Underworld
Brixton Academy, London
20/11/2010

Underworld have been making music together for almost thirty years, with the band’s enduring appeal often accredited to their outstanding musical creativity and intelligent reinvention. Whilst retaining the unmistakable stream-of-consciousness lyrics and powerful melody-driven production that defines the band’s sound, Underworld have always incorporated ideas from other genres of dance music, most notably through some tremendous collaborations. On the band’s latest album ‘Barking’, Messrs Hyde and Smith have worked with some exceptional electronic producers such as house don D. Ramirez and drum ‘n’ bass marvel High Contrast.

The band’s pioneering use of technology has also helped welcome younger fans in to an already significant following and the renowned tech-savviness is in full evidence tonight, with an impressive bank of equipment straddling Brixton Academy’s cavernous stage in front of commanding columns of multicoloured lights. It is with the recent Ramirez collaboration ‘Downpipe’ that the band kick off their hotly-anticipated homecoming show, which comes at the tail-end of an extensive world tour. It’s an epic start, soon followed by the joyous 2002 single ‘Two Months Off’. The track is still sonically fresh eight years on, a great achievement given that so much music by the band’s 90s peers has aged less elegantly. Indeed, Underworld also vary from the majority of well-established live dance acts in that they have an identifiable and endlessly energetic frontperson (the evergreen Karl Hyde), writhing in to inexplicable body shapes as if he were still a teenager. It is this extra focus that makes an Underworld live show far more involving than most.

Many of the other Underworld favourites are also present, from 1999’s pounding club classic ‘King Of Snake’ through to the euphoric ‘Rez’, before the decade-defining ‘Born Slippy’ provides an emotional conclusion to a phenomenal performance.

James Hannam