No Filler Music Podcast - When Techno Meets Downtempo: Underworld's A Hundred Days Off

Episode Date: August 23, 2021

After a decade of success in the vibrant British electronica and techno scene, Underworld reinvented themselves in 2002 when Rick Smith and Karl Hyde released the dark and beautiful A Hundred Days Off. The record remained true to the duo's dance floor roots with a house and techno backbone, but introduced ambient and downtempo elements to the mix. Add Hyde's dreamy and drone-like vocal delivery, the result is a truly exceptional record that's as energetic as it is hypnotic. Tracklist: Two Months Off Freur - Doot Doot Dark And Long Mo Move Sola Sistim Little Speaker Ballet Lane Akotcha - Img.00.37 (courtesy of Soma FM's Groove Salad) This show is part of the Pantheon Podcast network. Pantheon is a proud partner of AKG by Harman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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my name is Quentin. I've got my brother Travis with me as always, and this is week four of our downtempo jams, dude. Today we are covering Underworld and their album from 2002, 100 days off. So let's recap, dude, the last few weeks, what kind of like styles of music we've brought to the table under the downtempo umbrella. because I think it's going to be a little bit different today. So I feel like between, you know, the three artists that we've covered before, Warwick, Thiefery Corporation, Quantic, Quantic and Thiebry Corporation kind of like they're in the same building at least.

You know what I mean? If down tempo was a city, you know, or at least they're on the same block, right? But Warwick's Op is kind of down the street a little bit further. Yeah, Quantic and Thie Corporation, they, Their flavor of down tempo is like... It's rooted in jazz, you know? And funk and reggae. Yeah, right.

But they don't, like, manipulate it too much. Yeah. It sounds like a polished, dancey jazz song, you know? And Roerick-Sop brought in more of like the ambient down tempo kind of thing. And they would incorporate like strings, at least some of the songs that we played, strings, you know, and other like interesting. like you said earlier, like the recuperation in contact

didn't necessarily like manipulate stuff. But like Roikzop, you would hear like some, you know, it sounds like bubbles or something like that, you know what I mean? Yeah. But today, we're covering underworld. And underworld is like the house music kind of, you know, more typical like dance club kind of house music. Yeah.

But they take that house music and they flip on. that down tempo switch. Yeah, and that's the thing that, like, I don't think we've really touched on all that much yet is that a lot of these artists, you know, down tempo is just a, a genre of many genres sometimes that an artist falls under. Like, with Quantic, you know, they're pretty strictly down tempo, but they also have the trip hop label on them. And I say they, it's actually just one person, but, uh, Thiebu Corporation, you know, they get the down tempo label, but they also have like dub reggae, Basanova Latin jazz

and then they threw in like Middle Eastern stuff too right and then Rorikso it's like down tempo house ambient

trip hop and then underworld like you were saying it's more like house dance progressive like you know even elements of like

techno and stuff that you'll get in there but it's definitely more like dance oriented yes compared to the other ones but like all four of those artists

still have the down tempo label on them so like much like metal and rock and roll, you know, electronic musicians pulling a bunch of different genres into their sound. So it's never strictly down tempo, you know. And so this is going to be, I think underworld, or at least this album in particular, is going to be a little bit different than the last three weeks, but in like a really, really good way. So maybe if you weren't into theory corporation or Quantic or works up even, you might, you might like underworld.

And I'm bringing a bunch of different. different songs, a bunch of clips from each song to really showcase that, you know, like what we've been, what we love so much about down tempo is the layer building and the subtle changes that that they'll add to a song as it progresses. Yeah. Underworld does it so great. These guys have been around for a long time too, right? Yeah. Yeah. So I'm going to, I'm going to do just a quick rapid fire history on these guys.

I'm actually going to play a song from their first group that they were in together. So Underworld is two dudes, at least now it's two dudes. It's Carl Hyde, and he actually does a lot of his own vocals in these down-tipo songs, which is another thing that's totally out of left field as far, you know, the bands that we've covered before. Right. And like what I want to know, and maybe you can tell us this cue, is that because, you know, these guys formed in 1980.

