Best B-side?
 

What do you guys say is the best underworld b-side? i'm thinking in rock terms not dance terms.. like a track that isn't on any album and isn't a remix (though.. given some of underworld's remixes we can be a little lax here). for the heck of it i'm considering the best of an album.. so it this will be about the exposition of rare gems (riverrun counts as albums, too i guess)

Re: Best B-side?
 

So, not a song (remix) or (mix)? or just mixes by rick and karl and not third parties? and not Riverrun. ok. That narrows it down bit. Of course some b-sides are remixes but with different titles. And I guess songs included on soundtracks aren't b-sides either.

Ansum
Headset
Tiny Clicks
Like A Swimmer
Puppies
Please Help Me
Dark Train
Most Ospitable
215 Miles
Spoon Deep
Thing In A Book
Dark Hard
Burts
Minneapolis
Minneapolis Airwaves
The Hump
Eclipse
Why Why Why
Deep Arch
Oich Oich
Tin There
Cherry Pie
Mosaic

Now, which of those shouldnt be considered b-sides and should be considered remixes. You did say we can be a little lax, but does that mean Born Slippy.telematic and .NUXX get included too? But then you're left wondering whether the Cowgirl mixes by R&K should be included, and the Dirty Epic mixes...

Have I missed any?

Re: Best B-side?
 

Tough...

Though... Like A Swimmer, Please Help Me, Tiny Clicks all really stand out for me...

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Like A Swimmer should have been on AHDO, I think it would have fit perfectly.

Tracks like Dark Train and Cherry Pie have been on a few releases (even State side) so it's hard to put them in this catagory.

Re: Best B-side?
 

thing in a book.

easily.

Re: Best B-side?
 

Cherry Pie
Please Help Me
Tin There

Re: Best B-side?
 

cherry pie
oich oich
dark hard

Re: Best B-side?
 

'Deep Arch' ... brilliant.

Re: Best B-side?
 

all of them are fantastic, much more than album tracks

Re: Best B-side?
 

Tin There

Btw. Why dont make a poll?;) :D

Re: Best B-side?
 

Most Ospitable
Thing In A Book
Minneapolis
Why Why Why
Oich Oich

Re: Best B-side?
 

Yeah, and then there's the issue of Dark and Long and Pearls Girl EP tracks...are Dark Train, Tin There, Spoon Deep, and Cherry Pie, for examples, remixes of Dark and Long, Pearls Girl, Spoonman and Rowla? Well, they do sound very different...And Ansum is really an extended version of Little Speaker with som Quick Bit of Rope thrown in... ahhh, it's confusing!:o

Of these listed above, i think most are special in that they're quite adventurous in terms of melody and style. Cherry Pie and Oich Oich are good examples of the tracks evolving and picking up pace, the latter having some killer lyrics! Why Why Why and Mosiac strecth the guitar influence, which i like a lot! And heck, Like a Swimmer includes the uncharacteristic trumpet to great effect!

Shoot. If i had to pick a fave, i think "Cherry Pie", cos it takes the Rowla concept of a banging acidy track and makes it mysterious and moody!

Holden

Re: Best B-side?
 

Like a Swimmer
Tin There
TIAB

Re: Best B-side?
 

Definitely "Jam Scraper." That guitar in the intro is brilliant. But "Minneapolis" is a solid runner-up (with another terrific guitar part in the middle).

Re: Best B-side?
 

Dobropet

By far the most mental twisted track they've done. Never heard anything like before or since.

But on the more accessible tip:

Dark Train
Cherry Pie
Please Help Me

Re: Best B-side?
 

I think they should have putted Cherry Pie instead of Rowla, but it's subjective.

Re: Best B-side?
 

Amen to that.

Re: Best B-side?
 

b-sides eh?

... well

its got to be any track that wasn't released as a 'named' single...

so Dark and Long for instance is the track that was issued, the one with the vocals...ie. the 7" / halls mix, whatever was on the 'b-side' to that, whether a remix or not has to be considered as the b-side...

Thing is, these days there are no such thing's as b-sides, take Ansum for example, it was the second track on the DA3D single, a single called Dinosaur Adventure 3D, not and Ansum. But its not really a B-side because CD's don't have sides, its just a bonus track - an enticement to sell the single to fans who already have a standard version of DA3D on the album...

ahh but what about the 12" releases of DA3D you say...well, they do have sides, but Ansum, for example was never released on Vinyl, and hence wasn't really a b-side...all the b-side tracks on the DA3D release were remixes of DA3D, and can't really be classed as B-sides...they are remixes!

which takes us back to stuff like Thing in a Book...Spoon Deep etc...and tracks like Dark Train - not really b-sides - mainly bonus tracks and we all know these sound nothing like remixes, they sound like new tracks, although they are just very different versions of the originals...

so i think what we should be looking at here is what is the 'best non single released track', i.e. the tracks that don't appear as the named track on the front of the single...

for example when they released DA3D we all knew it as the DA3D single...likewise, we all say i'm after the 'pearls girl ep', or the Dark and Long Ep, or whatever, so any track that isn't the main one listed on the front of the release has to be considered as the b-side, unless is says something like 2003 remix or such like it, afterwards....

i know its a confusing matter...but when it comes it charting these things, the only track that gets mentioned is the main one, the focus of the release, and anything else is either a b-side, or more like todays CD singles, a bonus / exclusive track, which is used to sell the same material to fans, to get it into the charts...

