Three classic singles just arrived at my door. For only a few dollars I could have ordered these at any time during the last several years. However, it would have meant shelling out $12 for each single to ship them overseas. I lucked out this week when I found all three from the same seller – and in the USA!
The first single needs no introduction. It’s “Dark and Long (Dark Train)” from Underworld’s Dubnobasswithmyheadman era. After over 15 years they still play this song at many of their live shows.
The second single is only familiar to real Underworld fans, which is sad because it’s such a fantastic disc. “Spikee” / “Dogman Go Woof ” was released on Junior Boys Own records in ’93. If you don’t want the hassle of tracking down the original single, the track was released on the 1992-2002 compilation double disc – an album which also features other rarities like “Bigmouth” and “8 Ball.”
The “Spikee” video below is from the rare Footwear Repairs By Craftsmen at Competitive Prices VHS, a compilation of early Underworld videos produced by Tomato. Anyone who owns a copy of Karl’s mmm… Skyscraper: A Typographical Journal of New York will recognize the fractured type which eventually ended up as artwork for the Dubnobass LP.
The vocal samples come in at around 3:10 and play throughout.
The song is structurally similar to Darren Price’s “Everybody Jack” in its use of fragmented vocal loops. “Jack” was previously known as “Javelin Boy,” a misinterpretation of the lyric. The song has yet to be released by the band.
The earliest versions of “Everybody Jack” that I have in my collection are from 2007 – the Central Park, NYC show from 09-14, the Glasgow Academy, Scotland set from 10-13 and the London Roundhouse England performance from 10-18. But the version aired during the 30 minute Exclusive Mix for the We Are One Festival blows all the others away. Here it is, from that very mix.
And this is a promo vid Darren Price recorded for Maschine 1.6 a few weeks before the Miami Music Conference where he plays around with the “Everybody Jack” sample live in studio. Jump to 1:37 to watch him at work.
The third and final single is the KLF’s Justified and Ancient. I already have”3 A.M. Eternal (Live At The S.S.L.),” “Doctorin’ the Tardis,” and “Chill Out” is on its way.
In addition to the songs themselves, an added bonus of ordering the singles was that they provided me with clean copies of the older JBO logo and the KLF pyramid, which I scanned and recreated to work on dark t-shirts. I’ll be printing them up soon, along with a White Room icon tee and one of the “Why Sheep?” graphic from the White Room liner notes.
I also stumbled across an Underworld unreleased treasure that I had somehow missed when it first surfaced on the Web. It is the DAT prototype tape for Dubnobasswithmyheadman which the band used when trying to secure a record deal in the U.S in 1993. You can definitely hear them finding their sound on this tape. Check out “Organ.”
The Innerspace Connection 