Karl Hyde

Underworld is the principal name under which British electronic music duo Karl Hyde and Rick Smith have recorded since the late 1970s. The band is perhaps best known for two tracks, Underneath The

Underworld is the principal name under which British electronic music duo Karl Hyde and Rick Smith have recorded since the late 1970s. The band is perhaps best known for two tracks, Underneath The Radar in 1988 and Born Slippy .NUXX, a track made popular in the hit 1996 Danny Boyle film Trainspotting.

Hyde and Smith began their musical partnership with the Kraftwerk and Reggae-inspired sounds of The Screen Gemz while studying together at Cardiff Art College. In 1983 they recorded two albums for CBS Records with a proto-electroclash New Romantic band whose name was a graphic squiggle, which (this being a relatively unknown band and many years before Prince became "Love Symbol") was soon given a pronunciation, "Freur".