They were a funk synth-pop group. So the style of music they were doing probably lended itself to vocals, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah, dude. And so he's just been singing the whole time. And so they have that as just part of their, of what they do versus, you know, quantic. All he was doing was sampling stuff and, you know, pulling in live instrumentation and stuff. But vocals, if you hear vocal tracks on a down tempo song, usually it's either sampled in or it's a guest vocalist on the record, right? It's almost never the producer themselves. So yeah, it's what it makes underworld interesting. Yeah. So again, Carl, Carl, He does vocals. He plays guitar and he plays synthesizer. And Rick Smith. So Rick Smith is the main producer of the duo. You know, he's the one who edits and produces the music. I mean, Carl Hyde produces as well, but Rick Smith is like the brains. He's that side of the corn for Underworld.

He also plays keyboard and synthesizer. So they play a lot of their instruments too. That's another cool thing. And they were in a band in the early 80s called Freer. So they were very short-lived. They were active for about four years as a band. I am going to play one of their songs, dude. I want to show the progression of sound with these two guys.

I love it. So, again, they were part of this group. I'm not going to name off the rest of the band, because who cares. But they did actually have one pretty successful. I mean, it made it to the charts. It wasn't like number one or anything. But they had a single in 83 called Dute Dute. If you've ever seen the movie Vanilla Sky with Tom Cruise,

it's on the soundtrack and we're going to play a little bit of it and it's dude get ready man it's catchy as fuck all right I'm ready so again this is Hyde and Smith's early group before they were doing Underworld called Freer

this song is called Dute Dute So they were they were just doing like the 80s pop synth thing 80s new wave stuff yeah man but that's that's really that's really interesting because like how do you go from that like you can you can certainly hear his voice

but other than that like extremely different from the underworld stuff. So, like, I'm curious, like, how do they, what gets them to, to the sound that we're going to hear on this episode, you know? Oh, we'll get there, dude. But yeah, it's cool. That's cool to hear. Because, you know what?

That's what I assumed was what was the case that, like, if they've been around since the 80s and one of them is a vocalist, I bet you the music they were making in the 80s was 80s, like synth pop and that, that's the case. Yeah. And it was a full-blown band, you know. Yeah, yeah. Now, here's something cool, dude. In 85, Freer scored the soundtrack for the 1985 horror film Underworld.

Okay. And that's why they changed their name to Underworld and just a nod back to the film that they scored. That's funny, man. Like, think about that, their name could have been something wacky, man. If it was just based off like whatever movie we scored is the name of our band, like it could have gone a totally different way. Yeah, right. Underworld is a cool name.

Underworld is a great name. Yeah. Yeah. So they split in 86. Two of the members stayed along with Hyde and Smith as Underworld. Okay. And they continued to do the same kind of music. and then the rest of them split.

What happens is in 1990, or no, I guess it wasn't, it was a little bit after that. There's kind of a gap here, but Hyden Smith pull in a DJ into their group. So it was three of them. It was a DJ Darren Emerson. And that's how you get to Underworld, dude. They brought in a DJ.

And they actually had fairly big success off of their second studio album, which came out in 96. It was called Second Toughest in the I. infants, they had one of their songs featured in the movie Train Spotting. Okay. Which is, you know, that's a cold classic. Yeah.

So before they split from Emerson and just continue on as a duo, they were just dropping club bangers, dude. Just straight up like four on the floor, techno house music. All right. So, so, no, was he still singing? Yes. Okay. Yep, you'll hear him in this one. So, again, this is mid-year.

90s and this is a song off of underworld's second studio album second toughest in the infants the song is called dark and long yeah this is great because you know they they incorporate elements of that sound on the album that we're talking about today but we're still not quite at like down tempo yet you know like this is you know if we're talking about like electronic music if i can use my city analogy or whatever, then yeah, now we're like, you know, several blocks over or whatever from down tempo. Yeah. I don't know if my city, if that's going to work with this analogy, but, you know, if down tempo is a street or a building, then we're several, we're several blocks away from down tempo. But what I like about this.

Yeah, well, I mean, I like hearing this because it makes it now, it can connect the dots between this. and a hundred days off, you know. And think about, too, like this came out in 96, dude. Yeah. Like, this was like at the height, the trance. Yeah, definitely. Like, the raves and stuff. Yep.

You know. Yeah. Like house music was, was all the rage. And it was, and it was this, this, like, blend of, like, trance and techno. It was everywhere, dude. And I feel like, you know, movies like this and, like the Matrix and stuff like that really helped. And of course, the Matrix had a lot.

of like industrial type stuff. Was it like prodigy and stuff was on the Matrix soundtrack? I think so. I should know this. But yeah, you know, we're a few years out from 100 days off. But yeah, I don't know. It sounds like by the time you get to the 2000s is when the down tempo trip hop type stuff started to take off. So, you know, all the records that we've talked about are around the early 2000s, around this exact same time.

