Underworld's Beaucoup Fish

As you listen to this new album from one of the finest techno bands in the world, you will no doubt repeatedly
ask yourself, "Can this music get any more gorgeous?" And you will discover each time that the answer is "yes."

Underworld, the three-man dance/trance act best known for Trainspotting's epic "Born Slippy," has crafted a consistently beautiful album. This is no surprise--the band's previous efforts are electronic music benchmarks--but Beaucoup Fish, at once more danceable and more cerebral than its predecessors, surpasses even the high standards underworld has already set.

The opening track, "Cups," begins innocently enough, with retro-synth chords, a big, bouncy beat, and a soothing vocal line. But by its finish, we're awash in furiously distorted keyboards and stuttering, screaming voices. "Push Upstairs" continues the dance assault, with a piano hook that sounds like it was extracted from a house song after a run-in with an angry wolverine.

"Jumbo" is another high-energy tune, but this one is made as much for flying as it is for dancing. A soaring melody accompanies lyricist Karl Hyde's sexually charged moans of "I need sugar," making for a song sweet enough to use up your dental insurance. Next comes a jump into the guitar squiggles of "Shudder" and the nine-minute dance madness of "King of Snake."

The album's midsection is a departure from the driving beats of the first four tracks. "Winjer" and "Skym" are slow, almost ambient love songs. Such unlikely phrases as "Take ya top off" and "Do you still feed the animals?" are infused with enough nostalgic melancholy to do Joy Division proud. I'll be damned if I know how the two-turntables-and-a-dada-poem funk of "Bruce Lee" fits in, but somehow the lads make it work.

The next track, "Kittens," is a return to the transcendent rave splendor of past Underwold glories like "Rez," while "Push Downstairs" serves as a meditative counterpoint to its "Up"wardly-mobile twin. Appropriately enough for an album of such emotional power, Beaucoup's two last tracks are also its darkest. The bassline in "Something Like A Mama" squiggles down into nothingness, while drums pound and ominous synth-strings lurk in the background. Finally, there's "Moaner," a ruthlessly spiraling masterpiece of dancefloor aggression and post-breakup hatred. It's as intense a moment as this year in music is likely to produce. And it's simply another illustration of Underworld's brilliance. (JBO)

--Sean Collins

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