Underworld

HAVING BREACHED the club/indie divide with 1994's Dubnobasswithmyheadman, Underworld are nicely positioned to finally smash the barriers which keep the rockers off the dancefloor and the clubbers out of live gigs. At the SFX last night, the techno trio of Karl Hyde, Rick Smith and Darren Emerson casually crisscrossed the lines, trailing pumping beats, swirling keyboard sounds and manic, inventive sampling along with them.

You can't really call Underworld a band, even though Karl Hyde brandishes a guitar for much of the gig, and you can't really call them a dance act, because it's patently obvious that there's more going on here than mere DJ mixing and crowd manipulation. Underworld begin with the bare bones of an idea and build on it right there on the stage, adding and subtracting, laying it on thick and then stripping it back down, and finally filling it up with splashes of colour till each track emerges as a unique beat driven narrative of its own.

Rick Smith and Darren Emerson work together in a carefully improvised dance behind the decks, weaving the sound like glass blowers trying to create a shimmering, intricate work of art. Then they smash it to bits and get started on another one. Karl Hyde gyrates and spins around the stage, urging the crowd to appreciate the skill and timing of his two cohorts, then adds his own vocals to the mix, letting his intonations merge with the hypnotic sound and throwing in the odd guitar lick when the moment seems right.