Underworld - Juanita : Kiteless : To Dream of Love [1996]

Artist(s)
Underworld
Release title
Juanita
Label name
Logic Records
Release year
1996

Archon

Gagi
TranceFix Crew
Jun 27, 2020
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It was originally released in 1996 as the first track of their album Second Toughest in the Infants, but I'm singling this one (or three) out since this is my favourite. The single release was in 1997, and there was one EP in 1996 together with Rowla. Doesn't matter.

Is this trance? I don't care. It's just phenomenal. It's 16.5 minutes long but interesting throughout, and so worth it in the end. Great vocals, fantastic beat and warm, summery synths. It's always moving forward; it's three tracks in one. Interesting concept, unfortunately not that popular in dance music.


A quote on why this is considered the best Underworld track, found here.

The best song in Underworld’s catalog, the single strongest argument for their genius, isn’t a single thing at all. It’s three songs blurred into one, or one song with three separate sections; that it’s not clear which it is, or even where each of the three whatever-you-call-‘ems begins and ends, some 20 years after the recording initial release, is part of its appeal. The leadoff track to Second Toughest In The Infants, the sophomore outing of the electronica-oriented version of the band, “Juanita:Kiteless:To Dream Of Love” slowly unfurls, doubles back, and transforms from one set of sounds to another over the course of its 16-minute, 36-second runtime. This is a standard UW technique, and a hallmark of their live act in particular, but never before or since did they commit to it so expertly in the studio. The song begins with syncopated sounds scattered over a straightforward 4/4 beat, Karl Hyde’s heavily vocoded vocals painting a delicate picture: “your thin paper wings…your window shattered in the wind.” The music picks up steam anyway, eventually becoming a breakneck-speed cascade of descending notes. An ethereal melody is introduced, then wiped away, then slowly brought back for the song’s finale, a passage in which the lyrics sing of great potential kept just out of reach: “There is a sound on the other side of this wall / A bird is singing on the other side of this glass / Footsteps / Concealed / Silence is preserving a voice.” Though the beat is the same as ever, the tone is totally different, as if the ground shifted beneath the listener’s feat. The song concludes with one of Hyde’s most effective deployments of his observational writing technique: He simply sat and recorded himself listing the colors of passing cars, played it back at high speed, slowing down the occasional entry in the list as if it contained some special, unknowable meaning: “and blue…and blue…and blue…and blue.” It’s inkblot lyricism, reflecting back what you bring to it, giving you what you want out of it, be it melancholy, sensuality, mystery, or pure rhythm. In other words, it’s the essence of Underworld.
 
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Quethas

Member
Jul 15, 2020
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Finland
I had heard Second Toughest like once before. And the second play was... yesterday. Talking about coincidences. (It is bit odd actually since I own dubnobass and Beaucoup Fish).

I must say, this is a great opener. Took a while to really get started, but around the 4 minute mark I was hooked.
 

Archon

Gagi
TranceFix Crew
Jun 27, 2020
3,913 Posts
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Took a while to really get started, but around the 4 minute mark I was hooked.
For real? I was hooked from the start. Kiteless is where I lose my interest, sort of, but once To Dream of Love comes in it's all absolutely worth it.
 

Quethas

Member
Jul 15, 2020
170 Posts
212 Thanked
Finland
For real? I was hooked from the start. Kiteless is where I lose my interest, sort of, but once To Dream of Love comes in it's all absolutely worth it.
Let's say I was curious to see where the story goes already before it.
 
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Manofearth

Senior Member
Sep 24, 2020
436 Posts
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An exceptional electronic act that could really do anything and never hestitating to experiment. I got to see them perform live in 2006 or near then and it was such a level above anyone else at the time. Maybe Orbital are the only ones who matched the creativity in their live performances.
 
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