Underworld
Photo: Perou

Karl Hyde of Underworld recently returned home after a rain-soaked day spent walking London's streets, lamenting his very wet shoes, scribbling down notes and buying a "bag of twelves" (i.e. 12-inch singles) from vinyl mecca Phonica Records. It was just a matter of days until Underworld's fifth studio album — or "physical release," as he calls it — Oblivion With Bells begins to roll out worldwide, culminating in a U.S. release on October 16.

Although the album is the long-running U.K. outfit's first non-soundtrack or non-Internet-based release since 2002's shimmering A Hundred Days Off, over the last five years, Underworld fans have kept up with the prolific output from Hyde, longtime collaborator Rick Smith and the Tomato design collective (of which the band is a part) on the group's Web site, UnderworldLive.com.

But as Hyde, the group's fast-dancing frontman, explained at length over the phone last week, it was time to get a little old-school and release a tangible album.

"We really like records, and a physical record is a calling card," Hyde said, "and no matter how many downloads we did, until the perception changes significantly, they'd always be seen as the poor cousin to a real album. And if we want people to come into the world of Underworld, we had to say, 'Here's something recognizable.' "

And Oblivion With Bells is undeniably Underworld: a sensually crafted auditory landscape from an always-provocative group that first altered perceptions of electronic music with the release of 1993's seminal dubnobasswithmyheadman. Curiously, Oblivion unwinds like a contemplative companion to that album's darkly urban odyssey. It revels in quieter, chilled passages, like the cascading pulse of "Faxed Invitation," which offers the album's title buried in Hyde's sibilant, treated vocals, and the luminous instrumental "To Heal," which also appears on the soundtrack for "Trainspotting" director Danny Boyle's sci-fi film "Sunshine." (Hyde said that the full version of that track, featuring a looped sermon from Smith's lay-preacher father, will appear online one day.)

Although songs like the propulsive single "Crocodile," the erotically charged "Beautiful Burnout" (born on the road as "Biro the Leggy"), and the slinky "Holding the Moth" are meant for what Hyde cheerfully calls "body-grooving celebration," there's definitely an overcast, melancholic rumble to Oblivion With Bells. He laughs softly at the descriptions he's heard — like "introverted," "introspective," "shuddering with dread" — which he finds pretty funny since, well, he and Smith are so damn happy.

"I can't express how good we feel about what's going on in our working lives right now," said Hyde, chortling, "But this doesn't seem to be necessarily the message given out by the record! Some people say, 'Are you consciously reflecting these uncertain times?' And you go, 'God, I don't know!' But what I do know is, if you walk the streets for long enough and soak up what's happening and put that out in an unconsidered way, it's quite likely you would have scooped up that kind of zeitgeist."

Hyde, who constantly travels on foot and public transport armed with notebook and mobile-phone camera, explored his hometown of Romford (in outer London) for one of the album's more surprising tracks, the percussive, didgeridoo-fueled narrative "Ring Road." It explicitly details a fevered April stroll Hyde took on a sunny St. George's Day after Smith presented him with "a nice groove" as they swapped laptops and files, "writing on top of each other's work." Frustrated, Hyde couldn't find any lyrics in his journals that he wanted to sing. So he made a pact with himself — he'd walk his town's ring road and sing about whatever he saw.

"I've been a fan of [pioneering rappers] the Last Poets for a long, long time," Hyde recalled. "I come from a very different background and I admire what they've done and what they've written about. That coupled with a recent experience of doing some shows with Kraftwerk where I felt they were writing about a very German-ness. It was like, 'Well, go out on the street and write about being in East London,' you know? 'That's where you are, that's where you live. Go and write about it.' "

Starting with more than 200 tracks for Oblivion With Bells — some of which ultimately became part of the Internet-only Riverrun Project and the soundtracks to "Breaking and Entering" and "Sunshine" — Hyde and Smith asked for the opinions of DJ and production friends like Igor Tchkotoua and Dan Duncan (Pig & Dan); Pete Heller; James Holden; Darren Price; Junior Boys Own label head Steven Hall; and Sven Väth, guru of the Cocoon Club in Frankfurt, Germany.

"They started to pull together lists of favorites," said Hyde, "but not only favorite tracks, but favorite versions of those tracks that might have gone back a couple of years."