The Quantic, I think, was 2000. Actually, 2001. I think Theor Corporation was 2000. So, yeah, we're not there yet. I think what's so cool about these two is, like, they've been doing it since, I mean, they've been, I guess they haven't been doing dance music since the 80s. Yeah. But, you know, they had already been in the game since, let's see, their first album with Emerson in the mix was 1995. Yeah.

So they had been doing it for eight years already before that's, yeah, a hundred days off came out. Insane. So there started to be some like friction among, among these three guys. They were together for eight years as a trio. They made three albums. They also released a, like a live DVD that apparently was a bitch to make. And they got to the point where, you know, like they'd be in the studio. working on a new album, all three of them would be in separate rooms doing their separate

things. Like, there's just no love left. So Emerson actually leaves Underworld to focus on solo projects and a record label that he had started. Again, eight years pass as Underworld proper before we get to the album that we're talking about today, 100 days off. It came out in 2002. This is their first album as a duo.

and really there's not much departure from their earlier sound, but what happens in this album, so a few things. And I'm going to be quoting this interview that I found on this website that looks like it hasn't been updated since this interview came out. Tony Fletcher is the name of the guy that interviews him. And this is just like, it's just a great, like, blast from the past, like, GeoCities looking website. Love it.

And he interviews Carl. I'll hide and he asks him about a hundred days off because so the main the main thing we're going to hear differently is really that it's way more like chilled out you know chill out comes to mind that genre we've used it in the last few weeks for for down tempo you know that like chill wave trip hop this album is really um well it's funny because the the songs we're bringing on that like ambient or anything it's not that they're ambient it's just like a, just a different sound. And so I'm going to quote this interview here for a little bit,

a little back and forth that they have here. He says, two immediate observations. In many places, it's very chill. And in other places, it's very bright and optimistic in summary. And Carl Hyde says, optimistic, yes, that's a fact. And then Fletcher asks, as a casual observer, I'd be tempted to say, have you fallen in love?

and Carl says, I stopped drinking four and a half years ago, and it's had a massive effect on my life and the lives of those people that come in close proximity to me, not least of all, Rick. And Fletcher says, so that's what the optimism is down to? And Carl says, without question. The thing for me is I spent 25 years using that stuff to run away, and all of a sudden you're clear of that, and you've got your day back. And there's all this stuff going on during the day that's really exciting and interesting. Time opens up. Suddenly I've got loads and loads of time.

Then I start filling that time with stuff I enjoy doing. And also not living in tomorrow or yesterday, but really trying to live in today. And that was a struggle at first, but when I started doing that, stuff just started. There was so much electricity. It was like when I was a teenager and went to art college for the first time. Like, oh my God, there's all this stuff, and it was great. You have to calm down sometimes so you don't get too euphoric. And yeah, man, I know how that goes, dude.

And that's, yeah, and it comes across in this album, dude. And he's just, you know, super stoked to have his life back. His relationship with his bandmate, Rick, is on the mend. It's interesting because, like, there's some, you know, I feel like there's, there's, the overall sound of this record is more, um, dark. But I'm only saying that because I think that's like the, the deep house element of it, which I think is one of the, you know, this is house music. So there's going to be more of a persistent, like, heavy bass drum

and a lot of the songs and stuff that driving beat. But I feel like, you know, if he's saying that you can hear his renewed, like, optimism in the record, maybe it's coming across the lyrics, you know? Well, I don't know about that. And that's the thing, dude. Like, I didn't really dive too deep into their old discography. And I'm guessing you haven't either. No. I'm familiar with a few tracks here and there, but yeah. But no, you know, he could just be saying that he's enjoying the process again. You know, he's enjoying making music again. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's interesting to hear that, but that's good. Let's take a quick break.

