Oblivion with a Hundred RiverRuns Off

[khouri]

Since the release of Barking I've been thinking a lot about the post-Emerson era, especially as I encounter more and more people who tuned out of Underworld after Beaucoup Fish, even when they may have loved that album quite a lot. (I chalk this up to the gap between records and the press surrounding Emerson's departure, but that's not the point of this post).

I've been remiss in maintaing my Underworld studies with the Dirties so this may be very obvious to everyone else here, but it seems to me that there is an incredibly beautiful and distinctive style that permeates basically everything Underworld did from A Hundred Days Off, the RiverRuns, Oblivion With Bells -- everything up until Barking (when the style changes dramatically), including all the film scores, demos heard on the website and on the internet broadcasts, etc. I think this period has a more developed sonic continuity than the Dubno-STITI-BF era, despite the fact that those albums are often grouped together as an era or movement. Indeed, I've found myself listening to more UW from the post-BF time frame than any other, and I'm keen to turn some of my lapsed UW fan chums onto it.

Because the very atmospheric/ambient/film score quality of a lot of this music, I've been enjoying mixing it together kind of like one of UW's radio shows. What I'd like to know is what you people think are the crucial tracks of this period. I want to get a good sense of that so I can make a killer mix that celebrates what is unfortunately regarded by many non-hardcores as a lost period in the band's history.

Here's what I've got so far, in the order I'm mixing (trying to do more or less chronological). I'm sure I'm leaving stuff out, especially from the RiverRuns, so please chime in.

- Ansum
- Mo Move Jam
- Luetin
- Trim Jam
- Twist (Live)
- Two Months Off
- Monkey Wink
- Always Loved A Film (one of the radio ones we heard)
- Small Conker and a Twix (aka Trey's Fate)
- You Do Scribble
- Billy Goat
- Peach Tree
- Play Pig
- Crocodile
- Beautiful Burnout
- Mercury
- Faxed Invitation
- To Heal (and to Restore)
- Glam Bucket (Live)

I've also thrown in bits of vocals and atmospherics from the radio broadcasts here and there as connective tissue.