Underlord “U Crazy Fu*k”
Some may call Simon Saunders a madman, and they’d be totally justified. The Londoner, who has taken up the Underlord moniker, is totally off his rocker; the proof is in the pudding. And by pudding, obviously I mean his absurdly brilliant, off-center productions. Saunders has just wrapped up two albums’ worth of material and will be drip-feeding it—one track every six weeks or so—exclusively to fans (hit up his website for more deets).
In the meantime, he’s slated to release a tumultuous, two-track EP next month, aptly titled U Crazy Fu*K, and there’s enough badassery tucked inside to smack you stupid. The titular cut is a complete brain-bender. With its sights centered on discerning dancefloors, a soaring string section gives way to a wonky lead that flails atop chunky, analog basslines and pounding, percussive hits. It’s vicious, kiddos.
Available March 16 via Exploding Chicken.
What’s the takeaway here? Is there a message or vibe you hope to get across to listeners?
I want people to stop buying and dancing to crap, boring music and to stop just accepting a track is good simply because a well-known DJ is playing it. The scene is very stale at the moment, and it needs a serious injection of new talent doing new sounds in different, exciting ways, instead of the same old DJs playing the same old safe crap. I host my own weekly Exploding Chicken Radio show, and I make a point of playing unknown producers who make amazing tracks. People just have to spend more time looking. Music has to be fun, and most importantly, it’s gotta make you dance your pants off. The louder the sound system, the better the experience. Sorry, that became a rant and a bit serious.
How does this production reflect your personality/ethos?
I’ve been told I’m a psycho when it comes to making music. Laurent Garnier has personally told me I’m “completely crazy.” This is one of my crazy tunes—definitely not my craziest by far. If you want super crazy, send me a tweet (@underlorduk), and I’ll send you a track for free called “Big Fat Fu*ker”—now that’s nuts. It builds and builds with a mental bassline then breaks out into the maddest acid workout ever. Then in the middle, totally unexpected, there is a huge trumpet. I love it. I only have the master wav of that track; that’s one of the really good ones I lost when my hard drive packed in.
Have you played this one out in any of your sets? What was the response?
I played “SuperFat” out in a club in London one weekend, and I’ve never seen people go so mental. I remember spotting these two girls who were in a corner dancing normally, and when “SuperFat” dropped into the main bassline, these two nutters started humping each other and the wall to the beat and doing camo rolls and climbing between each other’s legs. They took off running ‘round the dancefloor like manics trying to climb through other people’s legs, jumping on the backs of other dancers. I was killing myself laughing. I’ll never forget that… that’s a good reaction in my book!
What’s your favorite sound/synth/effect/etc. used here?
There’s never, ever one sound that is my fave. It’s always a combination of sounds working together that make it my favorite. But it’s definitely always the bassline. My basslines are always multiple basslines together, filtered, edited, chopped up, redone and redone with effects—then finally I get the sound I want. One of my artist names I previously used was Bassline Monsters, because I was known for my really big, analog, fat basslines. But then bass music took off, and I didn’t want people thinking I made bass music, because I don’t.
If this song were a color, what would it be?
It certainly isn’t one color. It would start off white at the intro, then dissolve into pale blues and green as the track builds up. Getting ready to launch, the colors would become darker and start to overlap each other, turning into different random shapes. Then as the tune dropped into the monster bassline, it goes solid black with shooting bright colors of red, yellows, orange, whites, which are pouring out the center of the black. Hey, maybe this could be the start of a great music video.
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