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Dubnobasswithmyheadman

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Dubnobasswithmyheadman (stylised as dubnobasswithmyheadman) is the third studio album by British electronic music group Underworld, released in the United Kingdom on Junior Boy's Own on 24 January 1994.[1][2] It was the first Underworld album after the 1980s version of the band had made the transition from synthpop to electronic dance music and is also the first album to feature Darren Emerson as a band member.

Dubnobasswithmyheadman
Studio album by
Underworld
Released24 January 1994 (1994-01-24)
Recorded1991–1993
Studio
  • Lemonworld Studios, London
  • The Strongroom, London
Genre
Length72:53
LabelJunior Boy's Own
ProducerUnderworld
Underworld chronology
Change the Weather
(1989) 		Dubnobasswithmyheadman
(1994) 		Second Toughest in the Infants
(1996)
Singles from Dubnobasswithmyheadman
  1. "Mmm…Skyscraper I Love You"
    Released: 11 June 1993
  2. "Dark & Long"
    Released: 18 June 1994
  3. "Cowgirl"
    Released: September 1994
  4. "Dirty Epic"
    Released: October 1994
Alternative cover
Vinyl edition

Background

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The original line-up of Underworld had split up after a 1989 tour of North America as the support act to Eurythmics. After the tour Karl Hyde had stayed in the United States for two months to work at Prince's Paisley Park Studios in Minneapolis as a session musician, and then toured with Debbie Harry and Chris Stein of Blondie.[3] When Hyde returned to the UK he found his former bandmate Rick Smith had been collaborating on dance tracks with a teenage DJ named Darren Emerson, a friend of Hyde's brother-in-law, at Hyde and Smith's studio in Romford: Emerson had been eager to learn how to use the equipment in a recording studio, and in turn Smith had been keen to have somebody who could introduce him to electronic music and club culture, which he had grown increasingly interested in.[3][4] The three men started to swap ideas and create songs, resulting in a series of singles released throughout 1992 and 1993 under the names Underworld and Lemon Interupt.

Composition

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Underworld's approach to songwriting was very fluid, and based on the idea that everything was valid. Hyde told Melody Maker, "We're grabbing elements from all different times and areas of music and taking them somewhere else. We don't want to simply regurgitate the past, and even though we're using vocals and guitars, we're trying to do it in new ways. We're trying to find ways which makes those elements relevant to today. By not following a blueprint, we're able to base a song on acoustic guitar, or we can do a pure techno track, based on an oscillator. In the past, Rick and I have often been excited by a poem or a film or something and thought, 'That's inspired us to do a great reggae tune but we can't because we're not in a reggae band'. Now we would think, 'Fuck yes, let's do it'." Smith added, "There's a lot of cutting and pasting, especially with the vocals. Something which is recorded for one track one day may well end up on three different tracks a few months down the line. Nothing is fixed. They're just points for us to jump off of."[4]

Many of Hyde's lyrics were written during his sojourn in the US: "Dark and Long" was intended to evoke the open prairies of Minnesota that he had visited while working in Minneapolis, and "Mmm Skyscraper... I Love You" was inspired by walking around Greenwich Village in New York City. Hyde stated that the biggest influences at the time on his writing style had been Lou Reed's 1989 album New York, and playwright Sam Shepard's autobiography Motel Chronicles.[3]

Artwork

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Tomato, the art design collective that includes Underworld's Rick Smith and Karl Hyde, designed the artwork for Dubnobasswithmyheadman. It features black and white type that has been "multiplied, smeared, and overlaid" so much that it is nearly unreadable, alongside a "bold symbol consisting of a fractured handprint inside a broken circle".[5][6] The artwork was originally intended for Tomato's book Mmm... Skyscraper I Love You: A Typographic Journal of New York, published in 1994.[7]

According to the authors of The Greatest Album Covers of All Time, the cover "set a new standard of presentation for subsequent Dance albums".[7] In Graphic Design: A New History, Stephen Eskilson cites the cover as a notable example of the "expressive, chaotic graphics" that developed in the 1990s, a design style he calls "grunge".[8] In an article published in the journal Substance Paul Zelevansky says that "the packaging... replays the visual poetry of the 1960s and '70s and fast forwards to the alchemical transformations of computer graphics packages".[5]

The album artwork also features excerpts of lyrics to the band's 1996 hit "Born Slippy .NUXX", a track which was released two years after the album.

