Underworldlive version 3.0 thread

[BeautifulBurnout]

In fact - I may be a n00b but I am a l33t touch-typist and decided to retype word for word, comma for comma, this piece and post it here because I am aware that it may not be on the site come tomorrow or Monday and it would be a shame for Dirts who don't log on over the weekend to miss it. So here goes (in 2 parts):

In the World of P & P - Is it just me but has anyone else felt a strange disparity between what we know or believe to be the truth & what we read in the news? Ouch! - I'm not turning capitol 'P' political on you - no - rather I was was thinking in this instance about the way in which Mr S & Mr H are often portrayed, that the truth is often quite different & is in fact more interesting than we might at first be lead to believe.
Now please don't for one moment suspect me of ingratitude for the support the duo & team have been shown all over the World this year. Indeed the praise & enthusiasm with which the latest physical release has been received has been deeply inspiring, humbling & a real smile


Yet are we to believe -
that the impish fellow really does all that the press
would lead us to believe he does? Is it all so simple or is the picture
much richer & far more interesting?


OK, so we know he wanders the streets
with his notebook and cellphone
gathering text for the boys to use in the studio & taking lo-fi snaps
for the brilliant (but often overlooked) John Warwicker to curate
into beautiful artworks far richer than the raw photographs themselves.
And what of the text?
Where did the idea come from?
We've heard about Sam Shepard and Lou Reed but let's just go back
for a moment to the end of the 80s when UW MKII collapsed
& Rick (left alone with the responsibility of clearing the band's debts
& salvaging what he could make of the original studio)
decided he wanted to make music for the dancefloor & set about looking for
a DJ to work with. We all know he found someone & what happened next,
but what we con't hear is how it was he who told Karl that he would have to
radically change the way he wrote words so that they didn't have to
keep waiting for him to finish the lyrics in order to finish a track.
And are we to believe that the conversation finished there – that he had
no further influence on the way text was gathered, sung and recorded?
Or that such influence doesn't continue up until this very moment?

[BeautifulBurnout]

Live
We've seen the live shows & jammed with the boys on stage – riding waves
of energy exchanged between us all. Transported by the music the grooves
& the performance to places that have left us sweaty and smiling.
Yet, after such nights when we read the reviews the following day
don't we think it more than a little strange that the imp gets pretty much all
the attention & Rick gets little more than a passing line – tagged onto
“...and Darren”. Who do we imagine is the backbone, the core, the inspiration,
the producer & director of these celebrations – these expressions of joy?
Surely our lad with the groovy moves can't be conjuring such magic
by wiggling hhis glitter trainers & if we're to believe he's out on the streets
writing it all down & snapping away like Daido Moriyama on speed
then who is taking responsibility for everything else?
The boys tell us the gigs aren't programmed, that they're live & that there are
real instruments up there on stage, so who's playing them, who thought of them,
developed them & keeps moving everything forward – year after year?
D'you see where I'm going with this?


And who do we imagine
drives the web site, the radio shows, the tv shows,
the events, the productions, the photographs, the interactive projects,
the live recordings, the filmings, the videos, the mastering, the Abbey Road
recording sessions, the working with other artists. Who do we imagine
'makes' the records the boys put out? Who is at the core keeping everything
moving on from stagnating?


And if Karl is into Lo-Fi photography
then who is it that takes all thos beautiful hi-def images we see
on the web site every day? The brilliant 'mastering' series, the nature images,
the macro images, the plug-holes and bead-curtains (darn I wish I had an eye
that could've seen that bead curtain in that way...I was truly jealous),
& dogs & ponies & painted castles?
Who stood at one've the more dangerous crossroads in San Francisco
making street recording to upload to the site & continues to do that
night after night from cities all over the world? Who is it who updates
the whole of the web site week after week well into the wee hours
long after most of us here at Uwlive after slipped off to bed?
Well, I'm guessing here, but I'm going to take a wild stab & say
I bet it's not Karl.


There's more
much more dear brothers & sisters
The story goes on & is much richer than even I have intimated here,
yet somehow, for some reason, whenever its told it gets neatened up
& the core gets cut out. Yes there's much more to tell


But it's late
& I must sleep
whilst somewhere not far from here
Some one who gets virtually no recognition
will be working through the night again
because he sees a way to inspire us

Awesome stuff indeed.

[The359]

To those of us who love the work of Underworld, the union of Rick and Karl, we know very well that they are literally one foot in front of the other, repeating, necessary for "Underworld" to be "Underworld". Rick and Karl, you are both loved for your abilities not only on your own, but your ability to play off of each other so well.

[stimpee]

The original image is here

[aNt]

my account online...

[lloyd]

I love the EPK vid
Great work.

[lloyd]

woeps, double post.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by juanitanyc

Rick needs a pair of glitter trainers too

I think the fact that he's not wearing any makes him more genious

[Lx_Nen]

I'm glad BeautifulBurnout posted that here, because I felt that it needed to be on the fourm and was going to type it out if it hadn't been done already.

I've always been interested in the process behind the work, but we don't often get to see what's behind the curtain. I've never really known if that's because journalists don't get told any of it, or because they don't write about it when they do get told.

It's easy to assume that Mr S makes a melody, LeDarrenDeJour sticks a kickdum under it then Mr H sings... and maybe some bands do work like that, but I doubt something as rich as Underworld's output could concievably emerge from such a linear process.

I've always wondered about division of labour within UW, and I'm glad to read that it's as complex as I'd imagined.

[BeautifulBurnout]

Originally Posted by stimpee

The original image is here

Missing the first bit though

You must have been asleep when we were discussing the pros and cons of posting the image in #rtsr