So, let's play our first song, dude. So this is going to be the opening track. And these are going to be some lengthy clips, dude, because, again, again, Again, I really just want to show off this, like the transitions and the layers and just the subtlety of it with Underworld. I think that's what I like the most about them. It just, it's really subtle, but it's, it gets you, man. It's great. Now, let's just say it, Q, before we play this track, because we had alluded to this last week that there's a moment in the song that is one of our favorite moments.

in not just a down-tip-all track, maybe like any track. It's up there, dude. Maybe that's overselling it a little bit, but there's a moment in here that always gets me. So, yeah. All right, now, are we going to play this as one clip or two? So I was debating that,

and the best way to do it is just to play it as one lengthy clip, dude. So this is going to be a beefy clip. All right, so this is the opening track off of Underworld's 100 Days Off. This song is called Mo Move. How do we How do we start to talk about? So, you know, okay, so the moment where it all comes back in is the moment we're talking about. But what makes it so effective, you know?

Well, they take that, clearly they've got a microphone up to their to-go cup. What? Their to-go cup, it's got a plastic lid on it with the straw. Dude, let's look that scene on Bob's burgers, remember? Yeah. They're out in front of the store and the kids. Exactly. Got that band.

I'm convinced that's what it is. And the way that it feels like the beat and everything just almost falls apart for like half a second and then they pick it all back up. Yeah. It becomes like the syncopated thing almost, which is so effective. Yeah. It all like syncs up at the end. But it's still in rhythm and stuff. But like it's they cut out like it's, you know, it's syncopated.

Yeah. Is that the right word? I hope it is. I think so. But yeah, again, like it's just, and that's the only time it ever happens in the whole song, right? Yeah. And it's cool. Like if you notice when they take everything out, that first synthesizer thing, the very first thing that brings in the song, when everything else gets pulled, pulled away, that comes back.

And then the recording of the straw going in and out of the plastic lid. Right. Definitely. Definitely what happened in the studio. That's for sure what that is. Yeah. But one thing that always stands out to me is. is, um, the vocals are just so dreamy.

It's just, it's got such a dreamlike quality to it. And even like the, uh, you know, even the lyrics are very like, um, well, the first line is I dream, dude. Right. Well, yeah. There you guys a little bit on the nose. But like, as far as, um, now that we know kind of what he was going through at the time, right? Well, he had, he had gotten through it.

He was on the other side. But, yeah, but that's what I'm saying. Like, um, right. You know, the lyrics are I, I'm dreaming. or I dream that I'm chemical. I become chemical. Now just those two lines alone. Like, you know, the feeling of that dreamlike state

that I think that his vocals really convey in this song just have such a great contrast against the rhythm and the kind of warm synth sound that's happening kind of in the background. Yeah. But it's such a good contrast, man. And this is coming from a person that at the time of writing it, and still to this day, I imagine, he was not putting any chemicals in his body. Yeah. Right?

Yeah. No mind-altering chemicals of any kind were coming into his body at this time. He was sober after 20 plus years of drinking. Yeah. And that's all the lyrics. It's, I dream that I'm chemical. I become chemical right into the ocean of chemical. That's it, dude.

It's very over and over and over meditative, you know. And this song has another kind of trans quality to it, trans-like quality. That's their bread and butter, dude, and they're so good at it, man. And that's, I feel like that's from their house and, like, techno background, right? Just that relentless, like, beat in the background. Yeah. So you have a second clip for us, huh? I do, yeah.

And so with most of these songs, I'm bringing two clips just because I want to play enough of the beginning of the song to introduce all the layers, everything that you're going to hear. Yeah. And then I want to, with my second clips, I want to show what else, like the small things that they add to these layers at the very end that's really effective. Yeah, we had to do that for just about every song that we played last week for The Vyri Corporation. It's kind of the template of a lot of these really good electronic music, you know, songs as you build those layers and then you something different happens at the second part of the

song, you know. Yep. All right, so here's clip two from Mo Move. Right out at the end. Everything gets taken away again, dude. And there's so many like really cool, like, percussive things going on during that second half. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. And that's, I'm wondering about them compared to other down-tempo artists. How much of this is sampled? I would say probably none of it. I might be wrong about that as far as like the percussion instruments. Yeah, I can't really find any, you know, personnel. You can make, you know, any sound out of a, out of a synthesizer, right? Like, you can make percussion sounds, you know?

