Underground Resistance – “World 2 World” (UR)

Growing up on hyperreal and to a much lesser extent Jockey Slut it wasn’t easy to make an informed decision on where to start collecting the works of a label whose work is pretty extensive… I mean come on how many people bought their first Masters At Work record in the form of that Nu Yorican Soul album (cough)?? Yours truly was faced with this when getting into the Underground Resistance. Looking back I made the subconscious choice to buy some of those records with which had 2 in the title. I mean think about it: “Galaxy2Galaxy”, “Nation2Nation”; these surely couldn’t be middle of the road Kraftwerk tribute records with etchings all over one side? They would be real nice?

And right I was though it was hardly like I had made a jaw-dropping discovery. Everyone knew UR was unquestionably ill and because at this time they were still churning out joints like “Codebreaker” and “Aztlan” even their off key stuff was still good enough to dent the bank balance. However “World2World” from 1992 was more than that. In retrospect the concept records that UR were churning out back then have left an indelible mark on dance music as a whole. Empowering grooves that sounded better in the cold light of day without drugs is as good a description I can give at this moment.

“Amazon” has a particularly brooding intro with some surreal chirping and squawking (everyone rocked wildlife samples back then) before building to a crescendo of mental jack noise. It pretty much stays at that before a breakdown, another peak and then a lone squawk at the end. For a track with only four or five layers there is so much texture it sounds like it’s from another planet (I’ll pick this up when I pull out a Red Planet record on this blog sometime soon)…

“Jupiter Jazz” stands out as one of my favourite Detroit piano tracks. Again it’s pretty basic but it’s truly hypnotising. The standout bit is in the breakdown with the “aaaaahhh”’s which with each bar go up a key before kicking in again. Hearing this for the first time as a sixteen year old literally blew my head off, there was no way I was gonna spend money on some Mo’ Wax/Radiohead collab when stuff like this was floating about.

In comparison to side one the remaining two tracks are very nice but not as stunning. “Cosmic Traveller” which is a very Detroit sounding name for a tune plods along. It’s at a good tempo, it’s nice and smooth but that’s it. “Greater Than Yourself” is way deeper. A very slinky cowbell and a nice vocal lick carry’s it along nicely. As it’s quite slow it’s something I prefer to listen to in isolation rather feeling tempted to mix in some pitched down electro record I have sitting on the other deck. I forget sometimes how good this tune is because of the wack title but it closes the twenty minutes spent on “World2World” perfectly.

The idea of concept records gets laughed at due to crimes perpetrated against music in the seventies by some longhaired rock bands. However the whole concept of UR and their siblings in the early nineties confirms that they truly reached the watermark for electronic music.

If you aren’t nodding your head to my words you can get this on vinyl for like £6.99 at Sounds of the Universe or somewhere like that.

Over.