Trio Underworld Finds Happy Mix

In the electronic dance music realm, about the only thing thicker than the anticipation for the next album by Underworld was the crowd packing the dance floor at the London trio’s Mayan Theatre show Monday.

Expectations have been building since even before the group proved some pop appeal two years ago, when “Born Slippy” emerged from the “Trainspotting” soundtrack as an alternative-rock radio hit. There was no obvious hit among the new pieces played Monday, and the group’s arty ambition lacks the instant gratifications of Fatboy Slim’s sample-happy savvy or the Prodigy’s punk circus attraction. But there was plenty to justify the interest.

Behind a large mixing console, Darren Emerson and Rick Smith crafted shimmering beat sonatas, the crowd cheering and surging with each modification and variation, while Karl Hyde added the key human touch with his warm, mantra-like vocal phrases. The percolating, levitating rhythms of the new “Push Downstairs” and “King of Snake” in particular paid obvious homage to the U70s art-dance crossroads of Kraftwerk and Giorgio Moroder.

As “Born Slippy” marked the set’s end, Hyde sported a beatific smile and bent his body to the shapes of majestic chords and sinewy rhythms. On the five screens behind and above the stage flashed a poetic passage about sadness and fear vanishing so completely that “I felt I had no right to such happiness.” The fans’ joy, though, was justifiably unqualified.