Absolutely. I'm guessing that they are, they are in that camp of like everything you hear probably comes from them, you know? Yeah, I think it might, yeah, that's another thing that's a little bit different about them, other than like the, you know, female vocals that they bring in. I think it is just them to, doing most of it, which is really cool. Yeah, that's awesome. You know, it's funny because, like, I think we talked about Rourke's up

and how the songs that they made on melody and were so, like, they're just like these kind of pretty songs. You know, I mean, very, like, dreamlike and stuff like that. I feel like Underworld, at least that song, at least, kind of falls more in that camp of like this is like kind of a nice warm pretty sounding song you know yeah there's a little bit of a string element there to some of the that that that melody and the big difference with with these guys is that they've always got that like underlying like driving beat you know yeah almost ever present in a lot of their songs yeah and it makes sense that they that they came from that that world in the

90s you know yeah exactly but that's what makes them so great and what dude what makes them even better I think is Carl's singing. Yeah. And apparently he was super cautious about his voice in the late 90s, mid-90s. And Rick actually convinced him to get singing lessons before 100 days off came out. So, you know, he came back into the studio a little bit more confident in his voice as well. And I'm glad that he sings, dude. I'm glad that they kept that in as part of what they do.

Yeah, me too. I've got a quote here from that interview asking him about his songwriting inspirations. And he says, Lou Reed's New York album. So that was an album of Lou Reed's that came out in 89. So Lou Reed is, of course, lead singer of Velvet Underground. He says, I thought, how the hell did he write that? And I thought, well, if it was me, I'd be sitting in cafes and bars and on trains and just writing down conversational English, because that's the way he's singing on it. He's singing

conversational American. It was about details, tiny details, not these sweeping statements, and that fascinates me, the little details like a photograph. So, that being said, one of my favorite songs on the album, dude, is Sola System, which is what we're going to play next. And I love his vocal delivery. I love the lyrics in the song. Everything's fucking great. dude. Yeah, this is a killer track. Everything about it, man. And this, you know what, there's not much down tempo or even really that much techno or, you know, house in this song. It's just a really great, like, just ambient, maybe new wave. I don't know how to describe it, dude. Let's play some of it. Yeah, man,

let's hear it. All right. Again, this is track four. This one's called Sola System. Yeah, one of my favorite parts about the song is that like that stabbed synth moment that just kind of interjects. Yeah. And it keeps happening once it comes in, it gets sort of added. And then yeah, I just love how, you know, because it's out of place compared to kind of the rest of the song. But it provides a really good contrast to the rest of the song, through his voice to everything that's happening, right? It's great. That drum beats great too, man.

Yeah. It's just front and center. It's kind of a more traditional drumbeat too Like that's not your that's not your techno beat right Absolutely not And I just love his vocal delivery It's almost like that lazy Kind of style you know

Yeah Or it's almost like monotone And yeah dude it's just all about like the Just the little details There's no sweeping statements Or anything like that you know Yeah it's just kind of the lyrics are just delivered You know yeah just matter of fact almost

Really great dude Yeah what a good grade song, man. And yeah, totally need a second clip because there's a lot of stuff that goes down. Totally, dude. Let's do it. All right, so here's clip two from Sola System. I'm just going to go ahead and say that this is a perfect song, dude. I think my favorite thing about it, dude, is like, this is them coming back, just them to, again, after eight years of being in the game, and they are bold enough to release an album with songs like this after making a name for themselves as, you know, a techno house group, you know?

Yeah, totally. So different. You, this, I mean, it must have been the last thing that any fans of theirs would have expected. I don't know if they all, you know, liked it as much. I'm trying to draw parallels. Yeah, because I was going to say, like, maybe this is the equivalent of, like, you're a Metallica fan and you're all about injustice for all. and then Black album comes out or, you know, St. Anger comes out, you know, a few years later.

Probably not the same, but I mean, like, you know, yeah, like you said, if you're an underworld fan in the 90s, you might be pretty disappointed in this record, you know? But again, like, that's what makes it so great, dude, and that's like respect for them to. And, of course, this was our, this album was our entry point into underworld, you know. Yeah. But yeah, I just loved that.

There's just so many great things about this track. So many things in the background that happen that are just, like surprising and like you know it's one of those songs where you have to listen to it a few times to really appreciate all the elements that go into it you know well and we had to split it up into two clips you know it's even more uh effective you know as one piece and i like that it really just it's like there's almost like no resolve to it you know like nothing it doesn't change it just keeps It's the same repetition of the

melody, the groove, like nothing really changes. There's no chorus. Yeah. What's interesting about that is it like, that's what they do really well with their beats as like techno and house musicians. The vocals are kind of doing the same thing

where it's just like it puts you in this lull, you know, this trance and stuff like that. Yeah. This voice does that. His voice in the song does that, you know. It's very effective. And it, yeah, this whole album from start to finish is one of those, with the exception of a, there's one track that comes kind of out of left field, speaking of his guitar. And I don't think we're going to play that one, but, um, Dinosaur Adventure 3D?

