Disco de Underworld: “Beaucoup Fish”

I was lucky enough to buy this album as an import and hear it a month before it came to the States. Since then, it's never anywhere I'm not. "Cups" is not only a great song, it's also a great epic song. (The remix is on the "Bruce Lee" single and pushes it to a more disco-flavored direction) "Push Upstairs" is just a heavy piano riff, and Karl Hyde's lyrics going in all different directions. "Jumbo" is one of those songs that puts you on air (The remixes also do justice to the original). "King Of Snake" is a pure dance-floor shaker. Only Underworld could have taken that Donna Summer-riff and raised it to a whole other level. "Bruce Lee" is about as pop as you'll get from Underworld, but they still understand that you won't want to recite their lyrics out loud. "Kittens" however, is a pure hardcore masterpiece. One continous rumble, thick snare drums and then the greatest use of gospel organ I've ever heard. PERFECT! Then "Moaner" comes in, builds faster and faster, shakes you to your knees as Karl screams at you until your head explodes and then you realize you have to put the album on repeat. Repeatedly. Underworld are GODS.

Underworld walk that very fine line between boring and hypnotic brilliance that many people not deep into DJ/dance culture think is not so fine. Underworld build repetitive rythyms and synths into subtle, slinky anthems. This fact is illustated pricipally on tracks "Push Upstairs", "Jumbo" and "Kittens". "Kittens" happens to be a brilliant and hypnotic eight minute build up of driving syncopated percussion tracks into which a menacing bassy synth and organ like synths are added. The first time I heard the opening two to three minutes, I thought to myself "this is why I don't like this music." Yet as the percussion became more and more complex, and as the synths grew into an almost Middle Eastern sounding frenetic epic, at the climax of which, the precussion drops out leaving the organ like sound to reach spiritual-like heights, followed by a diving back into driving percussion, I realized that this was THE track of the album, a great great composition, not just a dance tune. For other intros into Underworld try the mixing of "Rez" with "Cowgirl" on the live album "Everything/Everything"- another WOW track, and then think about repetitive not being the same as boring.

I have been listening to Underworld since 1993, and this is their finest work to date. the album opens with "Cups" a gentle song that builds into a dance track... "Push it" and "King of Snake" take the album into the heart of dance music... Karl's voice is amazing and to the average listener you might believe that it is all tricked up, but he can throw it naturally... believe it or not...

However, the most impressive feature of this album is that what you hear on the album is EXACTLY what you're gonna hear when their live... I have heard they are planning a North America tour in the near future to follow their "mini-tour" of last spring, and if your interested in attending, pick this up first... truly amazing!

This CD never fails to impress me with the breadth and depth of it's genius.

I've heard a lot of people who don't like this CD compared with the first two, 'Dubnobass...' and 'Second Toughest in the Infants'. Now, I love both of these CD's, but 'Beaucoup Fish' is to me the ultimate statement from Underworld MKII. It just seems to encapsulate quite nicely everything that makes Underworld one of the most essential, unpredictable, and unforgettable bands in any musical genre today.

If you like bands as disparate as the Chemical Brothers, Radiohead and Captain Beefheart, I can't see how this disc can fail to put a smile on your face.

At first listen I was taken aback by the cheesey synth vamp which opens Cups, but it lasts only a moment... a 'false start' if ever there was one, before the song kicks into its escalating 4/4 build. How to pick highlights in an album of highlights? There's King of Snake, Kittens, Moaner... the softer side represented by Wynjer and Skym... hell, even Bruce Lee, (which for the life of me sounds to be a satire of 'Big Beat' stuff like Fatboy Slim) still has more life than 99% of the faceless dance music clogging up the clubs today.

If you're tired of the shallow thrills of trance and two-step, give Underworld a try... truly a dance album for 'grown ups'.

There are those CDs in your collection where you flick through it and you get all warm and fuzzy inside just thinking about it. Then you put it on and it sounds even fresher then you remembered it.

I consider this Underworld's best studio album because it fits together well as an album. Unlike many techno artists, the beats and melodies stick in your head, and Karl's soft-spoken lyrics tickle your brain, wondering what he really means.

King of Snake has to be one the highlight of the album, beginning with random bleeps and buzzes that slowly descends into a punch that kicks you in the face. Imossible not to groove to, and the ending is just hilarious, with some Japanese dude talking about burning newspapers and drinking sake at midnight. Say what?

Winjer again slows things down with a haunting chorus in the background, a decent song. Skym is just a so-so song, consisting of Karl singing over a very soft beat, but it serves as a perfect lull in the album. Bruce Lee funkifies things up with some hip-hop beats, again some funny lyrics by a British lady. Kittens then discards any lyrics and just goes at it, pounding techno out with no remorse. Dance to it.

Push Downstairs is the opposite of Push Upstairs, much much slower. The fast melody of Upstairs turns into a dreamy trip Downstairs. Something Like a Mama, though, I consider the weakest track. It doesn't have the typical catchy Underworld beat, and the lyrics get a bit annoying towards the end.

Yay Underworld!