📚 Homework Alert: Lets dig into Second Toughest in the Infants by Underworld!
Get the most out of our deep dive — prep now so you’re ready to rock when the episode drops.
Okay class, pencils down and glowsticks up—it's time for a new Dig Me Out homework assignment! This week, we're diving into a pulse-pounding time capsule from the mid-'90s: Second Toughest in the Infants by Underworld, as nominated by longtime DMO Union member Darren Leach. 🫡
If the name Underworld rings a bell, it’s probably echoing from a warehouse rave at 2 AM, lit by strobes and the beat of Born Slippy .NUXX. But that iconic Trainspotting anthem? Just a peek at the vast, hypnotic world this British electronic trio built. Second Toughest is their sprawling 1996 album that blends techno, trance, ambient, and house into a cinematic fever dream.
The beats throb, the synths swell, and Karl Hyde’s vocals drift in and out like fragments of poetry heard through a payphone in another dimension. Think: if Radiohead’s Kid A threw on sneakers and decided to dance all night. This is headphone music, road trip music, zone-out-and-stare-at-the-ceiling music.
📚 Your 3-Step Homework:
Stream the album – Put on some good headphones, press play, and let Juanita: Kiteless: To Dream of Love transport you to somewhere between the club and the cosmos.
Skim the wiki – Get a quick refresher on Underworld’s history and how this album fits into the '90s electronic boom. There’s lore here. 👀
Ask yourself – What works on this album? What doesn’t? Is 1 hour 13 minutes of music brilliance or bloat?
We’ll break it all down on the next Dig Me Out, so get your ears ready and your takes hot.