I think so. It's got like the country twang to it. Yeah, yeah. Is that Dinosaur Adventure 3? Yeah. Yeah. No, that's a single too. But with the exception of that song, I think, you know, the album kind of really does put you in this trance from start to finish because every song has this kind of quality.

to it, which I love. Now, the next track we're going to play is going to be vastly different from the first two. But again, it's got those trance like, like you said. I like that dude. It puts you in a lull. Yeah. For sure, man. Yeah. And this one's great. So our next pick is going to be the next song on the album. And this reintroduces that female singer. And you, what's her name? Trab? You found her on discogs. Yeah, her name is Juanita Boxil. She's got such a, like, lazy. There's no affect to it. Just kind of like, I'm just sitting here talking and then happen to be recording it on tape. But it contributes really well to the lull what we're talking about and that trance that you get put in. All right. So here we go. This is track five on the record. It's called Little Speaker. Such a blast, man. I love how the drums really do kind of build up. You know, you start to get that like high hat hit.

And then right when we started to fade it out, you know, they really start to pick up. up. But yeah, I love, depending on the website, the lyrics that I'm reading, you know, that really soft kind of vocal repetition that kind of happens after every sentence or every few sentences. I mean, I'm reading either K as in what? Okay. Yeah. No, no, no, like the Spanish word. Oh, gotcha. Or go. I think she's saying K. I'm also hearing that. But it could also be like K as in, okay. Like an acknowledgement of something. That's what I always thought.

That's what I've always thought too. Like, yeah. All right. Because this lady's talking and she's like, okay. Okay. I'm also reading into that. Like, that could just be a vocal element that she used. But I like the way that it kind of like punctuates these thoughts, you know.

It's really cool, dude. Really well done. But the lyrics are just completely, do now. It really is like just free, like train of thought almost. Yes. Like just somebody wrote down their thoughts as they were coming to them kind of thing, which is really interesting. Like, why? But that's what makes, gives it that like veil of mystery and just, it's kind of off putting in a way.

It is, especially when she's like he, he, like laughing and stuff. It's almost like your eavesdropping, you know, like you're not supposed to be there. And the brain, yeah, you're, yeah, yeah, totally. It's like you're like in one of those like spy movies and you got, like, like the radar pointing at the person's head and you can hear their thoughts and shit. Right. But yeah, it's just so interesting. And, you know, we have two clips, I'm guessing, because I know that these layers continue

to build and stuff. Yeah, something really cool happens a little bit later on. Yeah, totally. So, let's play clip two of Little Speaker. There's that optimism, dude. Yeah, you're right. It just opens up in a really pretty way at the end. You're right.

And I guess we didn't mention that earlier, but that is kind of cool. that this track has sort of these piano elements to it. And you can hear it there for sure. Well, they didn't really come up until that second clip. I mean, it was kind of like a piano type thing in that first clip. But yeah, that sounds more

like the typical clinging of like piano keys and stuff. So I've got this quote that really sums it up nicely and it's going to play in really well with our last pick. So this is actually from pitchfork, Eric Carr says, Hyde and Smith refine their ultra-hypnotic beats to the barest, simplest elements,

each time taking one step closer to some basic internal rhythm, so instantly accessible that consciousness seems optional for its perception. You could almost dance to it in your sleep. Dude, that's great. I'm going to use that line for sure. that's yeah because you're you're you're lulled into this state like we keep saying it's very dreamlike yeah and it was it was a fairly high review you know like i think he he wrote that in in a positive light but no that's great because like there's that there's every song has that dance backbone to it

i liked that the basic internal rhythm yeah ultra hypnotic beats yeah dude sums up a hundred days off beautifully. Hypnotic beats, yeah. Yeah, especially with, so last, last pick, we're jumping down to track nine. This one for the longest time was my favorite off the record, dude. Yeah, and I can say with 100% confidence that we discovered this track on Pandora. Really? Oh, yeah.

Cool. There's no, there's no question about it. But, yeah, what I love about this track is I feel like it partners well with Mo Move for some reason. Those two are the songs that go hand in hand in my mind too. But they're very different songs. But it's not the last track, but it's the second to last track. So this album to me has always been bookended by MoMove and Ballet Lane. Yeah.