Four of the songs — "Crocodile," "Holding the Moth," "Beautiful Burnout" and "Faxed Invitation" — were written onstage, in front of audiences, over a period of 18 months. Hyde says he and Smith were intrigued by the continuous flow on Santana's 1972 album Caravanserai and played with the idea of "just one long track that went through different movements." However, it didn't work and the idea was abandoned — until Smith began piecing together some transitions or tracks that felt similar, like "Ring Road" into "Glam Bucket." They recruited friends like U2 drummer Larry Mullen Jr. to play on the wiry, sexy rocker "Boy, Boy, Boy," and even Brian Eno gave the duo a much-coveted "nod," as Hyde puts it, signaling his approval when the album was finished.

But it all comes back to Underworld's own savvy about their constantly evolving sound that determines the logic of their jams and informs their legendary, improvised live sets. When building a track, Hyde credits Smith with his ability to "intuitively sense that there's something within the very crude form that we have."

"He's like, 'There's something in here,' " said Hyde, "and I'm thinking, 'You're mad, we've tried it and it's really not going anywhere, I really don't like the beat and I can't tell what the groove is and look, my body doesn't know what to do!' " Hyde exclaimed. "Then he'll take it away and come back and he'll have totally altered the groove, changed the balance of things and [I] go, 'I see what you're getting at now!' "

He points to one of his favorite tracks on the album, "Best Mamgu Ever" (mamgu, pronounced "mam-ghee," is Welsh for "grandmother"), which Hyde calls an "expansive painting" that went through several different incarnations.

"In the end, Rick did the great thing for me," Hyde explained. "It starts off with this sort of gated conversation between him and a friend of ours, forming this rhythm and I'm not even in there at all, just some guitar. And then, I kind of appear out of this cloud and sing these phrases ... and then disappear again. It makes me smile, it's a correct use of vocals and it's a journey, isn't it?"

The long, strange trip that Hyde and Smith have experienced together since the early 1980s — from bands the Screen Gemz and Freur to 1995's worldwide hit single "Born Slippy" to Oblivion With Bells — has only served to fuel their artistic decision to enter what Hyde calls "the next phase of Underworld." A longtime admirer of nonconformists like Miles Davis and Spanish abstract painter Antoni Tàpies, Hyde gently voices his dissent against what he views as a highly restrictive, major-label music industry that is in flux, can't respond quickly to the "winds of change" and too often has got "nothing to do with art."

Hyde and Smith intentionally but amicably let their major-label contract expire following A Hundred Days Off, preferring to be Internet- and indie-based (OWB will be distributed in conjunction with ATO Records in the States). They're planning to release Internet-only material that didn't make the album, like "You Do Scribble," a title coined by Hyde's daughters, and "Bungalow With Stairs." They're doing more audio/visual experiments under The Riverrun Project umbrella, plus performance installations, a monthly publication called The Book of Jam, photography, film and support of other artists — all through the portal of their Web site.

In addition, Underworld and the entire Tomato collective are exploring Web television programming in collaboration with friends at Quicktime and Apple who helped Underworld broadcast a four-hour 2006 concert from the Cocoon Club. Hyde says a live Web television broadcast is in the works for their three-day London stand at the Roundhouse, October 17-19.

Inspired by the late, legendary BBC Radio 1 disc jockey John Peel, Underworld also have their own nonprofit Internet radio station, www.dirtyradio.net. In fact, Hyde and Smith did a streamed broadcast on Monday (October 8), mixing Simian Mobile Disco and Radio Slave records on their laptops from backstage in Southampton, England, where Underworld have a gig.

Hyde also made a DVD film for a German art installation that will likely crop up on the site too, called Van Halen, Van Halen, Rock Guitar Band. Plus he and Smith plan to record with New York singer/songwriter Nina Nastasia and are considering more intimate venues at which to perform their quieter material.

And most radically, Hyde, who is 50, said that he and Smith, 48, are even plotting ways that the Underworld collective can continue indefinitely — without them.

"We would like some younger people to take over Underworld," said Hyde enthusiastically, "and for Rick and me to move on and be associated, but do other things around sound and the visual arts. Why not? This thing could go on for a very long time. Wouldn't that be fantastic? It's like an art factory and people come in and they help us realize ideas, and [we're] taking them out on the road and going, 'Look, you sing, you do it. I'll stand back, I've got some painting to do and I'm working in the theater with Rick now.' "

But when asked if that's going to happen anytime soon, Hyde demurred.

