Underworld

"Underworld" is also a: user

created by rowan
(place) by dem bones (28.3 min) (print)   (I like it!) 1 C! Sat Nov 13 1999 at 8:38:16

Simply, the region below the surface of a planet or the diametric opposite surface of a planet - the antipodes. 'Underworld' is also commonly used to refer to the criminal element of a society - see the American Underworld Dictionary.



A common dimension in most of the world's religions and belief systems, the underworld generally refers to the land of the dead - the place where dead souls come to rest.

Inevitably, we have one or two gods assigned to this realm, presumably keeping an eye on the corpses and handling two major responsibilities:

  1. Order The Greeks assigned Hades to divide up their land of the dead into two regions:
  2. Punishment - check out 'Seasons of Mist' by Neil Gaiman or 'Satan' by God.

Paranoid as humans are, they generally have the entrance to the assorted underworlds guarded by a fearsome beast of some sort (see Cerberus if you're into the classics or Garm if you like snow) the task of which is more about keeping you out than keeping the dead in.

The Greek underworld - probably the most popular, but, again, all the voters are dead - has five rivers:

  • Acheron (river of woe, the Phlegethon and the Cocytus flow into the Acheron)
  • Cocytus (wailing)
  • Lethe (river of forgetfulness: the new dead drank from this river to forget the pain of their earthly lives so they could be free in Elysium)
  • Phlegethon (a river of fire)
  • Styx (the entrance to the underworld, across which souls of the dead were ferried by Charon)

AMJ graces us with a nice list of local underworlds below - also consider:



Finally, "Underworld" is a 1997 novel by Don Delillo. It's a story about "trash, nuclear holocaust, and mass consciousness" ... or so nexxus tells me.

(person) by mkb (9.2 hr) (print)   (I like it!) 4 C!s Mon Aug 07 2000 at 18:03:02

A history of Underworld

Underworld began as a band called The Screen Gemz. Karl Hyde and Rick Smith met at a Cardiff restaurant where the two worked. They had one release, 1979's "Teenage Teenage" backed with "I Just Can't Stand Cars".

Next came Freur, which contained future Underworld members Karl Hyde and Rick Smith, along with Alfie Thomas. The name "Freur" was represented in text by a Prince-style unpronounceable symbol. Freur released two albums: Get Us Out Of Here and Doot Doot. Doot Doot became a bit of a success, but the band eventually broke up.

Later on, Hyde and Smith got together with a new lineup under the name Underworld. The first Underworld also released two albums: Change the Weather and Underneath the Radar. The pinnacle of their career was opening for the Eurythmics during the halftime show at Super Bowl XIX, breaking up shortly after.

Disappointed with the pop music industry, Hyde and Smith parted ways. Karl Hyde moved to New York and worked as a session guitarist for PIG (Raymond Watts, that is) among others, while Rick Smith worked in production. Hyde sank deeper into alcoholism, using it as a way to write poetry and lyrics.

Eventually, Smith and Hyde decided to make music again. Hyde moved back to England, and the two met up with the then long-haired, up-and-coming acid house DJ Darren Emerson. At the same time, they started the design collective tm8o, later called Tomato, mostly to pay the bills and to radically alter the face of advertising. The trio first began recording as either Lemon Interrupt or Steppin' Razor. These two terms showed up later in their career as Underworld Mark II: their studio is named Lemonworld, and the lyric "steppin' razor" shows up in the song spoonman.

In early 2000, Darren Emerson left the group due to internal tension and Emerson's increasingly successful DJ career. Darren Price has filled in some live dates, but the group is now officially a duo.

Underworld have remixed many people: Leftfield, William Orbit, Bjork, Shakespeare's Sister, Orbital, themselves, Front 242, and not so many recently. They've been remixed by, well, see below.

