Underworld - Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future (Coming March 18, 2016)

Because I don't want this to be confined to the bottom of a classic or dud thread!

Some samples here:
http://www.underworldlive.com/news/2015/11/shiningfuture/

Tracklisting:
1. I Exhale
2. If Rah
3. Low Burn
4. Santiago Cuatro
5. Motorhome
6. Ova Nova
7. Nylon Strung

Who's excited??

i cannot wait

the preview they released sounds really different for them https://soundcloud.com/underworld/underworld-shining-future-part-1

any eno influence?

The entire process was Eno influenced. This quote from Karl basically sounds like a deck of Oblique Strategies.

"Deliberately I’d sometimes load the car up with instruments, but with guitars and string instruments that were not my favorites to start off with. They’d be things that were either difficult to play or I’d think, “There is no way this guitar could possibly make it to an Underworld record. I’ll take that one then,” or, “I’ll start working with that one because it’ll make me play differently.” Everything I did was to trip myself up and stop me thinking about anything we’d done before or anything that was appropriate for an Underworld record."

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/dance/6785862/underworld-new-album-barbara-we-face-a-shining-future-interview

gave it a listen, sounds like... well like a more underworld-y version of the eno/hyde records. pretty good, anticipating. (I like the eno/hyde records a ton)

https://soundcloud.com/underworld/1644-mastered-underworld-iexhale-single-mix-01wav

some discussion about this in another thread

here's the video - not recommended for epileptics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4izZYfo58-E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYSUltr5R7Y

there was a second preview up on Spotify, but it looks like it's been taken down, for now...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxWzV6DmvPM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Smu0MaDKnYc

I am unreasonably happy about them putting out an album that sounds like they're covering Stereo MCs

they played most of the album at the 6 Music festival which streamed on the BBC's website. I've avoided it thus far but several long-time fans have said the new stuff is good

pretty excited by these previews. they sound like a totally different band.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZM3nOeRyshs

Listening to this now. (It's out there.) So far it's...not what I listen to Underworld for. The first two tracks sound like that Von Südenfed album Mark E. Smith did with the Mouse on Mars guys - random wordspew atop uninteresting electronics. The rest is mostly wispy half-ambient stuff. On first listen I'm not a fan. But I'll give it another chance; maybe it'll sound better on the train in the morning.

A friend has just texted me to tell me that "I Exhale" sounds like "Hit the North".

Whoa that was my impression too, I'm getting serious Fall vibes from this record, Code: Selfish or Marshall Suite

I love it, great record.

They do sound like a totally different band.

(My predictive text responded 'They do sound like' with 'Morrissey', um, no.)

I have been listening to their back catalogue all day AND i just found out they are playing in NYC next month and my dude and I are gonna go and I am already FLIPPING OUT

they are ILL live

I maintain that the main thing that ruined 2nd Toughest... for me was first encountering the material via blindly going to a concert with a friend's friend; those live versions were much more immediate, impressive and vital than the experience of listening to the album afterward.

my friend and I saw Caribiou a few yrs ago and at one point I remember turning to him and being like "I guess this is the closest I'll ever get to seeing Underworld live" BUT NOT ANYMORE

i think if you approach STITI as a sort of a cold and icy and more removed endeavor then it opens up. karl hyde is obv doing far less ranting shouty preacher rave stuff here, he's pretty quiet and cool w/the exception of pearls girl.

haha it's telling that "Pearls Girl" is the only song on the album that I listen to, given that advice

i've been trying with you for a DECADE on this album iirc

I've said this before, but I love how quiet Second Toughest In The Infants is in terms of its mastering. It really blossoms when it's cranked up.

finally an album of "bruce lee"s

What the world has been waiting for.

i'm kidding but not. anyway i love "motorhome" sooooooo much

"low burn" and "ova nova" are very og underworld while the rest is verrrryyyy different

i'm unfortunately super inclined, only after one listen, to call this their best since ______, even as a huge fan of barking. it's been a while since i intentionally listened to a hundred days off, so i'll report back