"Well, I don't think so," he said, laughing again. "I don't think it's going to happen that soon, but it's what we're building — an art factory — and that's where we're happy, you know?"

• Underworld

Blur
Photo: Virgin

The Field Day Music Festival is back on in a new location and in an abbreviated form.

The event, which was moved from Calverton, New York, to Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, because organizers were unable to secure the necessary permit for the former location, will now take place on Saturday.

The mainstage artists will be the Beastie Boys, Radiohead, Blur, Beck and Underworld. Second-stage acts include Spiritualized, Elliott Smith, Liz Phair, Bright Eyes, Gemma Hayes and the 22-20s, according to the festival's updated Web site. Formerly scheduled acts that now may not appear include N.E.R.D., the Roots, Sigur Rós, Thievery Corporation, Thursday, the Raveonettes, Dashboard Confessional, the Streets, Interpol and Beth Orton.

Tickets for the new show, which cost $80, went on sale via Ticketmaster on Wednesday (June 4). Tickets for the original show will not be valid at the new location. A note being sent to people who bought tickets to the Calverton show said refunds would automatically be credited to their credit cards.

The Field Day Music Festival ran into a snag last week when the police chief of Riverhead, New York, said that his force wasn't large enough to provide traffic enforcement for the 50,000 people that were expected for the event (see "Field Day Organizers Have Only Three Days To Find New Venue").

Although the town expected help from the Suffolk County police, they refused to assist, as did the state police, and so the county health commissioner denied the permit for the event. The county then told the promoter that he would need to hire an additional 200 officers for the event to continue, but the promoter was unable to do so, and on Tuesday night the Riverhead Town Board put an end to the proposal.

• Beastie Boys
• Radiohead
• Blur
• Beck
• Underworld

Michelle Branch is heading to Chicago this weekend to shoot a video with Carlos Santana and director Paul Fedor for Santana's upcoming album, Shaman, due October 22. Branch sings on a pop/rock song called "Game of Love," written by ex-New Radicals leader Gregg Alexander and producer Rick Nowels. ... "Well, I guess this is growing up" is right. Blink-182 bassist Mark Hoppus and his wife, Skye, welcomed baby Jack, their first child, into the world on August 5. ... Weezer will support Guns N' Roses at England's London Arena on August 26, according to the band's Web site. ... Who are the best bands in the world? According to British metal mag Kerrang!, they're Sum 41, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Slipknot, Linkin Park and Nickelback, who are all up for the Best Band in the World award at the Kerrang! Awards 2002, which will be awarded August 27. ...

Underworld, who are returning with their latest, A Hundred Days Off, on September 24, have lined up a U.S. mini-tour that begins October 14 at Chicago's Riviera Theater. The "Born Slippy" kings then hit Clutch Cargo's in Pontiac, Michigan, on October 15, New York's Hammerstein Ballroom on October 18 and San Francisco's Warfield on October 20 before winding up at the Wiltern Theatre in L.A. on October 21. ... Following a September tour of the U.K., Jerry Cantrell will return home for a 24-date headline tour that begins October 10 in San Antonio and ends November 15 in New Orleans. Cantrell is currently opening for Creed. ... Six Feet Under, featuring former Cannibal Corpse vocalist Chris Barnes, will support Hatebreed on a string of dates in September. The trek kicks off September 9 in Houston, Texas according to the death metal group's Web site. ...

Metallica welcomed two fans from the Make a Wish Foundation, their families and two of their friends into the San Francisco studio where they're recording their new album, played them two new tracks and hooked them up with a ton of free swag, according to the group's Web site. Lars, Kirk, James and producer/temporary bassist Bob Rock also invited their new friends to jam with them for over an hour, rocking out on "Enter Sandman," "For Whom the Bell Tolls," "Sad But True," "... And Justice for All," "I Disappear" and the rarely aired "Dyer's Eve," and Lars sent them all off with handfuls of classic hard rock CDs after one of the kids expressed an interest in Iron Maiden. ... Original Pirate Material, the garage-flavored, Mercury Music Prize-nominated album by the Streets (a.k.a. 21-year-old Mike Skinner), will arrive in America October 22 through Vice Records. ...

