Underworld - dubnobasswithmyheadman

Underworld are my favourite electronic music group, and quite possibly my favourite band ever. The way they subvert practically everything, all while making music which is so catchy, memorable and danceable, is something I have not seen in any other band. Also, they make a lot of non-album stuff. Their first album of their electronic era, dubnobasswithmyheadman, is an astounding piece of work, and even though it only contains nine songs, there is an extraordinary array of stylings on display between them. One other extraordinary thing about this album is the amount of B-sides from it, because holy hell there's a lot of them. Let me show you.

Before we begin, it's worth mentioning that Underworld have done their own collecting of B-sides in the form of a "Super Deluxe Edition", released on the 20th anniversary of the album in 2014. However, this hasn't done a perfect job of collecting all of them, so this is my own version.

Firstly, it should be noted that this isn't Underworld's first album. Before they were the electronic masters we regard them as today, they were an 80s rock band. But with their fortunes not improving by the end of the decade, the band broke up. Two members, Rick Smith and Karl Hyde, decided to make music again in 1992, with Smith's young friend Darren Emerson, who was a DJ and avid techno fan. Their first work was a single they sold out the back of their car: "Mother Earth" / "The Hump", which was released under the Underworld name. After this, they got signed to Junior Boy's Own and began releasing music under the name 'Lemon Interupt' [sic], which produced two singles: "Eclipse" / "Bigmouth" and "Dirty" / "Minniapolis" [sic]. Now, my general rule of thumb with different aliases is to not include them, but given this period was a precursor to dubnobass and the music from it has since been claimed rightfully as Underworld material ("Bigmouth" and "Dirty" have appeared on Underworld retrospective compilations, almost all of the content of these singles were included on the aforementioned Super Deluxe Edition, and Underworld have done "Bigmouth" live occasionally in the decades since), they'll stay. The one other thing to mention is a white label release, the last of the Lemon Interupt singles, which contained "Dirty Guitar", a remix of "Dirty". This will also be included. And, just to tie these works to the album even more, "Mother Earth" was sequenced as the last track on dubnobass as "M.E.", and album track "Dirty Epic" is a remix of "Dirty". I'd say that's pretty clear evidence that this lot is connected to this album.

CD 2: 1992 (Lemon Interupt singles)

No.	Title	Original release	Length
1	Mother Earth (or M.E., as it's known on the album; FM Mix)	"Mother Earth" / "The Hump" single, 1992	5:45
2	The Hump (Wild Beasts)		6:25
3	The Hump (Groove Without a Doubt)		8:54
4	Eclipse	"Eclipse" / "Bigmouth" Lemon Interupt single, 1992	13:00
5	Bigmouth		10:08
6	Dirty	"Dirty" / "Minniapolis" Lemon Interupt single, 1992	6:36
7	Minniapolis		10:05
8	Minniapolis Airwaves		3:05
9	Dirty Guitar	"Dirty Guitar" Lemon Interupt white label, 1992	10:00
			78:37

After Lemon Interupt, the trio decided to permanently re-adopt the Underworld name. Their first single was the thirteen-minute epic "Mmm… Skyscraper, I Love You", which featured on this album. The single also featured two remixes of the track. After this, the band released one of their best-known songs, "Rez", backed by "Cowgirl", the latter of which would appear on this album. "Cowgirl" was released as a single in its own right in the States in 1994, featuring two additional remixes of the track. The single version of "Cowgirl" is slightly different to the album version, and so will be included in our disc (although the single version is confusingly called the "Album version" despite not actually being the version present on the album). And just a month before the release of dubnobass, Underworld released one more non-album single, "Spikee" / "Dogman Go Woof".

