Joey Beltdrives’ Bumpy Backspins: Beaucoup Fish – Underworld – 1999

Beaucoup Fish – Underworld – Released 1st March 1999, Junior Boys Own

Released in 1999 on Junior Boys Own records, Beaucoup Fish is Underworld’s fifth album and the last to feature Darren Emerson.

Emerson’s departure in 2000 ended the three-album streak of 90s Underworld classics which began five years prior with Dubnobasswithmyheadman.

I vividly recall the hype surrounding this album. Underworld’s previous album, Second Toughest in the Infants, performed well on its 1996 release, though it was hardly a mainstream success.

But then a few months later the movie Trainspotting was released featuring two Underworld songs on the soundtrack, including that one we won’t mention.

From that point on the group was a household name.

I vividly remember the first time I heard it. A guy, who’s name I’ve long since forgotten, came sprinting in the door, holding the CD aloft like it was the Olympic torch, “hey I got the new Underworld album – check this out.”

The dude in question skipped to Push Upstairs and cranked it and we all just stood around in a lopsided circle staring into space while nodding along to its infectiously funky piano riff.

After a few bars we all reached the same consensus and, as one, we looked at each other, each man acknowledging the other’s expression and, all at once we went, “yeah”. 

25 years on that track still slams, but what of the rest of the album?

Let’s rewind and have a listen…

Slippery Fish

Track one, Cups – standard Underworld fare this, on the mellower end of the spectrum but still with that steady dance groove as the bassline holds sway for just under nine minutes.

Then all of a sudden, the track has one of those classic Underworld mutation moments, evolving into a completely different piece of music with an uplifting new chord progression and rich, layered percussion.

Push Upstairs is about pushing stuff upstairs, I guess? Usually pushing things upstairs is never fun, especially when there’s a piano involved, but this tune’s backbreakingly funky.

Is “backbreakingly” even a word? Who cares, this is an Underworld album review. Which means Karl Hyde chimes in with his usual lyrical bollocks as the drums thunder beneath.

He’s pushing things, he’s pushing them some more, also Tina lives in Bahrain I believe and that’s somehow relevant to the story, not sure why she’d want to live there, maybe the wages are decent, something something, something that rhymes with Bahrain? Car rain? He’s on the market now so I guess we’re not in Bahrain anymore? Fuck knows. I’m not really paying attention because it’s all about that piano riff this one.

Gawdamn this tune is so damn funky – easily one of my absolute favs Underworld tracks this one.

Jumbo starts off with some ambient noodlings before another textbook Underworld bassline grabs hold of the proceedings, the beat drops, we get some more sweet chords and here comes Hyde again singing about whatever the hell Hyde sings about.

There’s also some samples of random Cajuns talking about whatever he hell Cajuns talk about.

I’m not concerned with either, tbh, I’m more a fan of the pad chords on this one.

Next comes Shudder / King of Snake.

I’m gonna guess Shudder is the guitar piece that sounds like it was recorded on a severely damaged tape recorder.

Then a cool synth pad then washes over the top and King of Snake begins. We know this because we get a stutter effect of Hyde saying, “King of Snake”.

Gotta love the bassline on this one too. It’s apparently based on Donna Summer’s I Feel Love, though I’m not convinced.

It definitely has a Giorgio Moroder feel to it, but then I could just as easily argue it was based on Bon Jovi’s Livin’ On A Prayer if I felt so inclined. (Imagine the ooh-woah-ooh-woah sound over the top and now I’ve just ruined this track for you forever.)

King of Snake’s another effortlessly groovy track. Once again it deploys a simple yet highly effective piano chord riff and this percussive 1-2-1-2 squeak noise that adds an extra layer of funk to the proceedings.

Of course, as with all Underworld tracks, it all hinges on your relative tolerance to Karl Hyde.

I, for one, adore this track but one of my best mates has a much lower Karl Hyde threshold than I do so he despises it. 

The track ends with some random dude I’m assuming is from Thailand talking about snake fighting.

I’m sure it’s all very profound. 

So onto Winjer. And at the risk of sounding like one, I’m not a fan of this one at all.