Karl Hyde told Uncut magazine in 2014 that the album's title had come from him misreading Rick Smith's writing on a cassette tape box.[9]

Critical reception

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Professional ratings
Contemporary reviews
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic     [10]
Drowned in Sound10/10[11]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music     [12]
NME8/10[13]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide     [14]
Select4/5[15]
Slant Magazine     [16]
Uncut9/10[17]
Vox8/10[18]

Dubnobasswithmyheadman received widespread acclaim from music critics. Writing in Melody Maker, a year before he left to co-found the specialist dance music magazine Muzik, Ben Turner proclaimed that "Dubnobasswithmyheadman is the most important album since The Stone Roses and the best since Screamadelica ... While others are content to go techno techno techno techno [a reference to the lyrics of "No Limit" by 2 Unlimited, a UK No. 1 hit the previous year], Underworld have taken a step back, utilising Karl Hyde and Rick Smith's experience in rock music and throwing it full in the face of 22-year-old DJ, Darren Emerson. The result is utterly contemporary, the sound of the moment, beautifully capturing melodic techno, deranged lyricism, historic bass and lead guitars and astounding walls of rhythm ... This breathtaking hybrid marks the moment that club culture finally comes of age and beckons to everyone."[19] Dele Fadele of NME said, "Before Underworld's startling remixes for Björk and Orbital last year, no-one would've put money on ex-members of ... popsters Freur making the first visionary record of '94 ... The sheer weight of ideas on offer and the constant variance of sounds and textures add up to a coherent, cogent whole, not a series of jack-tracks sequenced together, nor a series of hits with filler thrown in ... By writing 'songs'—albeit playful, deranged ones—Underworld have come up with a solution for the facelessness that blights some dance music."[13] Vox writer Phil Strongman wrote that "apart from the lumbering blasphemy of 'Dirt Epic' [sic], the only non-event here, it's all go-with-the-flow stuff laced with intricacies ... Attractive, undulating and with moments of innovation, this Underworld offering transcends many of the limitations of its genre."[18] At the end of 1994, Dubnobasswithmyheadman was ranked at number 16 on Melody Maker's list of the year's best albums.[20]

In 1999, Q included Dubnobasswithmyheadman in its list of the 90 best albums of the 1990s.[21] The following year, Alternative Press named it as one of "10 Essential Dance Albums That Rock".[22] In a retrospective review, John Bush from AllMusic wrote that the album's "innovative blend of classic acid house, techno, and dub" showed that "in a decade awash with stale fusion", Underworld were "truly a multi-genre group".[10] Adie Nunn from Drowned in Sound viewed Dubnobasswithmyheadman as a groundbreaking dance music album, noting that few other acts in the dance scene managed to produce an album with crossover appeal to "indie kids and pop kids... as well as the electronic elite" whilst retaining "credibility".[11] Sal Cinquemani from Slant Magazine deemed the album Underworld's "greatest overall contribution to electronic music".[16]

2014 reissue

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Professional ratings
Retrospective reviews
Review scores
SourceRating
The Line of Best Fit9.5/10[23]
Louder than War10/10[24]
Mojo     [25]
The Music     [26]
Pitchfork9.2/10[27]
PopMatters10/10[28]
Q     [29]
Record Collector     [30]
Uncut9/10[9]

In 2014, the album was reissued on vinyl, Blu-Ray, and 2-CD and 5-CD expanded editions. Reviewing the reissue, Q described the album as "superb" and proposed that Hyde and Smith's previous 14 years of making music "was why the uncannily undated Dubnobasswithmyheadman still exudes such multidimensional sophistication".[29] Uncut praised the material on the extra four discs, but felt that the original album was still Underworld's key record, claiming that Hyde's lyrical vision was able to make Romford sound as exotic as the USA he had seen on his travels, and that this was the reason why "twenty years later, the results of that crazy belief still sound like dance music's dirtiest epic".[9]

Track listing

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All tracks are produced by Underworld (Darren Emerson, Rick Smith and Karl Hyde). Writing credits are often missing or inconsistent; for example, the original Lemon Interupt single credits Smith, Hyde and Emerson as writers of "Dirty",[31] while later editions only credit Smith and Hyde.[32]

