Spring time is clearly a time to be inspired by Underworld's music, as this is the third Dubhed selection that I've posted between March and May.
Having posted about their spectacular remixes of Shakespears Sister a couple of days ago, I've been digging around and dusted off seven of their remixes, for themselves and others, circa 1992 to 1995.
No request stops on this one, you're in for a long journey, 90 minutes of Karl, Rick and Darren in fine form. The opening track is the longest, at nearly 18 minutes, the closer is the shortest at 10 minutes and 1 second. And take it from me, not a second wasted along the way.
Shakespears Sister's (and/or London Records) contribution to Record Store Day 2025 was a re-release of 1992 song Black Sky on glow in the dark 12" vinyl.
Arguably the real attraction, unless you have a particular fetish for glow in the dark vinyl, was the inclusion of the contemporary Dub Extravaganza remixes by Darren Emerson and Rick Smith aka two thirds of Underworld, plus a pair of re-edits by Leo Zero.
A visualiser rather than a video has been posted for the four-minute edit of the latter
as well as the Extended Re-Edit, running at just under nine minutes.
The Underworld remixes of Black Sky were originally available on promo 12" single only, which frankly I couldn't get a sniff of back in 1992. Both got a commercial release, but as bonus tracks on two separate single releases.
The vocal-heavy Dub Extravaganza Part 1 was renamed The Green Eyed Dub and featured on the UK CD single of Goodbye Cruel World, clocking in just shy of six minutes. All ten and a half minutes of Dub Extravaganza Part 2 was one of three remixes bolstering the CD package of follow up single Hello (Turn Your Radio On).
Both are deserving of the label 'epic' and Leo Zero also does a fine job with the updated re-edits.
In 2022, to mark the 30th anniversary of second album Hormonally Yours, Shakespears Sister released remastered and expanded digital versions of Stay, I Don't Care, Goodbye Cruel World, Hello (Turn Your Radio On) and Black Sky.
Black Sky offers up 10 versions for a cent under 5 Euro, including both of the Underworld remixes, five further remixes, dubs and edits by Marcella Levy and Siobhan Fahey with Alan Moulder, as well as the original album version.
There's also a live version, recorded at The Town & Country Club in London, 24th March 1992, featured on the mammoth vinyl, CD and DVD box set Our History and released on my 50th birthday in 2020. I didn't ask for it and I didn't get it and at £200+ for a pre-loved copy on Discogs, it's unlikely I ever will.
The version heading up this post is from Shakespears Sister's concert at Brighton Dome on 20th November 2019 and ample evidence of what a formidable pairing Marcy and Siobahn are, then and now.
I've cherry picked half a dozen remixes from 1993 to 2003, classics all, and generous with beats and breaks. It's impossible for me to pick a favourite from this bunch.
1) Human Behaviour (The Underworld Dub (1)): Björk (1993)
2) Harlequin - The Beauty And The Beast (Underworld Alternative): Sven Väth (1994)
3) Sunset (Bird Of Prey) (Darren Emerson Remix): Fatboy Slim ft. Jim Morrison (2000)
4) David (Darren Emerson's Underwater Remix): GusGus (2003)
5) Schmoo (Underworld Mix): Spooky ft. Heather Sian Wildman (1993)
Which, when applied to Everything But The Girl, can only result in a resounding Yes! and YES!!
I was over the moon when Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt announced on Twitter last November that they had made a new EBTG album, their first together in 24 years. Fuse will be out in April and the first single was teased yesterday.
Nothing Left To Lose is a spectacular comeback, a familiar fusion of heartache and hard beats. When Tracey comes in with the opening lines "I need a thicker skin / The pain keeps getting in", it's like meeting an old friend for the first time in a long while but feeling the hurt in that separation, as well as the joy of reuniting.
The video, directed by Charlie di Placido and choreographed by Miranda Chambers, is spectacular on an intimate level. No cameos from Tracey or Ben, but the five dancers in a cafe in the depth of night brilliantly captures the essence of the song.
