THANKS TO LOU:
Lola was a radio DJ in Hamburg, we broadcast together many times,
becoming friends through our mutual love of music.
“Have you heard The ‘New York’ album?” she asked as we left the
studio one day.
“You really have to hear it, you would love it”
“I’m not really that big a a fan”
“Oh but this album is different, it’s fantastic”
She pulled a copy out’ve her bag & handed to me.
“You’re going to love it”
I didn’t listen to it straight away, didn’t have the heart
to refuse, Lola was a loyal supporter of our music for years,
so I accepted & filed it under ‘one day maybe’.
How much longer it took to listen I don’t remember, but I did,
though I shouldn’t have, based on my track record for almost
never listening to things labeled ‘one day maybe’, but there it was
on the CD player, with my finger pressing play. The simple synopsis
of what happened next could be that Lou Reed’s ‘New York’ album
inspired me to radically change the way I wrote lyrics, imagining
them based on overheard conversations & the documenting of journeys
through cities. The long form version is what I’m exploring here in
these online recollections, something darker, richer more uplifting
& full of light. Norman Cook once said something like when he heard
‘Cowgirl’ a penny dropped for him, for me it was Lou Reed’s
(K)
Karl Hyde 
I never really liked the thump-thump style of music… electronic music was okay, but the kick-kick-kick always seemed so shallow to me…
Then I heard Juanita/Kiteless/To dream of love. My world changed. Not to mention more recent gems of heaven such as Always Loved a Film, or the unforgettable You Bring Light In. The words are a tapestry of divinity in these poems.
The notion that such a monotonous thumping could hold and gradually unfold so much emotion, so much poetry, blatantly direct yet eloquent in its sheer power, such artistry, so much beauty – was a slap in my face.
Your lyrics, Karl, your poems, the art you made over the years with Underworld, have shaped lives, and worlds, and universes inside me. If I had to put into words the mixture of my life events and the effects of your art inside them, I’d be seriously challenged.
Suffice to say that I love you deeply, so deeply and wholly, words shame the depth and magnitude.
If I could, I would rip and tear pieces of cloth from my dreams and give them as gifts to you.
This diary is beautiful, as are you.