Search - Underworld vs the Misterons :: Athens

A he(( of a compilation

xmasthecat | Los Angeles, CA USA | 01/21/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful late night type album. Few lyrics, mostly instrumental. Music from a number of periods and genres that flows together perfectly, almost as if it were by the same band. If you know Underworld's mellower stuff you know the frequency this lives in -- mellow, nocturnal, still quite rhythmic, danceable at times. Nocturnal especially. How do you describe it? Psychedelic, trip hoppy, electronic, jazzy. I'd want to play it at a party late at night with the lights down very low. Skittery acoustic jazzy drums that you can sometimes dance to; low key electric piano and organ, deep bass, samples, the odd sitar, low-key horns. Obviously this varies depending on whether it's a seventies track or an 2000's track, yet it all blends nicely.



Underworld says their goal in collecting this music was to highlight music that had inspired them especially with its musicianship. Nice balance here between mood, groove, subtle instrumentation, musicality, highly skilled playing.



Pitchfork, I noticed, gave this a mediocre review -- apparently based on their dissatisfaction with the personality of Underworld, the band. That seems totally irrelevant to me, as it's a compilation with only one Underworld song proper, that's a rarity, and a good one, that fits in completely with the Alice Coltrane, Roxy Music, Mahavishnu Orchestra, etc. Only one of these tracks had I ever heard before (Roxy Music track that was used in Velvet Goldmine), and I'm glad to have discovered all these bands, old and new."