Pitchfork

The members of Underworld are smart, savvy lads. They've worked on solving the difficulties inherent in performing techno live. Or performing techno live at arenas or festivals, anyway. The first time I saw the band play out, just before Dubnobasswithmyheadman was released, was at a twisted club called the Soundshaft, which adjoined the famous London boite, Heaven. That night (a Good Friday, I almost recall), the owners of the two clubs opened up the doors that partitioned the very different styles. The Soundshaft Drum Club techno massive shimmied and sashayed with the amyl house of Heaven. After a few hours of DJ sets, a band took the small, almost ad hoc stage, and stylistic divisions in the area immediately vanished.

Underworld, for it was they, performed extended versions of songs off Dubnobasswithmyheadman, liquidly morphing from "Mmm Skyscraper, I Love You" and "Rez" to "Cowgirl" and "Dirty Epic." I didn't know any of these classics at the time, but after a two-hour set and having been a part of the euphoria this band concocted, they became my most precious band.

And rarely have they, in the years since that club gig, disappointed. I saw them perform before Second Toughest in the Infants saw release. Their set at the mid-sized Astoria mixed the familiar sounds of Dubno with the breakbeats the band had been experimenting with for the album. That set sounded like evolution, and the audience participated in the rolling out of the new style Underworld.

Everything, Everything documents the live stage that followed breakbeat Underworld. Beaucoup Fish hinted at trance and electro, but depicted a more melancholy Underworld. Beaucoup Fish recapitulated the styles of its predecessors but struck them through with a palpable mourning. That Darren Emerson-- the member who took them from third on the bill opening for the Eurythmics to dance music icons-- would leave the band after that album, and their largest U.S. reception to date makes it all the more poignant.

Though Everything, Everything is unquestionably a swan song for the Emerson years, it's far from a mopey affair. In fact, it tackles early tracks like "Rez" and "Cowgirl," and pumps them up with megawatt power. It also serves as a greatest hits package, including their most famed numbers, "Pearl's Girl" and "Push Upstairs," among others.

Vocalist Karl Hyde predictably reserves his loudest delivery for the "Shouting Lager! Lager! Lager!" line in the 12-minute, bone-buckling rendition of "Born Slippy Nuxx." But as with all live albums, one misses the being-there. Sure, Everything, Everything documents the crowd's loopy joy when the piano vamps of "King of Snake" break though the filthy Giorgio Moroder-inspired bass line. But we miss the visuals.

The sine qua non component of Underworld is Tomato, the experimental graphic design firm of which Hyde and Smith are members. The cut-up, scraggly, ugly beauty of Tomato's type solutions are matched and amplified in Hyde's Byron Gisin-ish lyrics (e.g. "Got my 501s freeze- dried with a new religion"). Underworld are aware of the significant piece missing from Everything, Everything and will soon release a DVD version, which will insert Tomato into the live document. Looks like these lads really have thought of everything.