Darren Emerson's role in Underworld

[King of Snake]

Marr, I think the way you describe it now is actually pretty accurate. Yes, Rick and Karl were already experimenting with electronic/techno sounds when Darren Emerson joined. I think it's impossible to say with which elements Darren Influenced Rick, but you can sort of tell from their backgrounds. Darren was a young DJ who knew what worked on the dancefloor, but he was not a musician (I vaguely recall an interview where it was mentioned that he didn't know one end of a keyboard from another), while Rick (and Karl) had been playing music for a long time already and could play their instruments (keyboards, guitar, vocals).

Rick was and is definitely the main production force behind the band, and it's quite understandable that Emerson at one point wanted to break away from this and do his own thing. With Price I guess it's a bit different because he's already a succesfull DJ and producer in his own right.