Underworld
Over the last two decades the face of dance music has changed more than any other genre of music, as trend replaces trend and scenes disappear as quickly as they arrive, one name has remained at the forefront as a shining beacon that guarantees quality, intelligence and damn fine tunes. Bestival are proud to announce that headlining our main stage on Sunday Night will be legendary techno godfathers, Underworld.
Meeting at art college way back in 1983 Rick Smith and Karl Hyde bonded over a love of the new wave sounds of the time and over the next few years produced all manner different musical excursions, under a host of monikers before being introduced to a young DJ/Producer by the name of Darren Emerson.
What followed were a handful of low-key releases and remixes as Steppin Razor and Lemon Interrupt before they settled upon Underworld, a name that Smith and Hyde had previously used years before in an experimental electropop outfit.
The band s debut album dubnobasswithmyheadman was a revelation among critics and clubbers alike, taking techno, trance and breakbeat sensibilities and blending them with Hyde's delicate conversational lyrics to create something truly unique. It also produced one of the defining single releases in dance culture history with the double A side release of Cowgirl and the barnstorming Rez.
Underworld's second album Second Toughest In The Infants was met with equal acclaim but it would take a visit to the cinema in the summer of 1996 for the band to truly explode into the nation's consciousness. The climactic scene of the decade's defining film saw a young Scottish ex-drug addict finally beat his demons and stride off into the sunset carried along by a pounding rhythm that dropped into THAT awe inspiring riff. Originally just a B side and not even on the first pressings of the album Born Slippy became a phenomenon and established Underworld as heavyweights in the world of electronica.
By the time that third album Beaucoup Fish was released in 1999, Underworld were playing the largest stages around the world and had redefined dance music as a live art form.
Shortly after the release of live album Everything Everything Darren Emerson parted company with the group and fans waited with baited breath to see what the now duo would achieve. Of course no one need have worried as A Hundred Days Off turned out to be one of their strongest releases to date, which brings us neatly to their new album, Oblivion With Bells, released last autumn and largely hailed as their finest work to date.
An album full of lucious strings, synth swathes and cinematic beauty carried along by Hyde's rambling jaunts off into the ether, it is a much a statement of the state of the world that we live in as it is a classic collection of genre busting dance music.
Live, the boys continue to be as dynamic and original as ever, pushing the envelope of what it is possible to achieve with their breathtaking live show and what better way to bring another wondrous Bestival adventure to a close than in the company of greatness.
www.underworldlive.com
www.myspace.com/underworld
Photo: perou.co.uk