Freur was the collaboration of two art school students in 1983. They actually didn't have a band name until their label insisted that they have one, and that it be pronounceable. They had previously referred to themselves simply by a squiggly symbol. In fact, the British music magazine Sounds called the band "elephant with a stick of rhubarb" because that's what the symbol vaguely looked like.
Freur had a very minor UK hit with "Doot-Doot" before folding and coming back with a few new musicians as Underworld, which was a successful electronic music collaboration that operated throughout the 90s and beyond. Their Freur material, though (at least the little of it with which I'm familiar) was quite attractive; artistically and aesthetically pleasant, vulnerable and "cute." Underworld was no such thing; their frequently dark and rather hard sound featured on the soundtracks of Hackers and Trainspotting (the songs "Cowgirl", "Born Slippy.NUXX" and "Dark & Long" specifically.) But Freur was typical, yet fragile and very well-made 80s synthpop, compared to Underworld's more acid house approach.
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