CD track listing

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No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Dark & Long"
  • Smith
  • Hyde
7:35
2."Mmm…Skyscraper I Love You"
  • Emerson
  • Smith
  • Hyde
13:08
3."Surfboy"
  • Emerson
  • Smith
  • Hyde
7:33
4."Spoonman"
  • Smith
  • Hyde
7:41
5."Tongue"
  • Smith
  • Hyde
4:50
6."Dirty Epic"
  • Smith
  • Hyde
9:55
7."Cowgirl"
  • Smith
  • Hyde
8:29
8."River of Bass"
  • Smith
  • Hyde
6:26
9."M.E."
  • Smith
  • Hyde
7:08
2001 Japanese edition bonus mini CD
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Rez"
9:56
2."Why Why Why" 12:24
20th anniversary 2-CD deluxe edition CD 2
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Eclipse" (released under the name Lemon Interupt)P. Hernandez[34]13:01
2."Rez"
9:58
3."Dirty" (released under the name Lemon Interupt)
  • Emerson
  • Smith
  • Hyde[31]
10:19
4."Dark & Long" (Dark Train)
  • Emerson
  • Smith
  • Hyde[35]
9:55
5."Spikee"
  • Emerson
  • Smith
  • Hyde[36]
12:51
6."Concord" (3 comp75 id9 a1771 aug 93a) 6:51
7."Can You Feel Me?" (from a4796) 4:31
8."Birdstar" (a1558 nov 92b.1) 4:53

20th anniversary 5-CD super deluxe edition

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CD 2: Singles 1991–1994
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."The Hump" (Wild Beast) 6:25
2."Eclipse" (released under the name Lemon Interupt)P. Hernandez[34]13:00
3."Rez"
9:57
4."Dirty" (released under the name Lemon Interupt)
  • Emerson
  • Smith
  • Hyde[31]
10:18
5."Dirty Guitar"
  • Emerson
  • Smith
  • Hyde[32]
10:01
6."Dark & Long" (Hall's Edit)
4:10
7."Dark & Long" (Dark Train)
  • Emerson
  • Smith
  • Hyde[35]
9:54
8."Spikee"
  • Emerson
  • Smith
  • Hyde[36]
12:33
CD 3: Remixes 1992–1994
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Mmm…Skyscraper I Love You" (Jam Scraper)
  • Emerson
  • Smith
  • Hyde[38]
9:14
2."Cowgirl" (Irish Pub in Kyoto mix)
  • Emerson
  • Smith
  • Hyde[39]
11:45
3."Dark & Long" (Most 'ospitable mix)
  • Emerson
  • Smith
  • Hyde[37]
5:55
4."Mmm…Skyscraper I Love You" (Telegraph 16.11.92)
  • Emerson
  • Smith
  • Hyde[38]
7:09
5."Dark & Long" (Burts mix)
  • Emerson
  • Smith
  • Hyde[35]
8:47
6."Dogman Go Woof"
12:15
7."Dark & Long" (Thing in a Book mix)
  • Emerson
  • Smith
  • Hyde[40]
20:14
CD 4: Previously Unreleased Recordings 1991–1993
No.TitleLength
1."Concord" (3 comp75 id9 a1771 aug 93a)6:51
2."Dark & Long" (1st ruff id3 a15512)9:34
3."Mmm…Skyscraper I Love You" (a1765 sky version id4. harmone6 comp43)9:58
4."Mmm…Skyscraper I Love You" (after sky id6 1551 2)5:29
5."Can You Feel Me?" (from a4796)4:30
6."Birdstar" (a1558 nov 92b.1)4:51
7."Dirty Epic" (dirty ambi piano a1764 oct 91)6:48
8."Spoonman" (version1 a1559 nov92)10:04
9."Organ" (eclipse version from a4796)6:19
10."Cowgirl" (alt cowgirl c69 mix from a1564)10:12
CD 5: Live jam Kyme Rd (previously unreleased live rehearsal recorded in the band's home studio in 1993)
No.TitleLength
1."Mmm…Skyscraper I Love You"13:27
2."Improv 1"7:27
3."Bigmouth"8:16
4."Improv 2"8:03
5."Big Meat Show"11:16
6."Improv 3"9:52
7."Spoonman"18:05

The original version of "Dirty" is almost a minute longer, at 11:14. The remastered version cuts a coda that contained a sample from "Dolls' Polyphony" from the soundtrack to the anime film Akira.

