Initially, this 80’s Welsh Synth-pop-New wave-New romantic-Post-punk band were a mere squiggle, literally: their moniker of choice was a graphic symbol, a robust curly-cue morphing into V-shapes (the squiggles), closed by a small circle-loop (sort of), hieroglyphic-ish. Sounds, the popular English music rag at the time, referred to it as an elephant with a stick of rhubarb.

CBS Records, impressed with the band’s brand of elegant artsy new wave, was not impressed by their lacking a phonetically pronounceable name. The band’s leaders proceeded decisively, announcing that the symbol was, in fact, pronounced “Freur”.

Freur was formed by art-school chums in Cardiff, Wales, none other than Karl Hyde and Rick Smith, in 1982. A decade later their musical partnership would flourish as Underworld, the seminal Techno- progressive-house- trance-dance act with indie-rock appeal and credibility, best known for their hit “Born Slippy .NUXX”, given its prominence in 1996’s Trainspotting soundtrack.

In between their two albums, Freur rendered the music for the 1985 Clive Barker horror flick, Underworld (a/k/a Transmutations). The music was never released as a soundtrack, but Post-Freur, Karl Hyde (vocals, guitar) and Rick Smith (keyboards, production) would become squiggle-free, dubbing themselves Underworld, inspired by the film (or at least its title).

Freur’s early 1983 single “Dootdoot” became their only charting “hit”, peaking at #59 in the UK, and faring well in other (mostly European) countries. The album, also dubbed Dootdoot, met with mixed reviews, and lackluster sales. However, Freur toured enough, with arena-style showmanship, and managed to accumulate a modest fan-base, enough for CBS to provide the green light in recording another album.

Freur’s second and last LP, Get Us Out of Here did just that: after solid efforts towards generating enthusiasm for the record in the UK, its release wound up limited to only Germany and The Netherlands.

UK Cherry Red Records’ 2009 reissued both albums compiled on one CD, with the squiggle pronounced Freur prominently featured on the cover.