08.21.02

P. Diddy is among the first hip-hop stars lined up to participate in the relaunch of Rap the Vote, the voter registration, education and empowerment initiative that aims to promote political awareness through means such as rallies, concerts, PSAs and personal appearances. Russell Simmons and Def Jam President Kevin Liles have joined forces with Rap the Vote and the NAACP to help get the word out. ... Ryan Adams, Wilco, Emmylou Harris, Luna and the Jayhawks are among the acts lined up for the first Austin City Limits Music Festival, which is scheduled for September 28 and 29 at Zilker Park in Austin, Texas. Other acts scheduled for the fest include Gillian Welch, Nickel Creek, David Garza, G Love & Special Sauce and Eyes Adrift, the new trio of Nirvana's Krist Novoselic, the Meat Puppets' Curt Kirkwood and Sublime's Bud Gaugh. ...

Moby, Our Lady Peace and DJs Sasha & Digweed are headlining a pre-party for the MTV Video Music Awards on Pier 54 in Manhattan on Tuesday, August 27. Tickets are free (though limited) and can be obtained starting Wednesday (August 21) at Manhattan's two Virgin Megastore locations. ... Musiq and Nappy Roots will appear at MTV2 Nominee Night on Wednesday, August 28, at Jimmy's Uptown in New York. Tickets are being given away through local radio station Power 105. ... The same evening, Dirty Vegas and Slum Village will perform at the World in Times Square as part of MTV's 24 Hours of Music celebration. Tickets are on sale through the venue's box office. ...

A court hearing of lawsuits filed by former Hole frontwoman Courtney Love and Universal Music — the label filed theirs when Love failed to deliver a new album pursuant to her contract, and she sued back to break said contract — was postponed Tuesday until September 3. The two sides are reportedly negotiating a settlement. ...

Phish drummer Jon Fishman and Primus guitarist Larry LaLonde have created their own Frank Zappa mixtape masterpieces to be released as the first in a series of compilations dedicated to the legendary artist's work. The two Zappa Picks anthologies will arrive in stores on October 15, each with liner notes by its respective compiler. ...

Before heading out on the Sprite Liquid Mix Tour, 311 recorded a song called "Express Yourself" with the Black Eyed Peas for the rap group's upcoming album, Elephunk. Papa Roach and Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker have also contributed to tracks for the project. ... Grandmaster Flash has developed a mixing board for electronics company Rane that will correct sonic deficiencies in vinyl. Dubbed Empath, the product will be available in September. ... Kevin Cadogan, the guitarist who was ousted from Third Eye Blind in January of 2000, will unveil his new band, Bully, on September 12 at the Roxy in West Hollywood. The group has recorded four songs that are available for download at www.kevincadogan.com. ...

Chicago punk band Mest will headline a two-month club tour with Home Grown, Catch 22 and Madcap beginning September 12. After the tour, Mest are scheduled to record their fourth album, with Goldfinger singer John Feldmann and Miguel (Sublime) producing. ... Guttermouth, Gob, Authority Zero, Nerf Herder and 1208 will team up for 10 weeks on the Punk-O-Rama Tour, which kicks off on September 15 in Santa Cruz, California. The outing winds up November 23 in Atlanta. ... Swami Satchidananda, the guru who opened the original Woodstock festival in 1969, died Monday in Madras, India, according to The New York Times. He was 87.

• Michelle Branch
• blink-182
• Weezer
• Guns N' Roses
• Linkin Park

Darren Emerson
Photo: Studio K7

Ex-Underworld DJ Darren Emerson's solo career continues to blossom with his second mix album for the popular Global Underground series.

Due in July, Global Underground: Singapore is a techno-heavy mix based on his New Year's Eve show last year at Singapore's Zouk club. Featured on the album — the 20th in the series — is Emerson's mix of the Laurent Garnier hit "Man With the Red Face." Nitzer Ebb's "Join in the Chant" and DJ Sneak's "Smokey Hill Street" are also among the double album's 27 tracks.

Emerson left Underworld last spring and debuted on album with Global Underground: Uruguay in May. He later produced the Ibiza-influenced "Scorchio" with Sasha. The Romford, England, DJ, who also heads Underwater Records, will tour worldwide this summer, his spokesperson said. A-list DJs from Paul Oakenfold to John Digweed have mixed albums for the acclaimed Global Underground series, which features DJs mixing albums based on previous shows they have performed around the world.