Vinyl track listing

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Side A
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Dark & Long"
  • Smith
  • Hyde
7:35
2."Mmm... Skyscraper I Love You"
  • Emerson
  • Smith
  • Hyde
13:08
Side B
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Surfboy"
  • Emerson
  • Smith
  • Hyde
7:33
2."Spoonman"
  • Smith
  • Hyde
7:41
3."Tongue"
  • Smith
  • Hyde
4:49
Side C
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Dirty Epic"
  • Smith
  • Hyde
9:55
2."Cowgirl"
  • Smith
  • Hyde
8:25
Side D
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."River of Bass"
  • Smith
  • Hyde
6:26
2."M.E."
  • Smith
  • Hyde
7:09

Early prototype

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On 3 October 2008 a DAT from 1993 surfaced on Underworld's official messageboard, which featured a different running order, some extended mixes and three previously unreleased songs: "Big Meat Show", "Organ" and "Can You Feel Me", an outtake from previous sessions. The poster of the DAT called it "just a sampling of the type of songs the band was creating, showing any potential label that was interested ..."[41]

No.TitleReleasedLength
1."Dirty Epic" 9:59
2."Jamscraper"as "Mmm…Skyscraper I Love You (Jam Scraper)"8:57
3."Big Meat Show"unreleased, a longer version on 1992–2012 The Anthology6:52
4."Mmm…Skyscraper I Love You" 13:02
5."Organ"as "Organ (eclipse version from a4796)" (Dubnobasswithmyheadman 20th anniversary)6:23
6."River of Bass"unreleased, 6:26 version on Dubnobasswithmyheadman9:10
7."Dark and Long" 7:31
8."Dirty Fuzz"as "Dirty Guitar"9:55
9."Can U Feel Me"as "Can You Feel Me? (from a4796)" (Dubnobasswithmyheadman 20th anniversary)4:31
10."Goodbye Mother Earth"as "M.E."7:08

Charts

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Weekly charts

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Chart (1994) Peak
position
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[42] 71
UK Albums (OCC)[43] 12
Chart (1999) Peak
position
UK Independent Albums (OCC)[44] 34
Chart (2014) Peak
position
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[45] 132
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[46] 142
Japanese Albums (Oricon)[47] 257
Scottish Albums (OCC)[48] 82
UK Dance Albums (OCC)[49] 12

Certifications and sales

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Region Certification Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[50] Gold 100,000^
United States — 56,000[51]

