Proto Versions - Second toughest in the infants

[negative1]

well, a few people have mentioned their thoughts on the 'techno thang' demo when it came out.

there was a time when new tracks were discussed, and when they were unearthed and found, it was impressive.

now, we are spoiled, since we get a lot of them at once. kind of like what happened with dubnobasswithmyheadman deluxe.

well, after finally getting around to hearing it.... it's not bad.

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1 so its techno 'thang' and not 'thing' ... at least according to apple..

don't know if apple puts the track data in there... wonder if they did it,
or got it from underworld.

i remember there were some i typos in the tracks from dubno, don't know if the
digital files had that problem.


2 it seems this track is the basis for 'airtowel'

but in fact, if you listen a few more times... it actually has the themes and
sounds similar to 'rowla', and then 'cherry pie'...

so it might have been split out into 2 songs....

3 i haven't checked the bpm's, but it is probably closer to air towel..


anyways, as we get the rest of the demo tracks from the deluxe release,
we can see if they correspond to the album tracks...

only a few look like they match, and hopefully the last track is the
early version of 'juanita'.

later
-1

[negative1]

oh yeah, almost forgot

4) this version also has strains of 'pearls girls (tin there)' in it.

so possibly another influence?

later
-1

[negative1]

wow, is there a lot to dig into here with the new demos.


first off... rowla with lyrics?!

bloody 1 - continuation of spoonman?

d and b thing - mellow bridge song ambient

very cool so far.

later
-1

[kontakt1968]

Unwrapping and downloading now
The deluxe box does have Techno Thang not thing printed on it
the downloads are the whole lot as 192 kbps mp3s and the whole lot as 44.1 16 bit wavs
oddly BS Deep pan is tagged as deeply pizza and Pearls girl as D1 version.
Lots to enjoy....

[negative1]

the nuxx (from a1796) has different lyrics....

and love the new parts in pearls girl (version 2)..

later
-1

[Resolute]

There were a few parts of Pearls Girl 14996 I had trouble working out the lyrics for, as they didn't seem to match up entirely with any of the lyrics in Pearls Girl itself, perhaps that's where the unheard parts from Pearls Girl 2 went? I'll have to look into it.

Bloody 1 seems to be where To Dream of Love's vocals came from. They even speed up parts of Karl's vocals like they did at the end of Juanita/Kiteless/TDoL, though not with the recording of Karl naming colours.

Banstyle seems to stem from D'arbley St and one of the other demos, can't check right now.

[Billy Goat]

Rowla A1806 sounds like an early version of Something like a mama, it even has lots of "something ...." lyrics, I can't really see what it's got to do with Rowla!
I'm loving Confusion the waitress (she said) it's basically what they tend to play as the live version with the extra bits in.

The remastered normal Confusion the waitress has more of a thump to the bass which is great but Juanita seems to have lost that bass thump a bit I think?

Bing Here sounds like it's an early version of Deep Arch.

The lyric at the start of Bloody 1 that sounds a bit like Spikee lyrics (Imagine/ A 99 your time???) was also used in the early nuxx versions. I wish they had put the Glasgow version of nuxx on (still the best for me!). Would be brilliant if they released the Glasgow concert (i.e. without Pete Tong talking over the start of nuxx!).

I thought the nuxx versions would show how nuxx evolved from born slippy but I can't really see any connection between the two. It looks like nuxx has always been it's own stand alone track to me.

Overall it's good but I'm a tiny bit disappointed; I don't think it's quite as good a package as the Dubno remaster was. A full live concert recording would make me happier!

[khouri]

"Nuxx from A1825" has what sound like drum elements from "Born Slippy". I think this demo is the Born Slippy holy grail Underworld fans have always wished existed, but it really sounds like kind of a mashup remix.

[Billy Goat]

The only version of born slippy (original) that I've ever heard sound anything like nuxx is the extra track at the end of the Glasgow 94 gig (the bit after they were off the air). That sounds similar to the nuxx A1796 version but not really like any released version of born slippy! If any version is the 'holy grail' I think it's the Glasgow extra version (it just doesn't have the nuxx lyrics).

[negative1]

to me, this entire disc of tracks, although it is not necessarily what evolved into the album...

is now one of my favorite discs to listen to from them...

maybe moreso than the beacoup fish album, but not quite up to dubnobasswithmyheadman,
and river run....

it's great to hear the unreleased songs, and new takes on older songs...

later
-1