British techno duo best known for Trainspotting hit hit the road

wordplay: orangepeelmoses.com

Bar napkins.  Where would we be without ‘em?  Karl Hyde doesn’t wanna know.  Without the uber-accessible barfly parchment of choice, he might never have remembered the stream of consciousness song lyrics ultimately scribbled (in barely legible chicken scratch) on one many moons ago in London’s Soho district.  Stocking the booty call rolodex is important too, but Hyde’s writings would eventually find their way into “Born Slippy,” his techno act’s runaway breakout smash.  Where would Underworld be without the much underappreciated bar napkin?  Still slaving away in the dance music underground is where they’d be, as opposed to headlining The Fillmore on September 11th. 
    
“We used to go out drinking in Soho and ended up in the Ship on Wardour Street. All the lyrics of ‘Born Slippy’ were written on that night. A drunk sees the world in fragments and I wanted to recreate that.”

Contrary to popular belief, there’s no such thing as an overnight sensation.  “Tipping point” is much more accurate terminology for the moment when an artist or group finally appears on the pop culture radar.  When director Danny Boyle and his Trainspotting soundtrack supervisors decided, at the last minute, to license a remix of a B-side from the recently rechristened Underworld, founding members Karl Hyde and Rick Smith had been plugging away in the music industry trenches for fifteen long years already (degrading them with the one-hit wonder label for the fifteen minutes of fame that followed is an insult to everyone involved).  They’d experimented with several different names (a pre-symbol era Prince symbol [that was eventually pronounced “Freur”] and Lemon Interrupt) and sounds (new wave and industrial funk) in that time.  The biggest difference in their ultimately successful recipe was the addition of fresh new ingredient Darren Emerson a few years prior.  Emerson apparently persuaded the outfit to cater exclusively to underground electronic music fans.  Young blood certainly paid off in pounds.

Although Emerson’s influence may have been crucial in accruing recognition and praise, he has since moved on to pursue his solo DJ career.  Too bad.  His loss.  Bet he’s regretting it now.  Oblivion with Bells, Underworld’s second release sans Emerson, is expected in October.  “Big skies over Essex,” Germany’s techno scene, the Kompakt label, Mathew Jonson, recent film scoring work for Danny Boyle and Ricardo Villalobos are a few of its biggest influences.  “Nobody listens to techno,” according to Eminem, but 9/11 will see two nobodies rattle The Fillmore.

Even Underworld kingpin Beezlebub will be there.               
         
September 11th @ The Fillmore

UnderworldLive.com