CD 3: 1993/4 (Underworld singles)

No.	Title	Original release	Length
1	Mmm… Skyscraper, I Love You (Telegraph 16.11.92)	"Mmm… Skyscraper, I Love You" single, 1993	7:09
2	Mmm… Skyscraper, I Love You (Jam Scraper)		9:14
3	Rez	"Rez" / "Cowgirl" single, 1993	9:57
4	Cowgirl (Album Version)		8:57
5	Cowgirl (Irish Pub in Kyoto Mix)	"Cowgirl" single, 1994	11:45
6	Cowgirl (Winjer Mix)		6:25
7	Spikee	"Spikee" / "Dogman Go Woof" single, 1993	12:33
8	Dogman Go Woof		12:15
			78:13

In 1994, Underworld released "Dark & Long" as a single from the album, and in order to compile all the 'remixes' from this one single, we have to use two CDs. Yes. You read that correctly. Two CDs for all of the self-made 'remixes' of this one song (I'm questioning the use of the world 'remixes' because despite being written that way on most of the single releases, almost all of these versions bear no resemblance to the original "Dark and Long", and are basically entirely different tracks). To some people, this is a single. To some people, because of the number of versions per disc, this is an EP. To people who actually look at the total duration of this whole fiasco, a little under two hours, it's a double album. Personally, I'm in the double album camp.

Both discs are essentially sanctioned Underworld releases: the first disc is the CD single that was released in the UK. Note that "Dark Train", the most popular track off this set (and one of the most popular Underworld songs), is about a minute shorter than its full length; this is because it segues into the following track, "Most 'Ospitable". The second CD, the rarer (and therefore more coveted) of the two, is similar to the Scandinavian CD single - although it is missing "Hall's Mix" and "Dark Train" because they're on the first disc, and adds "Second Hand", a track which originally appeared on compilation album Café Del Mar (Ibiza), and is basically a remix of "Thing in a Book", because that seemed like a suitable spot to put it.

Note: the remix titles are just going to be the titles of the songs for the sake of easy reading, and also because they're nothing like the original "Dark & Long"

CDs 4 & 5: Dark & Long

CD 4

1. "Dark & Long" (Hall's Mix) – 4:08
2. "Dark Train" – 9:51
3. "Most 'Ospitable" – 5:53
4. "215 Miles" – 20:02

40:04

CD 5

1. "Thing in a Book" – 20:14
2. "Spoon Deep" – 17:59
3. "Dark Hard" – 11:34
4. "Burts" – 8:47
5. "Second Hand" – 9:01

67:38

Now, if you're a hardcore Underworld fan, you're probably shouting at your screen "Where's "Why Why Why"!!?". The answer is, as you probably can tell, that it didn't fit on CD 3 (since the track is twelve minutes long), so it has to go on a little bonus disc of rarities. The four tracks on here are the aforementioned "Why Why Why", which was the B-side to "Rez" on its promotional pink vinyl release in 1993, "The Big Meat Show", a staple of early Underworld concerts which was eventually released on the rarities disc of the retrospective compilation 1992–2012, an extended version of "River of Bass" which was uploaded to the internet in 2008 after being found on an Underworld demo tape, and finally a 17-minute version of "Cowgirl", similar to the Irish Pub in Kyoto Mix, which was sent out on the Underworld mailing list in 2021. Now since there's plenty of room left on this CD, the rest is up to your own interpretation! You could add some live bootlegs (I personally recommend the 1996 Reading Festival version of "Rez/Cowgirl"), some of the rarities released on that Super Deluxe Edition (although obviously you can't fit all of them), or leave it as is.

CD 6: Rarities

No.	Title	Original release	Length
1	Why Why Why	"Rez" / "Why Why Why" promo single, 1993	12:16
2	The Big Meat Show	1992–2012 The Anthology compilation, 2011	9:08
3	River of Bass (Extended)	1993 Underworld demo tape, 2008	9:10
4	Cowgirl (Remix Id2 A1804)	"Cowgirl (Remix Id2 A1804)" single, 2021	17:40
			48:14

See what I mean about B-side crazy - six CDs!!