Underworld – Beaucoup Fish

No serious clicks or pops, but both records are slightly dirty and scratched, same as the rest of 3 vinyl reissues from 2025 that I bought new. Not a great pressing job, although they all sound and look ok.

Great repress.

As someone new to collecting vinyl I bought the whole back catalogue that was recently released rather than chasing originals. Every album has sounded fantastic with great bass and great separation.

Listening on..

Technics 1210 mk
Ortofon Concorde Music Red

Out of the 7 I bought I'd rate this as my favourite

My favorite part of receiving this album direct from the artist is that all the price gougers with the previous copies can stick them where the sun does not shine.

Sounds excellent to me. Crisp highs and deep bass. Beautiful tunes. Picked up this and A 100 Days Off.
Needed a quick clean as a bit of dust from manufacturing. I do not have a previous version to compare with though.

Technics SL-1210GR with Ortofon Red. Cambridge Audio amp and Sonos Fives x 2

A PROPER REISSUE WOULD BE WELL RECIEVED AROUND ABOUT NOW ISNT OVER DUE FOR SOMETHING NICE ? LIKE COLOURED VINYL 3X12? GATE FOLD QUAD OR SOMETHING 180 GRAM YOU KNOW ???

I sold mine for 30 quid a bout 5 6 yrs not thinking about it now thier 100 quid cmon reissue time ?

A really strong album from Underworld. And why wouldn't it be?! It's Underworld! This album was the last in what I believe was Underworld's golden years, before Emerson left. 'A Hundred Days Off', which attempted to follow this, didn't really take my liking. This, however, is a lesson in how to make a good album.

It starts with 'Cups', which works very well as an opener. That almost orchestral sounding opening before Underworld's signature buzzy techno stuff gets into high gear to show you what you're getting into. 'Push Upstairs' follows this nicely, being techno through and through.

'Jumbo' is without a doubt the finest track on the album. The beautiful synths, it's like taking a walk out in a bright green forest, expressed purely through sound. The nine minute version included in '1992-2012' would have done nicely here, just to savour as much of that track as there was.

'King of Snake' is another goody, and is mainly there to please the techno-heads after 'Jumbo'. And it does so, being the second best head-banger on the album. We'll get to that.

Then we move away from singles. 'Winjer' is... not the finest. Definitely the weakest track on the album. 'Skym', however, is almost a pop ballad, and somehow, it fits. A really nice track with Hyde on vocals. Of course, his vocals are drenched in effects, but that makes it all the better. 'Bruce Lee' barely counts as a single, and is alright, but not single material. What should have been a single is what follows it.

'Kittens' is the second best track on the album, behind 'Jumbo'. The stark contrast of the Emerson-percussion techno drums and symphonic synth breakdowns inbetween is astounding, and makes for what I believe to be Underworld's best efforts to recreate the energy found in 'Born Slippy .NUXX'. The track was so full of umph that, as others have pointed out, a crudely edited version of it was placed on the soundtrack of futuristic racer 'Wip3out'. I do play the game every now and again, although I try to avoid losing my shit when 'Kittens' comes on. I still wanna win!

'Push Downstairs' is a good track to close on, the answer to the much earlier 'Push Upstairs', but they chose not to close it just there. 'Something Like a Mama' is similar to 'Bruce Lee', and once again is alright.

Then, finally, Underworld decide "fuck it, this guy's sat through enough quieter tracks, let's blow his head off". 'Moaner' is quite possibly the most aggressive track I've ever heard in my life. The synths roaring with the cutoff set so high it's probably broken their keyboard, Hyde practically screaming into the microphone, Emerson firing as much percussion as his drum machine will let him use, it's absolute mayhem. It fades out early, however. The end, matching the rest of the album, is a quieter section with some floating synth pads. I feel if they let it play out, the album would have ended a bit easier. The ending here feels a bit forced.

Overall, a damn good album. Lots of good songs and (almost) no duds, Underworld still taking in the sweet highs of their peak before they began to descend back down the mountain.

♫ I need sugar, I need a little water sugar ♫

Jumbo has been my favorite song eversince the first time I hit play.
This album in particular caught my attention because a 3 minute version of "Kittens" was featured in WipEout 3, a game I'm a huge fan of. not the best banger on the track list but a noteworthy addition like all the rest.

There are a few lows and highs and some of the songs are a lot less exciting than the rest, this is one of those trance albums you might need a little bit of patience to appreciate.

There are maybe too many breaks on the album, "Shudder/King Of Snake - Push Upstairs - Moaner - Kittens" needs to be listened to in sequence in my opinion, instead of all the jumbled up tracks, from that almost half the album will flow.

Disapointing that the full version from push upstairs (which is present on the 92/02 compilation) isnt included. Still, worth to check. Great album.

Wonderful album! I personally prefer this over Dubnobasswithmyheadman (however I would say that Second Toughest in the Infants is on par with this)