Underworld
Everything, Everything
[JBO/V2]
Rating: 7.7
The members of Underworld are smart, savvy lads. They've worked on solving
the difficulties inherent in performing techno live. Or performing techno
live at arenas or festivals, anyway. The first time I saw the band play out,
just before Dubnobasswithmyheadman was released, was at a twisted
club called the Soundshaft, which adjoined the famous London boite, Heaven.
That night (a Good Friday, I almost recall), the owners of the two clubs
opened up the doors that partitioned the very different styles. The
Soundshaft Drum Club techno massive shimmied and sashayed with the amyl
house of Heaven. After a few hours of DJ sets, a band took the small,
almost ad hoc stage, and stylistic divisions in the area immediately
vanished.
Underworld, for it was they, performed extended versions of songs off
Dubnobasswithmyheadman, liquidly morphing from "Mmm Skyscraper,
I Love You" and "Rez" to "Cowgirl" and "Dirty Epic." I didn't know any
of these classics at the time, but after a two-hour set and having been
a part of the euphoria this band concocted, they became my most precious
band.
And rarely have they, in the years since that club gig, disappointed. I
saw them perform before Second Toughest in the Infants saw
release. Their set at the mid-sized Astoria mixed the familiar sounds
of Dubno with the breakbeats the band had been experimenting with for
the album. That set sounded like evolution, and the audience participated
in the rolling out of the new style Underworld.
Everything, Everything documents the live stage that followed
breakbeat Underworld. Beaucoup Fish hinted at trance and electro,
but depicted a more melancholy Underworld. Beaucoup Fish
recapitulated the styles of its predecessors but struck them through
with a palpable mourning. That Darren Emerson-- the member who took
them from third on the bill opening for the Eurythmics to dance music
icons-- would leave the band after that album, and their largest U.S.
reception to date makes it all the more poignant.
Though Everything, Everything is unquestionably a swan song for
the Emerson years, it's far from a mopey affair. In fact, it tackles
early tracks like "Rez" and "Cowgirl," and pumps them up with megawatt
power. It also serves as a greatest hits package, including their most
famed numbers, "Pearl's Girl" and "Push Upstairs," among others.
Vocalist Karl Hyde predictably reserves his loudest delivery for the
"Shouting Lager! Lager! Lager!" line in the 12-minute, bone-buckling
rendition of "Born Slippy Nuxx." But as with all live albums, one
misses the being-there. Sure, Everything, Everything documents
the crowd's loopy joy when the piano vamps of "King of Snake" break
though the filthy Giorgio Moroder-inspired bass line. But we miss the
visuals.
The sine qua non component of Underworld is Tomato, the experimental
graphic design firm of which Hyde and Smith are members. The cut-up,
scraggly, ugly beauty of Tomato's type solutions are matched and
amplified in Hyde's Byron Gisin-ish lyrics (e.g. "Got my 501s freeze-
dried with a new religion"). Underworld are aware of the significant
piece missing from Everything, Everything and will soon release
a DVD version, which will insert Tomato into the live document. Looks
like these lads really have thought of everything.
-Paul Cooper