It all started, casually enough, when my wife remarked, “I’d bet Underworld would make for good workout music,” during a discussion of what to stock the iPod Shuffle with before heading to the gym. I don’t remember much after that, as synapses immediately began firing and I became lost in my own wild, mixtape-obsessive thoughts, suddenly furiously determined to tackle my goal of crafting the ultimate Underworld workout mix.  For those in the dark, Underworld – comprised of the core duo of Karl Hyde and Rick Smith – was the premier electronic act of the ’90s (barely edging out those Hartnoll brothers and Alex Paterson), yet perhaps their most impressive feat is how little their music has dated since their heyday fifteen years ago, at least to these ears.  More importantly, and for our purposes here, the bpm count works wonders for shaving off a few calories.  I spent more time and microscopic tinkering on this mix than was certainly necessary but overall I’m pleased with it, and would be proud to offer it as an Underworld primer for novices in lieu of its inherent function as strictly “workout music.”

Underworld: An Eraser of Love 62:44 (.zip - 113.98 MB at 192 kbps)

Born Slippy .NUXX
Push Upstairs
King of Snake
Pearls’ Girl
Jumbo
Born Slippy .NUXX (Paul Oakenfold Mix)
Spoon Deep
Two Month’s Off
Kiteless
Cups
Dark & Long (Dark Train)
Cherry Pie
Dinosaur Adventure 3D
Jumbo (Future Shock Worlds Apart Mix)
Cowgirl
Cowgirl (Winjer Mix)
Mo Move
Beautiful Burnout (Mark Knight Mix)
Dirty Epic (Dirty Guitar Mix)
Tiny Clicks

What’s that?  A mix summary in 601 words?  Sure, I’ll give it a shot:

An Eraser of Love can be subdivided into three tempo-dictated sections, each one roughly 20 minutes in duration.  At ~140 bpm, “Born Slippy. NUXX” was really the most fitting way to kick things off, and if its dirty, thunderous kick doesn’t raise your blood pressure in the slightest, don’t bother with the rest of the mix.  Most know it from Trainspotting (1996), and it’s the cut that encapsulates everything that Underworld was about during their prime.  ”Push Upstairs” was never my favorite of the group’s run of singles (Hyde’s vocal effect is too borderline hammy for my taste), but it worked well in the sequencing here.  The gated, screeching wail that skyrockets across “King of Snake,” however, never gets stale.  ”Pearl’s Girl” was my jam back in my late teens; the drum programming alone was revelatory then and still sounds fresh today. Its searing intensity subsides into “Jumbo,” easily one of my top five favorite Underworld cuts. Those pads are like a warm sunshower in late spring.  Paul Oakenfold’s remix of a revisited “Born Slippy. NUXX” in 2003 was the only reason worth picking up that single – nothing could top the original, and attempting to ‘modernize’ it was one of the more questionable moves in the group’s career. I’ve never cared for Oakenfold’s glossy techno-by-numbers but his remix is a fitting conclusion to the first third of the mix, mostly because the blend from the coda in “Jumbo” worked shockingly well.  (I added the brief “Spoon Deep” underneath for atmosphere.)

“Two Months Off,” at ~134 bpm, brings the light in to open the second part of the mix. The subtlety with which this track builds on top of itself is astonishing, and it even sports a cowbell to boot.  I would have liked to incorporate more of the “Juanita/Kiteless/To Dream of Love” juggernaut here, but the midsection was the only part that I could utilize, to say nothing of its seamless juxtaposition with the outro from “Cups.” In all likelihood, I would have probably discarded the entire mix altogether if “Dark & Long (Dark Train)” wasn’t able to make it to the party; another top fiver for sure.  ”Cherry Pie” always made me wish it substituted for its inferior sibling “Rowla” on Second Toughest in the Infants (1996).  ”Dinosaur Adventure 3D,” much like sleepers “Kittens” and “Confusion the Waitress,” was a grower for me and remains one of the meager few applications of Auto-Tune that I’m able to stomach these days.

The clouds suddenly part for the Future Shock Worlds Apart Mix of “Jumbo,” which might as well be subtitled “Ibiza at Sunset.”  The compression is almost overwhelming here, just as much of an instrument as the keys or vocals.  This remix introduces the final third of the mix, which pulses along at ~129 bpm.  Is there another cut in the Underworld oeuvre that overflows with more ecstatic and carefree fun than “Cowgirl“? Its mandatory presence is followed by the “Winjer Mix” because I needed a transition to the hypnotic and sexual “Mo Move,” another personal favorite and my vote for greatest album opener in their discography.  The relatively recent Oblivion with Bells (2007) is the only full-length that isn’t represented here; the moody, introspective atmosphere of most of its selections wasn’t exactly workout-friendly.  Mark Knight’s remix of “Beautiful Burnout” (from Oblivion’s sister album of remixes The Bells The Bells [2008]), on the other hand, blended too perfectly with “Mo Move” to ignore.  ”Dirty Epic (Dirty Guitar Mix)” concludes the mix proper on a lighter, more buoyant note, with the underrated, beatless B-side “Tiny Clicks” serving as a brief afterthought. Enjoy.