Underworld: Beaucoup Fish (2017 Reissue)

It begins with pure tranquillity.

A city somewhere – anywhere – is captured momentarily in a field recording. After a few seconds, it gives way to arching synthesised strings that evoke that famous house sound of Chicago. There’s space and there’s light. And then there’s the first plunge.

Fused as one, the bassline and drum track are deceptively simple. Together they create a sense of sleek motion through city streets at night. When a voice arrives, it has the processed nonchalance of a replicant. Emotion voided with the flick of a switch, it floats across the music’s every skip and bounce with a cool detachment.

In time, the steady motion of the groove begins to surge and buckle. Eddies of sound swirl and switch and the rhythm becomes more forceful. The effect is disorientating – the environment has changed, plunged again. There’s light again and now it’s blinding. Chicago becomes Detroit as the glassy cool of house gives way to techno’s mechanical futurism.

Ten and a half minutes in and the tranquillity’s long gone. It’s been displaced by an almighty electronic squall – a gleeful, euphoric chaos of synthetic stabs and digitised chatter. All that’s come before has been enveloped in this noise; erased by it. There’s no Chicago, no Detroit anymore. There’s only Essex.

This is how Underworld’s third album opens.

The Beaucoup Fish super deluxe edition comes packaged in a hard 12″ x 12″ box case that complements the expanded reappraisals of dubnobasswithmyheadman and Second Toughest In The Infants.

This edition includes a selection of rare and unreleased material from the time and 60-pages of new artwork alongside an essay on the album by Robin Turner. As with its predecessors, audio remastering was undertaken by Underworld’s Rick Smith and Abbey Road Studios’ Miles Showell, and the artwork created by long time Underworld collaborators, tomato.

Available as Super Deluxe 4CD, heavyweight 2LP Vinyl & 1CD, all physical formats are available bundled with an exclusive album artwork t-shirt designed by tomato available only at  underworldlive.com.

Released on 25th August 2017.

Beaucoup Fish super deluxe track-listing:
Disc One
1. Cups
2. Push Upstairs
3. Jumbo
4. Shudder / King Of Snake
5. Winjer
6. Skym
7. Bruce Lee
8. Kittens
9. Push Downstairs
10. Something Like A Mama
11. Moaner

Disc Two
1. Nifter – 5 A1317 Nov 97
2. Bruce Lee – Ricks 1st Dobro Mix
3. UW Orange Bed – Sept97
4. Skym – A A1317 Nov 97
5. Jumbo – Diff Bass 2 A1317 Nov 97
6. Push Upstairs – Alt 1 A1336 July 98
7. King Of Snake – Garage Mix A1313 Set 97b
8. Something Like A Mama – Alt Mix A1340 July 98 A Upstairs)
9. Please Help Me
10. Yeah Plan – From A1385
11. Ramajama

Disc Three
1. Cups – Salt City Orchestra Remix
2. Jumbo – Jedi’s Sugar Hit Mix
3. Jumbo – Futureshock Vocal Mix
4. Push Upstairs – Darren Price Remix
5. King Of Snake – Slam Remix
6. King Of Snake – Fatboy Slim Remix
7. King Of Snake – Dave Clarke Remix
8. Bruce Lee – Micronauts Remix
9. Bruce Lee – Buffalo Daughter Remix

Disc Four
1. Bruce Lee – DJ Hype & DJ Zinc Vocal Mix
2. Bruce Lee – DJ Hype & DJ Zinc Instrumental Mix
3. Bruce Lee – Futureshock Remix
4. King Of Snake – Claudio Coccoluto Remix
5. King Of Snake – Martinez Remix
6. King Of Snake – Dave Angel Remix
7. Jumbo – Rob Rives & Francois Kevorkian Dub
8. Push Upstairs – Roger S Narcotic Haze Dub
9. Push Upstairs – Adam Beyer Rmx 2