Karl Hyde’s “’avvin’ a larf” with this one and it was always an instant skip for me. ⏩

On to one of the more emotionally engaging tracks on the album and perhaps the only one which almost runs the risk of making sense lyrically, by Underworld standards at least. (Note I said almost.)

Skym is a beatless ballad type of thing, it’s almost like an ambient love song. At least I think it’s supposed to be a love song. You never can tell with Underworld.

If you’re in danger of drifting off to Skym, Bruce Lee jolts you out of it quite quickly.

This one slaps like a funky nunchuck to the face while the lyrics are once again evocative of a rambling concussion victim staggering around the A&E. (You really do need to be careful with nunchucks.)

There’s a kid with a juice box and I guess he’s drinking from it, something-something, Bruce Lee.

Near as I can tell this track doesn’t really have anything to do with Bruce Lee except his name is mentioned several times with zero context.

So yeah, typical Underworld in that I have absolutely no idea what it’s meant to be about but it’s funky anyway.

Kittens is a straight up techno stomper that gradually adds melodic layers over its seven-and-a-half-minute runtime.

During this time there is no reference to kittens whatsoever, so not sure why it’s called kittens.

Maybe they just like kittens.

Tell the truth I’d completely forgotten about this track until just now, so I just listened to it in its entirety just to make sure. There is definitely no mention of kittens whatsoever.

Then again I’m sure if Karl Hyde had mentioned kittens I’d probably have remembered it.

I feel like this issue needs to be addressed so, for your enjoyment, I’ve created this fully immersive, 360 Underworld with kittens experience.

Watch in awe as the gif synchs up to the music as you singalong to some Hydian lyrics I’ve pulled out of my arse just now…

Yeah, lets see some shitty AI try and beat that eh?

What goes up must come down, hence Push Downstairs.

It’s essentially a more downtempo remix of Push Upstairs. It’s ok I guess but it’s nowhere near as cool as the original.

Doesn’t have the cool piano riff for one thing. But that’s understandable I suppose, after all the effort pushing it upstairs, I guess why the opted to leave it there. Pianos are problematic enough to push upstairs, pushing one back downstairs is just a lawsuit waiting to happen…

Something Like A Mama raises the tempo once more and throws some nice speedy breakbeats into the mix.

Once again, I’ve no fucking idea what the lyrics are meant to be about but as always, when Underworld get into their groove, it hardly matters.

It’s all about those gradually building layers of melody and percussion. 

Moaner is another one of my top tracks from this album.

Only problem being I frequently get it mixed up with Winjer, which his my least favourite track on the album. (That’s actually led to a fair few playlist malfunctions let me tell you.)

There’s a driving intensity to Moaner which works incredibly well on the dancefloor.

It’s one of those tracks that always seems to be reaching boiling point and then just as it reaches it’s apparent peak it somehow manages to eke out even more and more and more…

I have a fond memory of this track on a night out with an old raving buddy with the two us hitting our stride just as this song played and the intensity just kept building and building…

Absolute gibberish from Karl again, of course, but at these exact moments when the energy rises and the grins grow wider coherent language scarcely matters.

Net Results

As I mentioned last time on my Dubnobasswithmyheadman review, I have a funny relationship with Underworld.

I love most of their tracks, with the obvious exception being their most famous one (you know the one, don’t make say it) but at the same time I completely understand why Karl Hyde’s marmite vocal style gets on a lot of people’s tits.

Because there are plenty times I wish he’d just shut the fuck up for a minute and let the groove just do its thang.  

But I understand, too, why many others love him. Because Underworld, and life in general, wouldn’t be the same without him.

The world is jam packed full of tedious, predictable killjoys and we need all the jabbering nonsense we can muster to counteract them. At least “larger larger larger” doesn’t have a billionaire-backed political agenda, worst it can do is make you thirsty.

So I find myself squarely between both camps, neither pro nor anti, puts me at odds with everyone.

But that’s ok because I’m an odd person anyway.

I’m also struggling to wrap this up since I feel like I’ve already said everything I need to say about this album but one thing about Underworld reviews is you can take liberties with form and structure.

I mean I could provide a concise and clever summation of the album to end this article OR, I could do something really special and treat you all to some more Karl Hyde-inspired kittens lyrics and matching kitten gifs in the hope that it will actually help bring some actual traffic to this website.