Underworld

Karl Hyde (vocals) and Rick Smith (guitar) were just another couple of new-wave wankers until DJ Darren Emerson joined them in 1990, helping reenvision Hyde's moody sonnets for a techno-conscious world. The crew eventually became so successful at programming subversiveness into the commercial realm they've even formed a cutting-edge graphic-design company, Tomato, boasting Pepsi and Nike as clients.

Their Dubnobasswithmyheadman debut was released stateside in 1995. Its soulful techno careened from the thoughtful new wave of Depeche Mode to the industrial dance grooves of Nine Inch Nails, with Hyde's existential crisis verging on nihilism. "Mmm Skyscraper I Love You" discovers God in Elvis while "Dirty Epic" imagines "Christ on crutches." Rick Smith's guitar lends avant atmospherics to the album's more somber moments. The trio sounds more cyborg on its followup, Second Toughest in the Infants, with the gritty mutating breakbeats steamrolling into jungle before easing up on tracks such as "Blueski," which finds Hyde "wearing stone-washed jeans again, carrying something wrapped in plastic" and Smith's guitar invoking a 23rd-century John Fahey. That album was propelled by the hit single "Born Slippy" -- a frantic, pounding rush that ebbed into junkie-fix clarity -- featured on the Trainspotting soundtrack. Too bad the trio come off as plain pretentious on Beaucoup Fish with Hyde's spoken word and faux blooze the ultimate test of listener patience, but they manage to salvage some of the better tracks on the live Everything, Everything, exciting if only for the cheering arena of ravers. Emerson left the band in 2000 to explore his own music, with some of his mixes featured in the excellent Global Underground series. Hyde and Smith released A Hundred Days Off without him, and the results are surprising: a highly danceable progressive house album that sounds only occasionally derivative. (CARLA SPARTOS)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide