Second Toughest In The Infants

Heel bezwerend album, waar je wel je aandacht voor moet hebben. Het is dance maar toch ook weer niet. Eerste paar nummers vond ik goed, daarna kakte het wel wat in.

Teveel van hetzelfde en het gáát maar door. Zenuwslopend op een gegeven moment. Op een festival is dit fantastisch, maar om gewoon thuis te draaien; nee.

Van een nummer kreeg ik fysieke verschijnselen :). Werd er gestresst van. Verder prima.

Second Toughest In The Infants continues the successful string of three masterpieces in a row that started with Dubnobasswithmyheadman and continued with 1999s Beaucoup Fish. This is brighter than Dubnobass but also edgier and harder in sound. The album cover art sets the general mood of the album. The shades of blue display its moody feel and its ambience. The splattering of different shades of blue on the cover and in the booklet displays the albums chaotic sounds. Extremely challenging & intelligent music. This is not for the narrow-minded.

I now only need the smell of smoke and stale beer to make my morning complete.

There are definitely times that the groove is infectious and you are thumping along with it, though it is strangely disappointing that the vocals are as uninteresting as they are. They seem to hold it back as opposed to elevating it. Overall an enjoyable listen.

Very cool electronic album. Very 90s. Now a fan of Underworld.

Funcionou para ter mais referências de tecno/eletro.

My jam

Ufff not my cuppa. Couldn't finish it

Great vocals and amazing production. Good variation in styles as well

well made album, but I found it kind of boring/repetitive

not my type of music

Great beats. Perfect music to crank out work. High energy, nothing out of place.

Lovely!

Actually really enjoyed this - and enjoyed the resulting Spotify recommended playlist too!

Enjoyed it but maybe a little long

Meh, lots of long repetitive songs, some of which were extremely annoying. I did, however, like one or two songs.

Liked this way better than Fat Boy Slim, a contemporary. Instrumentation was interesting enough, and the occasional lyric helps move it along.

Bangin

funky :)

One of my favorite electronic music albums, reissuid with Born Slippy on it. Taking concepts of Techno and Jungle and slowing it down to an intelligent, but not soulless sound.

Not really into it. Very sleepy.

Not a fan. This is music popular in circles that do not include me.

Does anyone like techno?

This is just entirely not for me.

It was okay, pretty average. Nothing really stood out for me apart from the first song. 2/5 stars.

P good

"Second Toughest in the Infants," is the fourth studio album by English electronic music group Underworld. This album released in 1996 and falls under the following genres: techno, progressive house, progressive trance. I am all about trance and techno, fueled thanks to late 90s/early-to-mid 2000s video game soundtracks, so I'm really excited to be jumping into this genre. This album opens with its longest track, "Juanita : Kiteless : To Dream of Love" at 16 minutes and 36 seconds. It is comprised of three tracks, per Wikipedia, "...which features all three parts intersecting each other at various points during the piece; hence, the use of colons instead of slashes..." This song opens with techno beats that make you want to nod your head/reflect/go clubbing. Hauntingly harmonized vocals pop in at 1 minute and sound distinctly robotic/nonhuman. This long track has moments where you can feel a transition of power as the songs morph into one another, with really fun beats, piano, vocals, and repetition carrying it along. The next track, "Banstyle/Sappy's Curry," clocks in at 15 minutes and 22 seconds. It reminds me of a snythy, bloopy beat I would hear in Sonic the Hedgehog or Tekken Tag Tournament. Vocals come in at around 1 minute 45 seconds that are much less robotic and more human than the previous track's offerings. The ambient tone with funky guitar work at around 6 minutes was really enjoyable and took me away into a slight state of flux. I sense this album will become a new record to work to for me. By the end of this track I could not believe how wonderfully lost I became. "Banstyle/Sappy's Curry," is the perfect background song. The third track on this album, "Confusion the Waitress," opens with a steady drum beat, followed by synth notes and an added trance beat to the drumming. There's a lot of beepy noises and spooky "she said" vocals. This poor, confused waitress. Track number 4, "Rowla," offers more electric chaos. Bass/guitar tunes over a steady beat remind me somewhat of a heartbeat, giving this track a life of its own. There is some fantastic work happening in this song that sounds like lasers flying off into the night sky. I love it. Next up on this album is "Pearl's Girl" at 9 minutes and 36 seconds. This is a steady track with really cool electric noise over a steady beat. This track was also featured in Gran Turismo 6 on the PS3, which makes entirely too much sense. Track 6, "Air Towel," features more steady synth notes and percussion. There is some dancing of sound going on between my left and right headphone, giving this track a very cerebral sound. Just another great song to concentrate to. Track 7, "Blueski," is the shortest song on the album, at 2 minutes and 55 seconds. It's a pretty consistent track of repeated guitar pluckery. It doesn't have a beat, but it's still easy to move your head to. Short and sweet. "Stagger" is the final track on this amazing collection of ambient wonder. This track features more vocals and lyrics than any of the other songs on this album, with a snippet reading: "The naming of killer boy Everything's going west, nothing's going east straighten There's no need to be so uptight straighten Make up for all their messes I could listen to you all day What a laugh, cut me I bleed like you, ha ha" The meaning is vague, though it seems to invoke a feeing of confusion or inebriation. A fitting end to this album. I was so very pleased with this album. I felt my mind flow away in a river of thought during my time with this collection of music. I can't wait to listen to it again, and again, and again! Favorite track: Banstyle/Sappy's Curry Honorable mention: Rowla

