Underworld and the recovered muse
04/07/2012
Translation courtesy of Google
Original:
http://www.theoploeg.net/2012/07/04/...gevonden-muze/
Looking back at my journalistic work from the past, say, twenty years. Sounds like a nice conclusion to my transition from pop journalist to curator on this blog (I wrote about that before and it should come to pass). In recent years I have spoken to Karl Hyde of Underworld a number of times. Also for OOR. Best conversation, I remember, was at Hotel Arena in Amsterdam in, I think, 2007. About Oblivion With Bells , krautrock, love for Germany and the possibilities and pitfalls of the internet.
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Not only does Underworld return to its own roots at Oblivion With Bells . On the seventh studio album, the duo also follows the current trends on the dance floor. This was preceded by a difficult and uncertain process. Karl Hyde explains: 'It is actually very simple: constantly reinventing yourself or becoming extinct. There is no middle way. "
Karl Hyde searches his things like a madman. Looking for his iPod. "I always have it with me," he mumbles, delving deeper into his bag. "Well, I believe you do," I try. Hyde is not listening. He must and will show that his mp3 player is full of kraut rock from the late 1960s and early 1970s. Can, Faust, Amon Duül, Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra Temple. The names roll like honey over Brit's tongue. He finally ends his search. "I used to listen to that music when I was a little boy. I really didn't understand it, "he continues. "Later I listened to the John Peel Show. He taught me that you do not have to be restricted by boxes between music genres. He really did everything. You thought it was crazy or you hated it. " Laughingly: "I hated Faust!" The funny thing about John Peel was that he always turned out to be right, Hyde smiles. At the end of the 1980s, the penny dropped for the first time. The Berlin duo Âme recently pulled him over again. 'A year ago I got a mix from them in which they mixed all the bands that were so incredibly non-fashionable in my youth. Faust, Neu !, Can. It sounded so fresh, so incredibly good! " For Hyde, Âme symbolizes a number of crucial developments in the landscape of pop music. "The circle is, as it were, round again."
Having a conversation with Hyde is not an easy task. He is an animated storyteller, has an icy voice and chooses his words carefully. As if he is giving a lecture. He hardly does anything about raising his voice or non-verbal communication. And so you hang on to his lips. Must be a strange sight from the outside: two men, bent close together, converse in a soft tone. As if they are plotting a plot. Intimate, that's for sure. Is the collaboration between Hyde - who turned 50 this year - and Rick Smith (48), his partner-in-crime at Underworld, going like that? Hyde who tells, Smith who listens and turns the knobs? In any case, they have been holding it up for quite some time. Since the early eighties, to be precise. The two meet at the Cardiff Art Academy. As a Freur, they make a strange mix of dub and electro to Kraftwerk. Not exactly good, but interesting. This does not apply to the first musical steps of Underworld. Or, to be precise, Underworld Mk1, which is rising from the ashes of Freur. The poppy electrorock from Underneath the Radar and Change the Weather is boring and mediocre. Underworld quits and the duo starts the graphic design and art agency Tomato. With DJ Darren Emerson they breathe new life into Underworld - Mk2, so. The result, Dubnobasswithmyheadman , is without a doubt one of the best dance albums ever. Beautiful and exciting time, Hyde emphasizes with twinkling eyes: 'Something indefinable was brewing. Nobody knew what exactly was going on, but we felt that we were right in the middle of it. Parties on the beach, in derelict sheds on the outskirts of the city. We played in the first Cocoon club in Frankfurt. An immense industrial complex. There I first heard the vocal version of mmm Skycraper I Love You in the middle of a dance set by Sven Väth. It was absolutely right. "