...and in all this we're totally missing out 'unreleased' / album tracks...like Oh... which never appeared as a b-side, single or anything, but is a soundtrack album only release...

ho hum...hope that clouds the issue

Re: Best B-side?
 

i think you did a fine job explaining!:D
Moby tried his hand at explaining what the heck a B-Side is in this day and age for his "Play B-Sides" collection, and i think his definition was, in addition to the extra tracks put on singles, also the tracks deemed unuseable for the LP. Though he was certain to maintain that this didn't mean the left-out tracks were of lower quality (though i'm not sure i agreed with him in that case, but...that's another thread!:p )

I think it'd be tricky in UW's case to determine which tracks were "outtakes" from the album versus extras floating around that were never in the running for LP release, so your above-definition is just fine!

So maybe we change the name of this poll to "Fave Non LP/Non single track"?!;)

Re: Best B-side?
 

well BSS - I think you might be a bit too technical on this one...

but anyways -

Puppies
Deep Arch
Thing In A Book
Most 'Ospitable
Please Help Me

and honestly, all of the bsides off of AHDO were all class!
which is funny - as I couldn't really say that about any of their previous albums

...beacoup doesn't really 'count' as there were only two bsides/non-album tracks and one of them was (essentially) just a remix of bruce lee... although it doesn't sound like the track at all...

Re: Best B-side?
 

Though i agree that "TinyClicks", "Like a Swimmer" and "Ansum" are each beautiful/class,
i have to disagree with you when it comes to "Headset". That always seemed very under-developed to me. The warbling synth sound is interesting, but not on its own (i.e. no beats, no real baseline, to variation). And i can't say i'm a big fan of the words. Talking about fishbreath, ballpoint pen collections, and lasagna didn't impress. For a better slice of overheard citylife, may i suggest "8 Ball"

Re: Best B-side?
 

What about Carp Dreams...Koi? Which I guess is a Pearl's Girl remix, though not really...

And Oh...is 8 Ball a b-side?

Re: Best B-side?
 

Oh is taken from OST for a movie called: A Life Less Ordinary (directed by Danny Boyle)

8 Ball is taken from OST for a movie called: The Beach (directed by Danny Boyle)

8 Ball was released also as a promo on 12", on other side is Beached from Orbital.

Re: Best B-side?
 

I agree. It's the sort of track that might traumatize someone on acid .... I love it.

Lately it's been "Please Help Me" that's been lifting my spirits. 'Love the spoken word vocals in that familiar voice. Is it just me or is the drum beat from "Something Like a Momma" buried underneath all those layers? Whatever it is, it's brilliant.

Then there's "Deep Arch" - a graceful builder, eventually climbing it's way to a celestial fade out. It's a track that always pulls my heart strings. 'Till now I thought it was grossly underrated among Underworld's other works. Glad to see other fans that dig it. :cool:

Question: What about "Spikee?" Was that a single or a B-side?

Re: Best B-side?
 

Yeah, I know where they come from, just wondering how to classify them since they are not proper album tracks. Nor is Spikee for that matter...or Dogman Go Woof.

Re: Best B-side?
 

According to Big Screen Satellite's discography (the last word, really!), Spikee and Dogman Go Woof shared the A Side of the original 12". So, i guess Spikee's a single. So's Dogman.:confused: :p

Re: Best B-side?
 

Is an AA-side the same as a B-side? Or?

Re: Best B-side?
 

I'll third that. TIAB is 20 mins of pure UW bliss.

Re: Best B-side?
 

"Spikee" was a non-album single, and "Dogman Go Woof" was the B-side of that single.

Re: Best B-side?
 

What did i say, just a few posts up?:rolleyes: ;) Double A-side vinyl!

Anywaaaaay, taking a less strict def. of B-Side, i have to reconsider and say that all those 12- 20 minute tracks on the Dark and Long EP are classics. They don't make 'em like that anymore! Now they make em into 25-minute+ mixes of 6-7 tracks!

Re: Best B-side?
 

That is one track you never hear mentioned at all. For better or for worse.