This sounds like the background music to a YouTube video. Nothing of redeeming value here. And I don’t just hate techno cause I love kraftwerk

I feel like this album might have been better if there were no vocals on it at all.

Songs were way too boring to be that long. A little change of pace here or there would have been nice. Almost a 1 honestly but not bad enough that I wanted to turn it off.

3, it was fine. To be honest I don't remember a thing about it a couple days later though...

I'm sure this album would score at least 1 spot higher if I still had a DJ set up to play it on. Pearl's Girl always sounded great in the clubs, but listening at home alone just doesn't have the same effect. Having said that, it still has me dancing around the place. It's impossible to keep your feet still to some of this.

Iskreno dosta iznenađen ovim techno-nocturalno ambijentalnim izdanjem. Ma prva pjesma me je već uvela u album kako treba, a ostatak albuma je zadovoljavajuć. Atmosfera, beatovi, instrumentali su kvalitetni i mogu reći da ima jako dobrih prijelaza. Iznenađen sam iskreno.

Šta sam čuo, ok niš spešl

Good techno sound. I like it! I had heard some of their other songs before.

ruim

makes me feel like a cyborg, actually i quite like it (juanita / kiteless / to dream of love)

Decent electronica album, not something i would mind listen to again, nor would it be something i actively searched for.

I liked it, but it was too long for what it offered. That said, my favorite songs were the first two, 16 and 15 minutes each. I think I was feeling the music for the first half hour but by 70 minutes got tired of the minimal variety.

It’s over. Nobody listens to techno.

A grand ride! It really feels like proto-techno (and might be if I looked into the history). It seems purposefully inaccessible, but if given enough listen it sticks. Perfect for studying or gaming. Doesn't move me emotionally at all though.

if this didn't happen for me in 1996 it isn't going to magic itself now

Wasn't great. Beat heavy and low on tunes.

Pish. Boring, generic patterns repeated ad infinitum.

Boring 😴

Far far below the standard set by their previous album - all very dull really with only a couple of good tunes

Born Shitty

Nothing noteable in here.

Ok, but kinda boring

Some nice techno house, not much else to say

Artistically speaking, in general, it's difficult to justify extending the length of a piece of music past the ten minute mark. That's even true with classical music, which obviously has more content than most popular music, which is why most sections in classical music rarely last more than ten minutes. The first two pieces on Second Toughest In The Infants are over 15 minutes and this is dance music, which by its very nature tends toward repetition and lack of content. But before I get into criticizing this artistically, let's talk about its intended function. Could you dance to this? Yes. It's hypnotic. None of the musical textures are nauseating, which has to count as some sort of accomplishment in the dance music environment of the last 30 years. I could imagine, in the right circumstances, say in a packed club, allowing myself to be swept away into the mindlessness of it all and gyrate endlessly in a sea of humanity. So, it succeeds on that level. But how about artistically, as a pure listening experience? The first song, Juanita, is pretty much a dead loss. The beats, rhythmic development, and sound world, while not actively unpleasant, are almost completely devoid of interest. The 2nd tune, Banstyle, is much better. It's built on a simple two chord vamp, which thankfully has a pleasant timbre. The rest is layered rhythms. Ever so slowly, the vamp shapeshifts into a single chord. Within this extremely limited scope, Underworld crams in an impressive variety of textures, both acoustic and digital. The effect is a little like looking through a microscope at a drop of water, teeming with bacteria. It's only a drop of water, but there's a whole world in there. I could see where this might work if you just wanted to zone out or let your mind wander, but it doesn't rise to the level of being truly interesting, like We's As Is. It turns out that Banstyle is the best that Second Toughest In The Infants has to offer. Confusion The Waitress and Rowla spin minute variations on 1 or 2 bar themes. It's reductive, maddening, and boring beyond belief. Second Toughest In The Infants isn't an album. It's an endurance contest. I give up. Underworld wins.

Ok, pra falar a verdade eu nao prestei muita atencao

The first song inspired me to work out, but the thrill faded fast.

Top tier. The dance act all other dance acts secretly wished they were. This album doesn't even have their two vest songs on either.

Really boring

Super great for heads down music - aspects remind me of the matrix soundtrack

interesting, but didnt feel a lot of cohesion in the album and fell off near the beginning

One of the best so far. Played it three times.

Not a great fan

"Homeless trees gathering Outside your window bootleg babies call to you and lie among the mosquitoes That summers fever coming Cats are gathering outside your window" (Juanita/Kiteless/To dream of love) Fui a mirar cuánto del disco llevaba pensando que sería más o menos la mitad y estaba por la mitad pero de la segunda canción.

Kolejny albumik z gatunku nie znam, wiec sie wypowiem, bo kolejna techniawa elektroniczna rocznik 96, no i znowu wyspiarze w natarciu, pierwsza czesc plyty brzmi troche jak o wiele mniej ambitne juno reactor, mocne lubudubu do ktorego wplecione sa jakies wokalne wstawki, tak jak w poprzedniej rece elektryka, mondra muzyka do taneczenia, natomiast ostatnie trzy traki zrezygnowaly z atakowania basiorem i agresywnosci na bicie i sa raczej utrzymane w ambientowych klimatach, discog klasyfikuje plyte do gatunku deepowego housa, gleboki przekaz czy glebokie lubudubu, kto to wie, na plejke dodam kawalek ten z czesci ambientowej, no i to chyba jebyny trak bez jakiegokolwiek wokalu, co w tym przypadku jest plusem, kolejny raz wychodzi bieda skali pieciogwiazdkowej, bo nie ma porownania z albumem kanadyjskich desek, a ten sam gatunek, jednak az tak tragiczny zeby 1 mu dac to nie jest, wiec takie 3/10, a deski kanadyjskie by mialy wtedy 4/10

No Born Slippy - no party

I like house music but it's not my favorite to listen to in album form. I like Underworld but I've never listened to a whole album by them. This album was good background music, though I would say it's my favorite :)

There is really no point in including albums like this. Their purpose is not from a songwriting perspective.

It's fine, but I don't remember much about it, here on Monday.

slorgggggh

Awesome electronic album, not sure the exact genre, I guess Euro house? or rave? Either way it's a fantastic album with great repeating rhythms and very slow progressions. Very long tracks with a lot going on overall, but it's entrancing. True Feeling: 4.1/5

Needs some drugs.

How have I missed this one? Never heard of it. And I love drum and bass. It’s very good.

I don’t think I enjoyed a single second.

I can hear the foundations of 2000s EMD and electronica in here. Liked

I appreciate they don't try to sing much on top of it. Last several minutes of banstyle/sappys currys are real good. Rowla--finally really danceable music Pearl's girl is undeniable. That bass drum drum.

Not bad progressive band

Honestly all the EDM sounds the same to me. Maybe this is again particularly foundational but to me it probably could have been most anything in the genre.

Some really nice instrumental vibes here. Will return.

Nope.

While not entirely horrific, it was still very unpleasant.

wasn't feeling it... didn't get far

nah dude. like jam band deep house no fuckin thank you.

I feel like this is fucking sick but it's like a lot of different elements that were put together for born slippy. I'm really liking it though for a concentration album

Electronic music, eh? Wants to be Moby? it was good, didn't get me excited though.

English electronic albums from the 90s be much shorter challenge

A few interesting moments but too techno for me.

Boring...repetitive....

Amazing work

boring - dont like

This was fun. Their beats would do well at coachella

Hypnotiserende techno beats, udmærket baggrundsmusik,

Thanks, I hate it

6/10 FT: Pearl's Girl

1996. Key Songs: Rowla

This album makes me want to do pills

Havent listened enough yet

Classic beats taking you back to better times.