I cannot wait to hear what the rest of Fuse sounds like. This promises to be no nostalgia trip but exactly how Everything But The Girl could and should sound in 2023.
Today's selection is a nostalgia trip, however, taking you back to the late 1990s and when Tracey and Ben were deeply immersed in club culture. I've avoided the obvious Todd Terry remix of Missing (Chris & James do the honours there) and gone for his rework of Wrong. You also get a healthy dose of BPMs courtesy of Darren Emerson and Peter Rauhofer as well as some pre- and post-club remixes from Brad Wood and Trevor Jackson.
The closing track is an older song, Everything But The Girl's cover of I Don't Want To Talk About It, which they released as a single in 1988, spending 9 weeks in the UK chart and reaching #3. Housemeister 69 put out a bootleg remix of the song in 2005, the same year that Virgin released the Adapt Or Die: Ten Years Of Remixes compilation. At that point, Tracey and Ben were doing their own thing - brilliantly, it has to be said - and six years on from the last EBTG album, even then the prospect of new music seemed remote.
It turns out the wait would be four times that but, if Nothing Left To Lose is anything to go by, boy is it worth it.
1) Single (Brad Wood Memphis Remix) (1996)
2) Missing (Chris & James Full On Club Mix) (1994)
Some Underworld, to help clear the Easter (egg) excess. I've been sorting out my CD collection, with a view to selling and/or donating a sizeable chunk. I've amassed quite a number of music magazine freebie and promo CDs over the years and, by default, a fair few artists are significantly represented across the various compilations.Without being a series as such, this has provided for the springboard for several upcoming selections including this one.
No surprise really to find that Underworld has frequently cropped up on music magazine promos, often end of year 'best of' collections, whether Jockey Slut, Mojo, Muzik or Select. Collecting all of the ones I had (7), I dropped a similar number of randomly picked Underworld songs into a "long list" and then compiled a (nearly) hour long selection.
In the end, only 3 magazine promo tracks made the final 8-song track list. Mo Move and Luetin are the opening and closing tracks from A Hundred Days Off, an album I don't have and am otherwise largely ignorant of. Likewise, 2019's Schiphol Test, which formed part of Underworld's ambitious Drift project, begun in 2018 and hailed both as a huge success and a stunning return to form for Karl Hyde and Rick Smith. I like the track very much but to my shame, still haven't investigated further. The full CD+Blu Ray box set is available on Discogs and will currently set you back around £100, including shipping.
The remaining songs include the only version I own of Diamond Jigsaw, which I got as a free download from the RCRD LBL website. It's an instrumental remix of the track by The Invisible aka Dave Okumu, Tom Herbert & Leo Taylor and apparently one of nine versions, including the original, featured on the album Barking, another one that I don't own.
In fact, the only Underworld album I do have is Dubnobasswithmyheadman, which was their first as a trio with Darren Emerson and a hell of a statement of intent. I've featured the downtempo Tongue here and whilst the album edit of Cowgirl was the one that featured on Muzik magazine's Best Of Dance compilation back in 1997, I went for the Irish Pub In Kyoto Mix instead, as I prefer it. Likewise, I think Darren Price's remix of Push Upstairs is superior to the Beaucoup Fish album version.
Last but not least, and second track in the selection, is Underworld's contribution to the soundtrack of 2000 film The Beach, directed by Danny Boyle and based on the novel by Alex Garland. I haven't seen the film for a long time but there's no denying that the album is a great selection of songs and artists. The Underworld track 8 Ball does not disappoint.
1) Diamond Jigsaw (The Invisible Instrumental) (2011)
Side 2 of a mixtape, cobbled together in 1999, and capturing my love of rolling beats. Darren Emerson has produced a 2021 highlight with his remix of That Time Of Night by GLOK, which got me digging back into his excellent remixes from the late 1990s, presaging his departure from Underworld at the start of the 21st century. This was jumping on point for today's selection.
This selection opens with Ben Watkins aka Juno Reactor, with a single that I was surprised to discover actually made it to #45 in the UK singles chart back in February 1997. This song particularly appealed to me at the time as it sampled Watkins' previous band Sunsonic, who I also loved. The song in question, Kind Of Loving, only made it #83 when it was released in May 1990.