Darren Emerson tour dates, according to his publicist:

• 4/29 - San Francisco @ Pier 41
• 4/30 - San Francisco @ The Fillmore
• 5/2 - Atlanta @ Studio Central
• 5/3 - Pontiac, MI @ Clutch Cargo's
• 5/4 - Chicago, IL @ Aragon Ballroom
• 5/5 - Kyle, TX @ Thunderhill Raceway

• Darren Emerson
• Underworld

Sonicnet Music News

Underworld will follow up its recently released live project, "Everything, Everything," with "a more rock and roll" studio album due next year, said Rick Smith, the group's programmer.

Smith, who founded the seminal techno act with vocalist-guitarist Karl Hyde in the late '80s, said the group -- now sans DJ Darren Emerson, who left in April to pursue a solo career -- has begun working in its studio on the upcoming album.

"One day I think it's going to be best thing ever; the next day, I think I'm never going to write a good song again," Smith said.

The album will be recorded in stereo and will not include any of the groundbreaking technological features -- including multiple-perspective video and interactivity -- found on the "Everything, Everything" DVD, which will be released October 10. (Its audio counterpart, which features nine live tracks recorded over the past two years, was released September 19.)

"I may mix it in SurroundSound as well," Smith said of the upcoming album. "It's not like a step backwards. It's just like, 'Look, I don't want to tackle the technical problems we were having on the next record.' No images here, just sound."

Smith said he is continuing to develop sound installations for Tomato, the band's U.K. design company, while Hyde is completing several short film projects.

Underworld may perform in the United States this fall, Smith added, and show off some new custom-made synchronizing tools.

"The equipment we have onstage is a leap forward of what I wanted to do a long, long time ago," Smith said. "It allows me to mix even more abstractly. I have more options and possibilities."

The duo has also discussed a possible recording project with techno counterpart Orbital. "Never say never," Smith said. "We'll see."

• Underworld

Pearl Jam isn't the only band dealing with emotional reverberations from the deaths of nine fans at Denmark's Roskilde Festival last month, as U.K. techno-rock-dubnobass act Underworld happened to be finishing its set on the festival's second stage at the moment the tragedy occurred.

Underworld's Rick Smith told MTV News that he and singer Karl Hyde were informed of the disaster shortly after coming offstage.

"One of the crew on the site came up and said, 'Look, there is a problem, and some people have been hurt,'" recalled Smith, who said that he and Hyde were asked to walk back to their hotel rather than use transport needed for emergency purposes.

"What's so incredibly sad is that the festival itself has been run since 1971," Smith said.

The rock & soul trio known as the Fun Lovin' Criminals have just returned to store shelves with a smokin' new album, "100% Colombian," the follow-up to the group's 1996 critically-acclaimed debut, "Come Find Yourself."

The Criminals have spent most of the last two years on the road in Europe, where their distinctly New York blend of urban grooves and hardcore riffs has helped them become one of America's most popular musical imports.

But FLC's Street-smart vibe has been known to ruffle a few feathers -- as it apparently did last week to the U.K. techno-dance outfit Underworld during the Big Day Out festival down under. According to the Criminals' frontman Huey, some intergroup tensions eventually lead to a series of backstage rows between multi-instrumentalist Fast and Underworld singer Karl Hyde at stops in Melbourne on January 26 and in Sydney a few days earlier.

"My man [Fast] lit up this dude," Huey said, "he had a little duke-out. We're not a violent crew at all, but one thing led to another and there was a personal matter between Fast here and the little squirmy English dude from Underworld. Fast had to light him up. Luckily no one tried to sue him. But it was really good to actually be in a festival with the Korns, the Marilyn Mansons, and the Holes. I thought it was really great." [28.8 RealVideo]

Spokespeople for Underworld had no comment about the Aussie incidents.

As for the Fun Lovin' Criminals, the band has decided to film another version of the video for "Korean Bodega," as the group decided at the last minute that it was unhappy with the first take, which was completed earlier this month (see "Fun Lovin' Criminals Settle 'Bodega' Tab, Announce Spring Tour").

FLC plans to shoot the new video in the next few days, after which it will kick off a short promotional tour in Washington, DC, on February 8.

• Fun Lovin' Criminals
• Underworld

Radiohead, Beasties, Blur, More For Field Day

• Liz Phair
• Bright Eyes
• Spiritualized
• Beastie Boys
• Radiohead