Underworld: “the song is never finished”

Karl Hyde It is Rick Smith they answer from somewhere in California. Both calm, with quiet speech, not even remotely emulating the chaotic energy of the incendiary stage of the coachella, where a few days before, they drew the most lively reactions from the sometimes apathetic public of the festival. In a performance flooded with lasers and smoke, the British duo of 66 and 63 showed the anachronistic freshness of the music of Underworld.

Far from a serious stereotype that pioneering spirit might suggest, the duo, responsible for a historic legacy in electronic music since the 1980s, arrives in 2023 with renewed energy – both for the release of recent new tracks and for a global tour, which disembarks this Saturday (20) on the stage of the C6 Fest, in Sao Paulo. The visit to takes place 17 years after the last visit of the duo to Brazil, in 2006.

“I think that since we’ve been there we’ve always been waiting for a chance to come back. And I don’t think we can imagine how it’s going to be, or how we’re going to be received, because it’s going to be something new. A new time, with new people, and what what we really hope is that something blossoms this time we’re around,” says Rick.

Around here, the duo faces the almost impossible mission of condensing, in a setlist of just over an hour, the repertoire of 35 years of history. Asked about what they imagine for the reunion, they explain that they have abandoned the pressure of fulfilling the same agenda throughout their different shows:

“We don’t really know. We don’t even know what we’re going to play the day after tomorrow at our show in San Francisco. Sometimes we barely know what we’re going to play until it’s time to hit the stage,” explains Karl.

The looser process, both on stage and on delivery, differs from that adopted on the last album, Drift Series 1, from 2019, meticulously released over 52 weeks. In 2023, Karl and Rick seem to enjoy the process more – of the four songs performed live this year, only one became a single. With an even heavier percussion, “And the color red” presents a deeper and even sinister sound for the duo. Questioned about how it reflects a possible next album, Karl dismisses:

“What an ambitious question, we just released a track and you already want to know about dessert before the main course [risos]. I’m kidding, man. We write constantly. If you remember our last project, Drift, we released pretty much a song a week, because that was the story. That’s what we do, we write new material constantly, and we release it as soon as we feel it’s appropriate, when we feel it’s ready.”

In this new phase, of high energy and few definitions, the duo admits that their presentations are unique, unrepeatable. Partly because they explored an extensive discography – or, in other words, because they had a long history that they helped to build. A confirmed presence among the biggest names in global EDM, Underworld has experienced, to a greater or lesser extent, the transformations of a scenario that continues to evolve, faster and faster than they themselves can predict. Still, when asked, they try to condense and theorize about the major changes they’ve witnessed over the years.

“If you asked us that in, say, 1995 or 1996”, Rick adds, “we would say that what changed was the club scene, the very essence of DJs, moving away from baleriec and acid house and focusing much more on those genres that we’ve seen develop, like progressive house, tech house, dub house, and even, I don’t know, vegan house… vegetarian house, or carnivore house, whatever it was [risos]…”

“But if we talk over such a long period, I think what we’ve seen is that music is never finished. It renews itself. Another generation of people grows up, matures, gets older, embraces the technology, the culture, and responds to it And the biggest change is probably something that hasn’t just affected music, which is just technology and the ongoing revolution, in terms of communications. It has profoundly affected all of art and life itself. And we look at it in a way largely positive, in the sense of giving people opportunities.”

Faced with this scenario of broad transformations, even within the repertoire itself, a truth in almost every performance of Underworld is the presence of “Born Slippy .NUXX”. The track, written in 1995, would be used the following year as the film’s soundtrack. Trainspottingin Danny Boylepushing the group’s boundaries far beyond the British electronic niche, making it the legacy of a generation.

The music was composed by Karl, who was struggling with addiction at the time, and would have written it from that perspective – perhaps hence the strong connection with Boyle’s film. But like everything else, when it comes to the Underworld, it has also undergone transformations over the years and arrives in 2023 with even more meaning – and as an example of all the transformation, creativity and evolution that seem the only certainty that crosses the time with Underworld:

“It’s extraordinary to have a song that means so much to so many people around the world. And for us to be connected to it and to be able to play it and get that energy back… well, we still play it almost every show and it’s kind of strange, actually, how much magic it awakens”, says Karl. “And I think for us it’s all about how the audience reacts. They get so excited and excited to hear it, that even the slightest feeling feels like a trip. That’s why we still play it. Because it’s alive!”