Released a scant few months ahead of the track that would make them household names, 1996 album Second Toughest in the Infants found Underworld’s second-line up (Rick Smith, Darren Emerson and Karl Hyde) in rude creative health. It was blindingly obvious that the limelight would soon follow.
Balancing dank club savagery with sublime ambience and fascinatingly constructed beats, Underworld were out to prove that their electronic frontiers had no boundaries.
Back in 2010, production head-honcho Rick Smith spoke to us and recalled the less than ideal recording conditions for the album, most of which was assembled in a spare bedroom in his house in Romford.
“It was probably about twelve foot by about fourteen, Smith told us of said spare room. “And noise was an issue. My missus’ patience was deeper than the deepest ocean. The racket that would come out… Repetitive beats for months on end.”
On the classic tech used to bring the record to life, Smith went into detail…
“The desk was a Soundcraft S600 series. Beautiful, very basic, kind of raw. We had an Atari ST 1040 computer, running C-Lab Creator, which was dynamite and I still miss it. Sound sources running through the desk were not all clocked off the same digital clock, so you got this magic appearing between space, which was lovely.
“I also used an Akai MG14D 12-track tape recorder, which was synchronised to the Atari with an old Fostex synchroniser. I could run a sequence and lock up tape at the same time. It was a bit touch and go. Sampling was limited. I had a Casio FZ-1 – I couldn’t afford an Akai S900.
“Mic-wise we had a Neumann TLM 170, which is beautiful, and we’re still using it. We also had the vocoder, an ARP 2600, an OSCar, 303s, 909s , a Nord for bass, a Yamaha DX7 Mk1, two [Yamaha] SPX90s, a Roland MT-32 unit and a Roland SD-3000.
“All the recording was done on an early Sony portable DAT machine, battery operated. There was no hard drive recording, although I rented one later to assemble the album and mix tracks together.
“Essentially, mixes were very live, through the console, running multiple MIDI and tape tracks, with effects live in the console. Very basic. One of the SPX90s ran stereo pitch, the other a stereo delay. Then the Roland SD-3000 mono delay line for feedback and dub delays. That was it. No plugins, no compressors, no gates… I don’t know how I did it!”
Amongst various other tracks on the record, Rick remembered the specifics of realising the album’s lead single, Pearl’s Girl.
“I know this track came together quite quickly, over the period of about a month. Karl, Darren and I were jamming on an idea, which never really seemed to go anywhere, but there was something there. So I revisited it again about a month later, and a chap that works with us, Mike Nielson, an engineer, did a quick mix while I was halfway through the tune.
“That really helped in the track’s development because he really nailed the sound of it, as it wasn’t a house or obvious techno piece at the time, it was much rowdier. I loved the way it almost crossed over between a house and techno, and a drum ’n’ bass feel. The absence of a four-to-the-floor was unusual for us.”
Read our full classic interview with Underworld’s Rick Smith here.
