Underworld don’t need any introduction, so I’m not going to bother giving one. Suffice to say, on the rare occasions when they lend their name to a compilation, it attracts a fair amount of interest. The last time I recall this happening was on their Back to Mine release in 2003. Hooking up with the !K7 label, the duo now get the opportunity to display their love of the jazzier end of the music spectrum on this first part of a planned two-part compilation series.

!K7 have been behind some of the most seminal compilations in contemporary electronica, with the DJ Kicks releases particular highlights, so my expectations for this were quite high. If you’re wondering who The Misterons are, the press release suggests they are regular collaborator Darren Price and Junior Boys Own co-founder Steven Hall, so I guess they’ve had some input on here. The press release also explains how the compilation is entitled Athens after the name of the painting on the album sleeve by Underworld’s Karl Hyde. Fascinating stuff, I’m sure you’ll agree.

Jazz has never really crept on to my music radar, partly because I equate all that meandering improvisation that characterises a lot of jazz music with total boredom. I tend to side with the perspective put across by the Tony Wilson character in the movie 24 Hour Party People, when he states, “Jazz is the last refuge of the untalented. Jazz musicians enjoy themselves far more than anyone listening to them. It’s what you do when you can’t get a gig”. So I’ve had to cast aside such potentially conflicting opinion in order to review this as objectively as possible. Then again, reviews are inherently subjective, so screw it. I guess the issue here then is whether Underworld have the ability to make me appreciate jazz and improvisation, or to put it another way, to make sure I don’t fall to sleep when some trumpet player flies off to the land of instrumental masturbation.

Given the often random, stream-of-consciousness-type lyrics that dominate a lot of Underworld’s music, it should really come as no surprise that they engage with music that incorporates improvisational methodologies. To quote the guys themselves when explaining what this release is all about, “The overall mood is jazz and improvisation. There is very little playing in a lot of people’s records in the dance and DJ world these days, but one thing Underworld have always liked is musicianship. It doesn’t stop us loving machine music and house music and everything that goes with it, but the idea with this album was to highlight records we liked that we thought had great live playing on them”.

The compilation begins with the smokey, psychedelic hues and blues of Alice Coltrane’s Journey in Satchidananda and Mahavishnu Orchestra’s You Know, You Know, and immediately we’re thrown in to the murky world of jazz improvisation. The shuffling, uplifting jazzy tones of Squarepusher’s Theme from Sprite bring some light to proceedings, but the abstract wanderings of Penny Hitch by British prog-rock pioneers Soft Machine may have you scratching your head in bewilderment. Fortunately, the inclusion of Roxy Music’s 2HB saves the day, with its gorgeous, 70s glam-pop vibes and Bryan Ferry’s forever alluring, honeyed vocal tones.

Jazz improvisation again comes out to play on The Detroit Experiment’s Space Odyssey, and, oh look, the trumpet player disappears up his (or indeed her) own arse. Contrasting to that are the sublime, sparse, soulful, stop-start textures of Moodymann’s Rectify, which is something of a highlight. Then things get really interesting with the layered jazzy techno of Osunlade’s The Promise, and this sets up the mix nicely for Underworld to put in an appearance with their classic hypnotic techno workout Oh. There’s also a deliciously warped Afro-infused mix of Laurent Garnier’s Gnaumankoudji that clocks in at an epic eight minutes, and then there’s the even more epic New York City from former Weather Report bassist Miroslav Vitous, an insane nine-minute slab of retro funk. Connecting the dots nicely back to Roxy Music, the final track is a collaboration between ex-*Roxy* luminary and producer extraordinaire Brian Eno and Underworld’s Karl Hyde, which was conceived during Eno’s residency at the Sydney Opera House earlier this year, with one of Hyde’s stream-of-consciousness raps placed over a wild array of beats and live synths.

This compilation does nothing to change my opinion on the merits of jazz, although to expect it do so is unfair and unrealistic. As nice and chilled as the first half is, I’m only drawn in by the tech-infused and slightly more upbeat material in the second half. There’s a journey to be taken in here somewhere, but I’m not picking up on it unfortunately. The mix is interesting, if only because of the obscurity of most of the tracks, so you get the sense Underworld are making a special effort here to introduce their fans to something a little different. The problem is, I doubt whether it is interesting enough to warrant repeated listening. Maybe it’ll all make sense when the second part is released.