Their official record company site is at http://www.underworld-jbo.com. However, all the important stuff is at http://www.underworldlive.com (archived music and video) and http://www.dirty.org (dirtyradio, web forums)

Underworld released a video compilation in 1997 in the US called Footwear Repairs by Craftsmen at Competitive Prices. It was originally released in the UK (minus the born slippy.NUXX and Moaner videos) as kiteless.

Underworld are perhaps the finest performers of dance music in the world today. Their concerts are totally live; there are no tapes, no rehearsals, not even a setlist. Their material is usually presented in a whole new way. (called "live remixing" by some people)

Accompanying the incredible live music of Underworld is the graphic nuttiness of tomato, the graphic design firm of which Underworld is an integral part.

discography sources: sakke, darktrain.org, and my record collection.

(thing) by FryingLizard (1.1 y) (print)   (I like it!) 1 C! Mon Aug 07 2000 at 18:37:49
If you are interested in hearing the magic that is Underworld live, you can either wait for the release of their forthcoming live CD and DVD (titled everything, everything), or you can join the RTSR-trade (Ride The Sainted Rhythms - after an UW lyric) mailing list, which is devoted to the trading of bootleg Underworld live recordings.

There is an FTP server (ask politely on the mailing list for the IP address) containing many gigs of generally high (in some cases superb) quality MP3 files, remixes by fans, deleted Underworld releases, setlists, and so on.

If you've not had the pleasure of seeing Underworld live, or if you have and wish to relive the experience, this list and FTP is highly recommended.

Particularly good are the CD-quality bootlegs from Tilburg, and another unknown German gig - just awesome on headphones late at night..

Web site: http://welcome.to/rtsr/
Details of the mailing list can be found there.. Enjoy.

Footnote: Also of interest is a 3 hour DJ set that Rick Smith & Karl Hyde did on BBC Radio 1 in February 2000, which is extremely eclectic (only about 30% electronic music) and very, very good indeed.
(thing) by Wonder_Llama (7 y) (print)   (I like it!) Sun Jan 14 2001 at 17:40:42
Underworld are gods. They really are. Let me share with you their story. The original guys from Underworld (plus a few other guys) got together in the early eighties under the name Freur and sold out very very quickly. For nearly the whole decade, they toured with pop bands, like the Eurythmics, which was fun for awhile, but then became very sour. They had no artistic freedom, and they were constantly being told things like "Make this shorter so we can make a music video out of it" or "You can't use live instruments on a house track", etc etc.

They got really sick of this and in the early nineties disbanded. The core Underworld members Rick Smith and Karl Hyde started a design company called Tomato (www.tomato.co.uk), which to this day has been extremely successful, with such clients as Nike, Adidas, Intel and Volvo, to name a few. Tomato has done books, tv/radio commercials, web sites, music videos and even architecture -- all very well. Eventually, tomato made enough money that Smith and Hyde had enough money to start their own label and build a studio. This is how dubnobasswithmyheadman was born. They had complete artistic freedom now (on their own label), and basically told mtv to go fuck themselves when they asked them to edit their stuff for airplay. Later, DJ Darren Emerson joined, although he left the group amicably earlier this year to get back to djing. They're one of the most important groups in electronic music ever. They've really pushed what people thought was okay to do with electronic music and have made some incredibly original tracks in many different styles.

(place) by Tlachtga (21.8 hr) (print)   (I like it!) 1 C! Fri Jul 27 2001 at 21:51:40
The land beneath us. The realm of the dead. The realm of the evil dead. You get the picture. Some parts are good, some parts are bad--depends on who you believe. The Greeks had two divisions; the Buddhists have eight. Christians think only evil people go there; the Celts said only gods go there. Go figure.

