Amazon.co.uk Review
Second Toughest in the Infants came three years after Underworld's potent debut
Dubnobasswithmyheadman. Following the group's massive
Trainspotting soundtrack hit "Born Slippy", at first glance this offering seems to carry the same epic and elaborate edge of that huge hit.
Opening with an opulent triptych called "Juanita", "Kiteless" and "To Dream Of Love"--three tracks which segue seamlessly into each other and form a quite splendid 16-minute Underworld-a-thon--the trio certainly weren't afraid to indulge when making this LP. The next track, "Banstyle/Sappys Curry" seems to confirm this, weighing in at an impressive 15 minutes, though this time nose-diving into some atmospheric, oceanic drum & bass a la LTJ Bukem.
Throughout the rest of the album, Underworld alternate between assuaging their raging club beats with warm washes of sound and beatless splashes of colour, and offering more straight-up heavyweight club fodder. "Confusion the Waitress" carries a definite prog-rock feel in places, "Pearls Girl" takes a more breakbeat-fuelled route and is arguably one of the album's most thrilling moments, while tracks such as "Air Towel" are as insubstantial as their name suggests--flimsy, inconsequential "Detroitian" workouts lacking real punch. "Blueski" is a little better, straying as it does into an acoustic psychedelic roam while the final track "Stagger" is a similarly beatless meander, though more maudlin and electronic this time and featuring Hyde's best vocal performance of the album. Overall, there are some solid tracks here, but it's less sinewy and more indulgent feel make it not quite as essential as its predecessor. --Paul Sullivan
CD Description
Underworld's position in the budding electronic universe isunique: Each of its songs is as much a pop tune as a deftlysculpted rhythm track. Not the usual three-minute pop, but interwoven epics that develop over twice the length, using rhythms and loops rather than verses and choruses as buildingblocks. On SECOND TOUGHEST IN THE INFANTS (a nod to the hardships of sophomore outings), Karl Hyde, Rick Smith and Darren Emerson create a haunting new language built of dub, ambient, techno, jungle and rock textures, all set to a bass-heavy pulse. And even that fails to describe the dark, dreamlike atmospheres that the trio creates.
First off, there arethe rhythmic overdoses. The opening "Juanita", clocking in at an epic 16 minutes, features layered, percolating percussion that rides an incessant techno throb down a highway intoa psychedelic sunset. "Rowla" takes a punky, distorted-beyond-repair keyboard loop and drops it in the middle of the dance floor, where it roars like the Tasmanian devil. Most unusual of all is "Blueski", a three-minute instrumental that slows the pace around a bluesy slide-guitar loop, evoking a late-night scene in a parallel universe. All these sounds areparts of Underworld's expansive domain, unified by the aforementioned pulse and the search for more of it.