I won't pretend that I was a huge fan of Sasha at the time, although I vaguely recall seeing him DJ once at Renaissance at The Conservatory in Derby around 1994. However, I really liked his remix of Talk To Me by Hysterix and his own single Magic featuring Sam Mollison (a #32 UK hit single, no less).
By the 1992, Thompson Twins were finally down to the core duo of Tom Bailey & Alannah Currie and had 'gone dance'; the following year, they had teamed up with Keith Fearnley to become Babble. The Saint (#53 in January 1992) isn't bad, but I think I would have bought the single more for the David Morales mixes, which elevate the song considerably.
I love Everything But The Girl and Walking Wounded was a revelatory album when it came out in 1996. Before Today must have been the third or fourth single, managing a respectable #25 in March 1997. Darren Emerson did a couple of mixes and this is the best of the two, even at nearly 10 minutes, feeling too short.
Go was Moby's global Twin Peaks-sampling smash, hitting #10 in the UK in July 1991. This remix, under his Barracuda alias, appeared in 1992 on The Ultimate Go EP, which I got a few years later on a German import CD single.
Age Of Love by Age Of Love first came out in 1990 but I don't think I would have become aware of it until I heard the Jam & Spoon remix around 1992. It eventually became a hit single in the UK in July 1997, peaking at #17, and has been remixed and re-released numerous times since. This version dates back to the original Belgian release and, at only a smidge over 5 minutes, feels like it should go on for at least twice as long.
1) Jungle High (Original Mix): Juno Reactor (1997)
2) Magic (Sasha's Voodoo Dub): Sasha ft. Sam Mollison (1994)
3) The Saint (8th Street Dub) (Remix By David Morales): Thompson Twins (1992)
4) Before Today (Darren Emerson Underwater Remix 1): Everything But The Girl (1997)
5) Go (Barracuda Mix): Moby (1992)
6) The Age Of Love (Boeing Mix By Roger Samijn): The Age Of Love (1990)
Side 1 of a mixtape, originally compiled 10th August 1994 and featuring remixes of Sparks, One Dove and Flowered Up. All three were purchased on 12" vinyl during a brief period living in Derby. My main job during this time was working a 2-10pm shift in the distribution warehouse at Joseph Mason Paints, co-ordinating the cross-country delivery runs. Crappy job and hours, but it did mean that after-work clubbing was a regular thing and I had cash to squeeze more vinyl & CDs into my pokey, damp bedsit.
There were loads of great record shops in Derby city centre at the time. The only name that I recall with any real clarity was Way Ahead, but I can at least remember that I didn't get any of these 12" singles from there. The Sparks one was a surprise discovery at the time as I'd kind of lost touch with their output in the 1980s and suddenly, here was this 2-track 12" with remixes from the Finitribe stable. I bought it without having heard it, confident that it would be great and I was right. Similarly, the limited edition remix 12" of One Dove was a must buy as soon as I saw it. Secret Knowledge aka Kris Needs delivered the A side, following a brace of epic remixes of previous single Breakdown, but the Underworld remix on the flip is even better, nearly 15 minutes of rolling beats and increasingly urgent synths. And what better way to finish Side 1 than the second of two epic remixes from the Weatherall's Weekender 12" by Flowered Up? Nearly three decades on, this sequence of music gives me a thrill and takes me back to the happy moments in Derby, listening to these before going clubbing, or through headphones whilst out and about, shaking off a heavy one or rekindling the vibe of the night before.
1) National Crime Awareness Week (13 Minutes In Heaven) (Remix By Finiflex aka John Vick & Fred Parsons): Sparks (1993)
2) Why Don't You Take Me (Underworld Up 2 Down Remix): One Dove (1993)
3) Weekender (Audrey Is A Little Bit More Partial Mix By The Sabres Of Paradise aka Andrew Weatherall, Jagz Kooner & Gary Burns): Flowered Up (1992)