Names for the Underworld:

  • Hell/Hel: Anglo-Saxon, goddess of the underworld, daughter of Loki. "Concealed place," where dwells the serpent chewing on the roots of Yggdrasil.
  • Muspelhiem: Norse, land of fire to the south. Sometimes identified with Hel/Hell.
  • Niflheim: Norse, land of ice to the north, and realm of the dead.
  • Valhalla: Norse; home of Odin and of the warriors who died in battle, where they feast and fight for eternity. Everyone else goes to Hell.
  • Hades: Greek; god of underworld who gave his name to the place. "Half-blind"? divided into two areas:
  • Sheol: Hebrew "the grave" Whether the Jews ever believed this was an actual place is up to debate; most Jews I've spoken to do not believe in an afterlife.
  • Gehenna: Hebrew; "valley of the sons of Hinnom". The dump outside Jerusalem's walls where they burned trash; also associated with the immolation of children in worship of Moloch. More of a New Testament type of thing.
  • Jahannam: Arabic, derived from Gehenna
  • Abyss: Book of Revelations' name.
  • The Lake of Fire: same.
  • Infernum/Inferno: Latin, "the firey place," an idea derived from the Hebrew Gehenna. Actually, it's derived from Proto-Indo-European *ṇdher- meaning "below, underground"
  • Uffern: Welsh, derived from the Latin "inferno"
  • Annwn/Annwfn: Welsh "the Not-world"? More an Otherworld of the sidhe than a land of the damned, or even the dead, but later conflated with Uffern.
  • Avalon: Welsh afallach--"Land of Apples." Where King Arthur and the Grail rest, a place of peace.
  • Tir na nOg: Irish "The Land of Youth"--where the blessed few get to go, instead of being reincarnated. Kinda like Nirvana. This concept is less hell than heaven, but still an underworld--an under-the-waves-world, actually.
  • Sidhe: The hollow hills, where the Tuatha De Danann dwell underground in Irish mythology.
  • Tech Duinn: The House of Donn, lord of the Dead in Irish myth.
  • The Blessed Isles: Celtic concept, similar as the above.
  • Buddhist hell: recounted under "hell," and I will not repeat it here.
(place) by agoodmixture (3.7 mon) (print)   (I like it!) Sat Sep 15 2001 at 6:10:37
When first I arrived into that black place,
Cold and engorged with the rank stench of rot,
I sank; for I did not then know of way
To lead my soul from its taste of emptiness.

There was blank death and waste. My ears drew no sound
But the slow, dark echoes of that whispering river
Or the frozen laments of dispirited bodies
Moaning through weights of heart and of mind.

I could then speak no words. Color fled my eyes
And all urge for movement escaped from my feet--
I knew not whether I was living or dead,
So drowned was my drive, so true my defeat.

It was there that I felt that icy embrace
...

-9/14/2001
(place) by ac_hyper (3.1 mon) (print)   (I like it!) 5 C!s Wed Sep 24 2003 at 18:49:49

Title: Underworld
Running Time: 121 minutes
MPAA Rating: R for violence/gore and some language
Release Date: September 19, 2003
Studio: Screen Gems

Perhaps the most important thing to realize about Underworld is that it is primarily an action film: not a groundbreaking exploration of the vampire mythos. That being said, Underworld actually had more of a plot than I expected. I saw it the day after it opened, having only a single viewing of the downloadable trailer and a few comments from friends on a BBS to go on. I'd heard that it was "pretentious", "like Romeo and Juliet, only with vampires and werewolves", and "pretty to look at." I have a feeling a lot of people went to see Underworld with the impression that it was going place much more of an emphasis on the vampire society and mystique than it actually did. The vampirism and lycanthropy were there mostly for aesthetic effect on what was basically your standard action flick.

We meet our viewpoint character, Selene (played by Kate Beckinsale), in the film's first few moments. Dressed in a form-fitting vinyl suit, a Matrix-esque overcoat, and the sexiest boots I've ever seen, her inner voice narrates to the audience that she is a warrior in a centuries-old battle between vampires and werewolves. First impression: this would make an excellent premise for a video game. This is not necessarily a bad thing. I liked the Resident Evil movie. I'm a sucker for the chicks with guns subgenre. There isn't much dialogue in the first few minutes of Underworld, unless you consider bullet exchange a form of conversation. A shootout ensues in a subway station, here we meet our first few werewolves, or "