Underworld Album: “Pearl's Girl [US]”

It may be an EP, but what you get for your money is actually a whole album's worth of UW material. And not just any material, this EP contains some of the best techno to come from the british trio (now reduced to duo). It starts out with a mix of Pearls girl, called Tin There, but as is often the case with UW mixes of thier own work, it sounds nothing at all like the original track. It's a very fast paced, breakbeat laden techno frenzy that just builds and builds in the distortion, into an incredible climax. One of the most energetic techno tracks I've ever heard. The 14996 mix is a more subdued version with little vocal samples of the original thrown in, not the best track of this ep. Puppies is a whole other world again, deep reverbed synths and a really cool vocoder effect on Karl's voice make this a very dreamy and emotional track. Oich Oich is absolutely one of my favourite tracks of all time. Very ambient and very carefully built and layered with synths, voice samples, lyrics and a laid back housebeat mix into a dreamlike world of sound and emotion. Cherrie Pie starts with the intro from Rowla (from Second Toughest...) but quickly transforms into another wonderful techno epic with a very dark and hypnotising sound. Then there's the actual Pearl's Girl (and a shorter edit version) which still remains one of UW's best and most popular tracks, hard breakbeats, great lyrics, great atmosphere. The last two tracks, Mosiac and Deep arch are wonderfully ambient instrumental tracks, with again the careful buildup that is so reminiscent of UW's style. All in all, this ep has both incredible power, and incredible atmosphere and makes me think wether some people who call UW "watered down music" have actually listened to any of it.

i'm a big fan of underworld-- i bought this randomly at virgin one day... when i popped it in i started flipping through the tracks and i fell in love with track 5-cherry pie. i haven't heard anything like this before, the song builds up so well and there is such a strong bass line. i especially love the middle of the song (around 4'15") when the drawn-out synth tones come in. if i ever heard this in a club i'd go out of control! it's my favorite underworld song of all time. underworld rocks!

This song alone makes the CD worth purchasing. As someone else reviewing the CD said, Underworld is producing the most love-infused music in any genre of music today - if you ever just once open yourself to listen to one of their songs and hear the subtleties, the fade-ins, the gradual melodic changes, and the climaxing, its a spiritual moment not to be believed. If you like Underworld, you will absolutely LOVE this CD, and especially CHERRY, a song so touchingly-crafted, you really have to wonder how they are SO consistently successful at creating the music they do.

I doubt that any review could do any justice to the greatness that is "Pearl's Girl". Though it is often viewed as an EP rather than a full-length album, Underworld's 1997 release entitled "Pearls Girl" is a spectacular hidden gem that has had the misfortune of being sandwiched between "Second Toughest in the Infants" and "Beaucoup Fish", both of which are marvelous. Yet inspite of their greatness, "Pearl's Girl" is a standout all of its own. The EP is mostly a remix EP of the band's hit single "Pearl's Girl" but with the exception of the "Radio Edit" and "Album Version", many of the other remixes almost are like different tracks altogether.

"Puppies" is a very pleasant track with a nice jazzy atmosphere with electronic keyboard effects like that of viewing the outside through a rainy windshield at night. "Oich Oich" is a dreamy track very much like that of "Tongue" with some haunting chime effects throughout the song giving it a haunting post-thunderstormy mood. The guitar parts could easily make this track fit onto "Dubnobasswithmyhead".

However my absolute favorite track hands down is the fifth track entitled "Cherry Pie". Now for those who are familiar with "Second Toughest" you'll immediately realize that the bizarre electroshock ambience that introduced "Rowla" is present. However a minute into the track, a totally different DJ echoes build up generating a whole different track. The track eventually evolves into a high speed track that could easily make the adrenaline of the movie "Speed" pale before the warp-speed nature of "Cherry Pie". The track evolves into a haunting and intense track with an atmosphere like no other track by this group. In many ways, it reminds me of the haunting ambience of "Dirty Epic" from their 1993 masterpiece "Dubnobasswithmyheadman" with a much louder and faster tempo. Many may agree with me that "Cherry Pie" improves upon the original track that was "Rowla" but I disagree that it should've been on the album. I think this track feels too distinct to fit with the "Second Toughest" album. In many respects, I consider this to be a supplementary track rather than a replacement. By an large my favorite cut in this entire EP. Though Underworld would go on to make really good tracks in subsequent releases, they have yet to generate songs that rival "Cherry Pie". This track alone makes this album worth purchasing.

The final track "Deep Arch" is another haunting track that starts with a trippy ambient intro and has a very slow build up into a beautiful yet trippy cut with an atmosphere like that of viewing traffic on a stormy night.

Even if you already have "Second Toughest", you still need to acquire a copy of "Pearl's Girl" because while it is mostly a remix album of the single of the same name, many of the tracks that aren't remixes are astounding in their own way. I could even argue that much of the music that made it onto STITI pales before some of what's on PG.

I love this cd! I expected it to be a lot like juno reactor, but it's not like it at all. It starts out with a few simple beats, then as the song progresses it gets more complex. If you like daft punk, juno reactor, chemical brothers, and fluke, then you'll probably like this. The only reason you might not want to get this is if you hate repetetive music, or have something very strong against a twist of jungle music. But if not go for it, it's a wonderful cd!!