And MoMov, again, is the opening track. So I listen to the whole thing so I can get to the last track or get to the second to last so I can hear Ballet Lane. They just, they work so well together. Yeah. We're going to hear his guitar work too in this song when we just put that out there, which is great. Yeah, and a really cool effect that they have on it, too.

All right. Here we go. Track 9, Ballet Lane. Really cool, like, ambient vibes with his guitar work, almost like Robin Guthrie. Mm, good call. Which I love. I love that kind of stuff. Or, like, Pat Mathini.

Now, that's a genre that we could do some episodes on, dude. Well, maybe we'll circle back to that later because we have plans and, are shifting into something that we're going to be able to stay in for quite a while as far as our next batch of episodes. But yeah, I agree. I mean, we did, we've done one episode, I guess two episodes because we did we did Lossel and then we did Dead Texan after that as a side track. But that's another, that's another pocket of, of albums that we do make say think.

Yeah. Harold Budd, Robin Guthrie, like you said, Brian, you know. Anyway, yeah. Balletland, dude. What a cool song, man. And, I mean, going back to that pitch for quote, like, just the barest, simplest, you know, that internal rhythms there. Like, you know, it's that do, do, do, do, do, do, do.

Yeah, you talk about a whole time. It's back there. But talk about your, like, traditional techno beat. Yeah, absolutely. But it works so well with, and what this is what Underworld does. perfectly is they have that backbone of the of the the techno beat but with these really lush and like beautiful textures like a guitar and like a spoken word um a song you know or that really like lull kind of um lyricism that was delivered in solo system like they just they they do so well with the like

the contrast yeah it is really cool i mean that's again that's that's what makes this album so memorable It's, you know, it's a couple veteran trans and techno house producers that are kind of exploring like more of an ambient experimental style, you know. What's crazy is by the time you get to this record, these guys are veterans, you know? That's what, yeah, exactly. They've been doing it for so long. Yeah. So that's it, man. That is 100 days off.

That was a blast. This record has always been, like, it's just so special, you know. There's nothing really that compares to it that I've found, at least. I think this is a great, this is a great record to end this stint of down tempo music. Now, like we've been saying, we're going to come back and do one final down tempo episode, at least for now. We're going to do a down tempo mixtape episode in a couple weeks where we each are going to bring five additional downtempo tracks from, you know, 10 different artists. Unless we have crossover queue.

We haven't really compared notes yet, but I doubt it. You know what? If we do, I'm cool with that. Yeah, because the chances of them being the same song are pretty slim. Well, we are twins, you know. This is true. But yeah, this is such a great record, man. And there's six more tracks that we haven't played that you haven't heard.

You know, we only played four tracks, technically five because we played two months off as well. But, yeah, such a great record. I feel pretty satisfied with our down to the game. tempo around, dude. I feel pretty good about it. Totally, me too. I'm satisfied. Now, the mixtape will seal the deal. But, yeah, I think we chose a good mix, I think, between the artists that we brought to the table.

So, you know, after the mixtape, I think we've gotten this out of our system. This was something that was always going to happen. You know, I think all of these records were on our list of, when we first talked about doing this podcast, we had a brainstorm list of all the records we were going to talk about. I know for a fact, 100 days off was on that. The Review Corporation was on that list. So, yeah, this was always slated to happen. So I think we finally did it justice. And hopefully we made

some fans out of, out of, you know, some downtip of fans out of you, some of the listeners out there. That's what I hope more than anything, dude. I know for a fact we did, for that one listener who is kind enough to email us and talk to us. Yeah. Shout out to Jacqueline. Yeah, Jacqueline. We've played one of her songs on what you heard. You know, she emails us and tells us about, you know, certain things that she likes. She said that she was hesitant to listen to the Rourke's op episode because she never heard of him before, but ended up really enjoying it. So love it. Hey, reach out to us if you love it.

If you like what you hear. And speaking of where you can reach out to us, Q, we're, you know, we're getting with the times here, finally. Finally, dude. Kicking and screaming. Yeah. I don't know what took us along, but you can find us on Instagram. And that's where we would recommend you interact with us. If you're going to interact with us, do it on Instagram.

Twitter, it's dead to us. It really is, dude. Yeah, I'm done with it. Find us on Instagram. Just search for No Filler Podcast. You'll find us. Yeah, we're going to try to do some more interesting and fun things on Instagram beyond just a weekly post that talks about what the newest episode is.

