Underworld

Underworld is really Karl Hyde and Rick Smith, and the fact that two men could make this much sound is the whole point. They began as a funk and synth-pop outfit, with Baz Allen, Bryn B. Burrows and Alfie Thomas along for the ride, and cut 2 albums at the end of the '80s, Underneath the Radar among them. It didn't take. What happened next did.

With Darren Emerson on board from 1990, they turned to dance music and techno and started making records that move like a night drive through a city: Dubnobasswithmyheadman, with the rumbling "Dirty Epic", then Second Toughest in the Infants in 1996, and Beaucoup Fish, home of "Push Upstairs". The tracks build slowly, lock into a groove and keep climbing, while Hyde mutters and chants cryptic, stream-of-consciousness words over the top like a man reading overheard conversations off the walls.

"Born Slippy Nuxx" is the one everybody knows, a pounding, euphoric rush with a vocal that sounds half drunk and half inspired, and "Dark & Long (Dark Train)" wasn't far behind. Emerson left in 2000, and Hyde and Smith carried on, with A Hundred Days Off and "Two Months Off" in 2002. Their music has turned up across film and television soundtracks, and their live shows have always been an event in themselves.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.