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

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  1. ^ Jones, Nick (January 1994). "Underworld: Dubnobasswithmyheadman". Mixmag. Vol. 2, no. 32. London. p. 29.
  2. ^ "From the Underworld". Melody Maker. London. 15 January 1994. p. 4.
  3. ^ a b c Petridis, Alexis (November 2014). "The modern dance". Mojo. No. 252. London. pp. 51–55.
  4. ^ a b Push (22 January 1994). "Going Overground". Melody Maker. London. pp. 24–25.
  5. ^ a b Zelevansky 1997, p. 136.
  6. ^ Eskilson 2007, p. 375.
  7. ^ a b Miles, Scott & Morgan 2005, p. 214.
  8. ^ Eskilson 2007, p. 374.
  9. ^ a b c Mulholland, Garry (November 2014). "Underworld: Dubnobasswithmyheadman". Uncut. No. 210. London. pp. 85–87.
  10. ^ a b Bush, John. "Dubnobasswithmyheadman – Underworld". AllMusic. Retrieved 14 February 2012.
  11. ^ a b Nunn, Adie (13 January 2003). "Album Review: Underworld – Dubnobasswithmyheadman". Drowned in Sound. Archived from the original on 12 October 2014. Retrieved 10 October 2014.
  12. ^ Larkin, Colin (2011). "Underworld". The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th concise ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-85712-595-8.
  13. ^ a b Fadele, Dele (15 January 1994). "Underworld: Dubnobasswithmyheadman". NME. London. p. 28.
  14. ^ Spartos, Carla (2004). "Underworld". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. p. 837. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  15. ^ Howe, Rupert (February 1994). "Underworld: Dubnobasswithmyheadman". Select. No. 44. London. p. 77.
  16. ^ a b Cinquemani, Sal (2 February 2002). "Underworld: dubnobasswithmyheadman". Slant Magazine. Retrieved 14 February 2012.
  17. ^ Bonner, Michael (April 2016). "Underworld: Buyer's Guide". Uncut. No. 227. London. p. 29.
  18. ^ a b Strongman, Phil (February 1994). "Underworld: Dubnobasswithmyheadman". Vox. No. 41. London. p. 68.
  19. ^ Turner, Ben (15 January 1994). "Underworld: Dubnobasswithmyheadman". Melody Maker. London. p. 27.
  20. ^ "Albums of the Year". Melody Maker. London. 24 December 1994. pp. 66–67.
  21. ^ "90 Best Albums of the 1990s". Q. No. 159. London. December 1999. p. 82.
  22. ^ "10 Essential Dance Albums That Rock". Alternative Press. No. 142. Cleveland. May 2000. p. 120.
  23. ^ Todd, Chris (7 October 2014). "UNDERWORLD "Dubnobasswithmyheadman [Reissue]"". The Line of Best Fit. Retrieved 20 March 2023.
  24. ^ Tucker, Simon (6 October 2014). "Underworld: Dubnobasswithmyheadman (20th Anniversary Edition) – album review". Louder than War. Retrieved 20 March 2023.
  25. ^ Worthy, Stephen (November 2014). "Underworld: Dubnobasswithmyheadman Super Deluxe". Mojo. No. 252. London. p. 111.
  26. ^ McNaughton, Mac (7 October 2014). "Album Review: Underworld - Dubnobasswithmyheadman (20th Anniversary edition)". The Music. Retrieved 20 March 2023.
  27. ^ Heyland, Nick (8 October 2014). "Underworld: Dubnobasswithmyheadman (20th Anniversary Remaster)". Pitchfork. Retrieved 9 October 2014.
  28. ^ Mathers, Ian (24 October 2014). "Underworld: Dubnobasswithmyheadman (20th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition)". PopMatters. Retrieved 24 October 2014.
  29. ^ a b Harrison, Ian (October 2014). "Underworld: Dubnobasswithmyheadman". Q. No. 339. London. pp. 124–25.
  30. ^ Smith, Phil (November 2014). "Underworld – dubnobasswithmyheadman". Record Collector. No. 433. London. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  31. ^ a b c "Lemon Interupt – Dirty / Minniapolis". discogs. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  32. ^ a b "Underworld – Dirty Epic". discogs. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  33. ^ a b c "Underworld – Rez". discogs. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  34. ^ a b "Lemon Interupt – Eclipse / Big Mouth". discogs. Retrieved 23 September 2017. The writing credits on this release are completely fabricated (a band in-joke)
  35. ^ a b c "Underworld – Dark & Long 1". discogs. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  36. ^ a b c "Underworld – Spikee / Dogman Go Woof". discogs. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  37. ^ a b "Underworld – Dark & Long". discogs. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  38. ^ a b "Underworld – Mmm... Skyscraper I Love You". discogs. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  39. ^ "Underworld – Cowgirl". discogs. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  40. ^ "Underworld – Dark & Long 2". discogs. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  41. ^ deckard236. "unreleased dubnobasswithmyheadman era". Dirty Forums. Retrieved 15 October 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  42. ^ "Dutchcharts.nl – Underworld – Dubnobasswithmyheadman" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  43. ^ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
  44. ^ "Official Independent Albums Chart Top 50". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  45. ^ "Ultratop.be – Underworld – Dubnobasswithmyheadman" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  46. ^ "Ultratop.be – Underworld – Dubnobasswithmyheadman" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  47. ^ "アンダーワールドのランキング" (in Japanese). Oricon. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
  48. ^ "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 8 April 2017.
  49. ^ "Official Dance Albums Chart Top 40". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  50. ^ "British album certifications – Underworld – Dubnobasswithmyheadman". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
  51. ^ Paoletta, Michael (20 March 1999). "UK Dance Act Targets US Audience With Junior Boy's Own, V2 Disc". Billboard. Vol. 111, no. 12. p. 11. Retrieved 2 June 2018.

Bibliography

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Further reading

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