Biography

Best known as the vocalist for the electronic act Underworld, Londoner Karl Hyde was also in the pre-Underworld group Freur and maintains a solo career as well. The roots of Underworld go back to the dawn of the 1980s, when Hyde and musician Rick Smith formed a pop-reggae group, the Screen Gemz, and then the new wave band called Freur, who would release the minor hit "Doot Doot" in 1983. An early edition of Underworld was formed in 1987, but it would be 1991, when DJ Darren Emerson joined the group and Hyde's lyric writing took on a more surreal, "cut-up" style, that the group found success. Underworld tracks like "Born Slippy NUXX" and "Jumbo" became hits, and eventually dance music classics, while the group withstood the 2002 departure of Emerson, releasing hit albums and successfully touring as a duo afterward. In 2013, Hyde introduced his solo career with the album Edgeland, a more experimental effort than the usual Underworld release. The following year he collaborated with Brian Eno, helping to turn a collection of the producer's unfinished intros into pop songs. Someday World was released in May of 2014. ~ David Jeffries, Rovi