We're going to try to share some more. music on there. So maybe you'll see some posts of some records that we're spending at the moment or, you know, a list of our favorite episodes so far. So like that. I mean, there's all sorts of stuff that we could do. So, you know, we've just started, but we're trying to be pretty active on there at this point. So yeah, reach out to us on Instagram, follow us, do all those things, you know? Yes. Join us on Instagram. Send us a message on there. You can also email us if you want to reach out us that way. No Failurepodcast at gmail.com. One of us will answer you if you email us. And we love chatting with our listeners. So reach out to us. You can also find us on the Pantheon

Podcast Network. That is the podcast network for music fans. We've got over 60 shows in the network now. Chances are, if you like our podcast, you will find a handful of other great shows that you will love. That's Pantheon Podcasts.com. And you know what, dude, I haven't talked about these dope-ass headphones in a while, but I did something a little bit differently with it. Something I didn't realize you could do, or it didn't dawn on me that this would be something that would be cozy, but you can adjust these headphones and, like, click up the ear pieces so that it sits in the head band so that it's easy to store and travel with.

Well, I clicked it a couple times so that the angle's different on the way that it sits on my head, dude. And now the comfort level is even higher. I didn't think that that could be possible, that it could be even higher, the comfort level. Well, dude, it's, yeah, it just sits on my head in a really nice way now. So it's really ultra adjustable, ultra comfortable. I'm talking about the AKG podcasters kit comes with these super, super, super, comfy headphones and the AKG Lyra microphone. My voice is coming out buttery smooth.

Thanks to this dope microphone, dude, I'm in love with it, man. I love this mic. I love the kit. Basically, if you're thinking about starting a podcast, grab yourself the AKG podcasters kit. It's a no-brainer. It comes with everything you need. It also comes with the light version of Ableton Live, the latest version of Ableton Live.

You're going to get the light version of that. that's what I'm using to piece together this show. I've been using it for years. Just the light version. You don't need the full package. Yeah, it comes with that. It comes with these dope-ass headphones. And Mike, that's all I'm going to say.

Let me also say this, Q. Last week's The Recooperation episode was probably our greatest sounding episode yet. So kudos to you for finally tweaking those knobs and all that kind of stuff. whatever you do in Ableton, but you finally figured it out. Well, I appreciate that, man. And it's one of those things where, like, if you have a really nice sound system, you could drive yourself insane, just barely turning the knob on that treble or that bass. Yeah.

And you're like, does it even sound different anymore? Right. Is it all in my head? Right. That's me, dude. Every week piecing together these episodes, I'm just never satisfied, man. I'm always tweaking something. Well, you can break the knob.

off, dude, because like whatever you did last week, sounded great. I'm not going to touch it, dude. I won't touch it. Don't touch it. I really hope this one sounds good, dude, now that we're talking about it. Yeah, no kidding. No kidding. All right, man, that's it. Next week, we're going to be doing our monthly Whatcha Heard episode where we each bring five songs to the table, just songs we've been listening to in between whatcha hurts. I was about to see in between episodes, but we don't know. We don't know. We don't do what you heard's at the end of each episodes now. It's its own thing. So,

join us next week for 10 songs from 10 different artists, unless we happen to bring the same artists. That hasn't happened yet, dude. It hasn't happened yet. But it might. So that's going to be a lot of fun. That's our monthly mixtape. I think I'm going to let Groove Salad play us out again. What do you think? I like it. Cool with them. I like it, dude. Yeah. So we're going to have Soma FM, which is this longstanding, really dope internet rink. radio program, play us out. They've got this great down tempo. They have two different stations now, actually, that are down tempo centered. Groove Salad and Groo Salad Classic, which is all the, all the music that was playing on Groove Salad back in, when did it come out, dude?

Early 2000s. Early 2000s. So right around the time that all these records came out that we've been covering the last few years. And we were listening to Soma FM. We were listening to Groove Salad all All those years ago, dude. So basically, I'm just going to press record and tune in to groove salad. And whatever songs playing on the radio, that's going to be our outro. It's always a banger, dude. Yeah, dude, it's always great. So if you want to know the song, you're going to have to check out our episode notes.

I'll have the song in the track list. So yeah, that's it. Next week we'll be coming at you with our What You Heards. Thank you, as always for listening. my name is Quentin. My name is Travis. Y'all take care.