2LP, Remastered, 180g
Not many groups achieve their biggest commercial windfall 2 decades into their career, but then again there aren’t many groups quite like Underworld at all. The story of two pop-rockers gone rave (with a DJ now in tow) made for a lovely tale that the lizard-brain brilliance of Dubnobasswithmyheadman backed was old hat by the late 90s, as was the “progressive house” sound. Indeed, the winds of dance music culture were bending back towards the rockier end of that initial explosion, and who better to stamp the beat than Underworld, who straddled both worlds from the very beginning. Their third LP Beaucoup Fish thrillingly combines the rhythmic heft and melodic instrumental interplay of their earliest phase with the hardware arsenal and dancefloor-driven acumen of what followed to make the platonic ideal electronica LP. Whether aggressively industrial (the massive ‘Shudder / King of Snake’), or oddly funky (the slinky half-speed ‘Bruce Lee’), Underworld was a class all their own in 1999.