Underworld’s Early ‘80s And ‘90s Electronic Inspirations

Our love of electronic music really began with the purchase of a Sony Walkman and the release of the Kraftwerk album, Computer World, in 1981. Like many people of our generation we had grown up listening to the early sounds of electronic pioneers and the pop versions that occasionally found their way into the UK charts. But it was listening to “Computer Love” and “Numbers” on those tiny headphones that was the game-changer for us.

As musicians, we’d previously followed a post punk/power pop route, but with little success. Then we started to introduce new elements into the mix, and changed the lineup of the band to accommodate a video V.J. and any synths we could get our hands on.

Our main influences came from Germany rather than the UK, and we quickly landed a record deal that brought us into contact with the fashionable bands on Stevo’s Some Bizarre label; the exotic New Romantics and then into the studio with both Conny Plank and Dennis Bovell — two of the leading lights of the Dub Electronic scene.

We released a couple of albums, changed our name a number of times and toured the world, but we never quite hit the dizzy heights of some of our contemporaries and towards the end of the ‘80s. We all felt things had run their course for us.

But all through this period, our love of electronic music never waned. And as the band was breaking up, the music spoke to us again. House, rave, acid, balearic — whatever you want to call it, a new excitement was gripping the forward-thinking kids and producers around the world. The rule book was being rewritten and we knew, somehow, we had to be part of it.