Then it went wrong, almost unnoticed. "We have made the underground mainstream. Suddenly what we did became part of the normal culture. The sharp edges were auctioned off and raised to standard. Rules and procedures followed. Spontaneous things were suddenly forced into a straitjacket. All life was sucked out. " Underworld does not benefit from this development. Single Born Slippery will be a big hit thanks to the film Trainspotting . Fourth album Second Toughest in the Infants a commercial success. Hyde, on the other hand, is not doing well at all. He is struggling with a persistent alcohol addiction and sees his outburst on it - Born Slippery - due to the success of Trainspotting becoming the drinking song par excellence. A tough time, confesses Hyde. He also wants to say little about it. "We had become a phenomenon and wandered further and further from the roots of dance music," it sounds measured. After the surprisingly good album Beaucoup Fish , Emerson leaves the group. Again Underworld ceases to exist. Temporary, because in 2002 the moderate A Hundred Days Off will be published . Underworld Mk3, supplemented by DJ and 3D animator Darren Price, is also unconvincing on stage. Hyde instinctively pushes his chair back, straightens his back, and says, "Thank you for your honesty." Then he leans forward again and analyzes: 'We felt locked up, isolated. We were no longer fed, you understand? Music became less and less interesting. In that time, all major super clubs disappeared. The fact that we lived in England didn't make it any better. We have tried it. Dubstep, for example. We listened to it, bought it, played it time and time again. Also in our radio shows, but it didn't affect us emotionally. " Laughing: "Some of my friends who are crazy about dubstep may not like reading that."
The rescue? Came from Germany, Hyde says with red beans. 'We heard Dominik Eulberg, Ricardo Villalobos, Mathew Jonson, music on Kompakt and Cocoon and we were completely sold. The boys did something that caused the holy fire to flare up again. They did what we once did, but in a new refreshing way. Nothing really happened in England at the time. In Germany it is. Of all places! The land of music that I listened to when I was young. This is how they actually complete the circle. Dance is back where it once started. " There was no doubt that something had to change at the start of the twenty-first century. A revolution if necessary, thinks Hyde. One in which the underground got a voice again. As was the case in the mid-nineties. Only in a contemporary way. Oblivion With Bells , again the seventh studio album, is the musical blueprint of that new era. It shows a reborn Underworld. Hyde and Smith are close to the sound of Dubnobasswith myheadman . Key words? Melancholic, dubby, introverted and surprisingly languid. Other similarities: the vocals of Hyde are again dominant and the cover is designed in the collage style with which Tomato gained fame. Differences? Are there also. The euphoric character that is so typical of Underworld in the early 1990s is missing. In addition, the album is not only slow, the speed also only exceeds 120 beats per minute. That's right, Hyde agrees. Although the pace is actually higher, he explains. 'Emotionally the songs seem a lot slower. Pure euphoria is indeed missing, but it is a very positive album. For us, it reflects a period of unprecedented freedom and happiness. Not for ourselves, but for the band. We have found our muse, the underground. "
Thanks to Âme and other German producers. But there's more. The development of the world wide web also plays a crucial role. Thanks to the internet, the music industry has lost a lot of power. 'Everyone can now release music via the internet. That gives enormous freedom, but also creates uncertainty. We were afraid of becoming irrelevant. We made comfortable music. We did not have to worry financially. That was of course important somewhere, certainly if you have to raise children and pay your mortgage. This created a field of tension. We are artistically bathed in uncertainty. It is actually very simple: you have to constantly reinvent yourself or become extinct. There is no middle way. " Thanks to the developments on the internet, Hyde and Smith had to take matters into their own hands again. After all, the music industry put the heels in the sand and tried to withstand the impending doom. 'Everything was determined in advance. The amount of artwork, how many albums had to be sold, how long a record could be. We were deprived of every freedom. Something that does not fit within the standard format was rejected. Make a record of twenty minutes? Impossible. One of four hours? Also impossible. Such processes ensure that there is no inspiration. We also did not feel comfortable with the role that had since played. We do not make pop music for the mainstream. We are outsiders, we feel comfortable with that. We prefer to be a sort of channel from underground to mainstream. After all, the pop music of allowed comes from that underground. ' And so Hyde and Smith decided to put all their money into their own record label, radio station and live performances. On the internet, that is.
(contunued in 2nd post)