Album Review: Underworld - Dubnobasswithmyheadman (20th Anniversary edition)

Every time you say “Ooh - I love Underneath The Radar!” an Underworld fan dies.

The bouncy slab of Pseudo Echo-lite provided by Underworld Mk 1 has zero in common with this, their seminal Mk 2 offering sporting Karl Hyde’s subconscious ramblings given lyrical form over smart techno courtesy of newly acquired DJ wünderkind Darren Emerson. Together with producer Rick Smith, the trio proved techno could break free of the 12” single and be sustainable over a whole album. In the gently thudding Dark & Long, Hyde wanted to “smash it up/I want to break it down”, not see it be reduced to hands-in-the-air caricatures or ‘secret rave’ politicking. Barely a year later, thanks to Trainspotting, the ‘world’ would be “shouting lager, lager, lager” (Born Slippy), momentarily risking a short-lived legacy but with the Dirty Epic/Cowgirl double whammy at the core packing emotional punches and a Glastonbury-friendly eco-hymn M.E. as the closer, Dubnobass was/is perfectly executed from start to finish. The bonus disc adds eight odds ‘n’ sods mostly worthy of revision yet already available on previous compilations. Spikee (whose scissor blades later sliced through Pearl’s Girl) and two cousins of Dirty Epic prove to be fine inclusions rather than repetitive barrel scraping. Only Eclipse shows its post-acid age and gets in the way.

The blu-ray and opulent five-disc expanded versions (unpreviewed) both promise decadent further listening, but 20 years later, Dubnobasswithmyheadman remains a flawless touchstone in techno’s history.