching number twelve in the UK charts. Not a bad position for a dance band with what was effectively a debut album.
As part of the twenty year celebrations of the album, it has been properly re-mastered, not just warmed over with a musical filter. The original digital files were used to create fresh re-recordings. It’s like listening to something you know very well, on a set of headphones that pick out every nuance, and some you did not know existed. The reworking is a sonic masterpiece, and holds up very well as a standalone album
Manchester has quite an affinity with Underworld, when they tour the UK, the schedule always includes a nod to Mancunians who ‘get’ the music and are very knowledgeable about the catalogue of work and some of the lesser known records. Underworld also has an affinity with Manchester, always giving the city a positive name check at live events
“Manchester, We return to thee – are you ready to vibrate and get sweaty ?” Karl Hyde – Manchester Apollo 16th October 2007
Manchester also holds another affinity for Underworld who have collaborated with local Film Producer Danny Boyle on several film scores, Trainspotting, A Life Less Ordinary, The Beach, Sunshine and Trance. There feels like an almost spiritual link between these boys from Essex and the Manchester crowd.
To accompany the re-mastering of the album, Underworld decided to play out the disc, in the running order, at the Royal Festival Hall in London. This was intended to be a ‘one off gig’. It turned into a full UK and European schedule, in small and intimate venues, due to overwhelming demand. The tour has been a sell out at most venues, and recently the Hollywood Bowl was added to the schedule I managed to get to the London event and whilst the Royal Festival Hall is not a dance venue, the acoustics and atmosphere were superb. To hear tracks never played live before, and see Underworld in a stripped back, no fuss way was a real treat for the senses. 20 years and 8 albums have not dulled the precision of Rick Smith, nor the singing ability of Karl Hyde. Emerson left long ago, his replacement on stage is Darren Price, who twiddles the knobs and fixed the broken mixing desk (which caused a short interlude) in London with consummate ease.
The Manchester Gig held no expectations (we knew the set list), though I was interested to see how this would translate to a very different type of venue, a 1910 Wesleyan Chapel built in a Baroque Gothic style with standing only tickets, rather than the seated capacity at South Bank.
Illness had forced Rick Smith to miss several earlier concerts in the tour with a ‘Serious Eye Infection’. Darren Price picked up the baton to manage the set list. One might naively think that live electronic music is just a case of start and stop on each track, and whilst the music is intended to match the album closely, there is an element of mixing and control, not playing the instruments, but playing the track sequences and mixing them into a cohesive production. Underworld have always been very good live, changing track structures and incorporating live improvisations to start, end and segue tracks. This, mixed with intermittent guitar from Karl, and enthusiastic harmonica on the seldom heard ‘Bigmouth’ gives a great sense that this is a live event, not just a live rendition of a recording.
With a nod to Rick Smith, who took to mixing duties at the back of the venue, still unwell, Karl and Darren set about playing the album. Broadly this was a very effective rendition, with less sonic quality than the Royal Festival Hall gig, and far more volume. This made the experience much more gig-like and less like an exact performance of the album. Coupled with a much more dance ready audience, the atmosphere and crowd response was far better. Karl whipped the crowd into a frenzy during the more up tempo tracks, while Darren soloed the instrumental only tracks with ease, except for ‘Rez’, an encore track when the album was over, where the script was re-written. Rez went on longer than expected, with its own unexpected reprise. All excellent stuff, for which the appreciative crowd gave the trio a warm Mancunian welcome.
Whilst Underworld have been working together as a band for over 30 years in one guise or another, this concert concentrated almost exclusively on one period of time. It was never meant to be a best of concert, and as a result, some of the more obscure tracks appeared on the set list. A relatively small venue in the Albert Hall made this an intimate, emotional and atmospheric spectacle.
Chris Keller-Jackson - www.crankphoto.co.uk