I'm still gonna wait for my copy to arrive but looking back I'm leaning towards Oblivion With Bells being their best? I wasn't a fan on first listen, mostly because it didn't have any epics or bangers, but listening to it now I'm kinda floored by it, the level of detail on some of the tracks is insane, and I really think the last 15 minutes is some of the best music they ever put out.

agree re: Oblivion With Bells. That's a great album. I play Faxed Invitation and Best Mamgu Ever a bunch. Peach Tree too, but that was a non-album track.

for me "JAL to Tokyo", "Food a Ready/Back in the Fears", "Parc", and pretty much the whole Big Sister EP are non-album favorites. that was a pretty awesome period for them. don't get me wrong I thought Barking was plenty great but lately I've really appreciated this group more when they don't try to sound like themselves. which I guess bodes well for this new one.

Yeah, I'd add the Breaking and Entering soundtrack on there as well. I love that album. They were extremely creative between AHDO and Barking.

the last three tracks on this is one of the best runs of their career

i also really love oblivion with bells (and the surrounding eps) but there are parts of that record that i lose track of. my favorite underworld record is either second toughest or beaucoup fish depending on the day

beaucoup fish is pretty underrated in a lot of ways, in some respects its sound is my ideal underworld sound, even though it's not my favorite (it's probably my #2 after STITI)

I think their most satisfying albums are Beaucoup Fish, A Hundred Days Off and Barking. However, my single favorite song of theirs is still "Dirty Epic".

It had never occurred to me that Beaucoup Fish was particularly underrated especially within the context of other Underworld albums. TBH it's the only one (other than Everything Everything) that I ever want to play in its entirety.

i guess think it's only underrated compared to the first two, i don't think it's ever regarded as being on par with them but i think it is.

btw NPR is offering "Ova Nova" up as a streamable song and it's kind of incredible

http://www.npr.org/2016/03/07/468737177/songs-we-love-underworld-ova-nova

Between this and "I Exhale", I feel like they've finally hit upon an iteration of the "Bruce Lee"/"Ring Road" template that works extremely well for me rather than making me want to die.

i want more sola sistim/jumbo kinda shit from them

hard to promise that there's anything like "jumbo" on here but there are many gorgeous moments, among them "ova nova"

i'm also revisiting i'm a big sister today and what a gorgeous collection of music

I used to fall asleep to the second half of that almost every day. It's really really good.

the new one is their shortest record so it feels weird for me to say i like it more than a hundred days off, which sort of takes its time doing everything at once, or oblivion with bells, which is maybe their most interior record and, of all their albums, the one i keep discovering new things in.

but i do :D

barbara also feels more like underworld than barking did, which imo barking very deliberately doesn't feel like underworld and is instead a kind of experiment in maximalism that is perfectly suited for spring/early summer weather so i've been jamming it a ton

Barking was full of bullshit collaborators. It wasn't really an Underworld album.

it's still really great imo

also "between stars" is evidence they should compose with darren price more often

^^^^^^^^

+1 for Darren Price

Its a great album, but boy does it seem short. Like an old-fashioned LP. Needs another side.

I didn't play '100 days off' that much, I guess I could dig that one out..

Then you'll probably remember why you didn't play it that much

Oh and album is officially streaming over at The Grauniad:

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/mar/14/underworld-barbara-barbara-we-face-a-shining-future-exclusive-album-stream?CMP=share_btn_tw

Then you'll probably remember why you didn't play it that much

hey at the very least my last relisten revealed that "luetin" is one of their best songs and is totally buried on that record!

^^^^ I have been saying this for years

ok, that can go on side three, what else?

IMO "No Move", "Two Months Off", "Twist", Dinosaur Adventure 3D"

btw I'm listening to the stream now and I think I'm going to really dig this whole album

righto, that's a side three wrap, ta very.

btw I'm listening to the stream now and I think I'm going to really dig this whole album

really psyched bc the first time i heard the record i was like "oh djp might be super into this"

I am delivering Hot Takes(TM) on Facebook

Luetin is great. Nice Peel Session version too. They opened the 2nd night in SF back in 07? With Luetin. So good.

so yeah this is pretty great; I'll figure out exactly how great once I live with this for a little bit

I think Luetin is the only song from AHDO I've played more than twice

Mo Move is great. Trim is one of my favorites. Twist live was better than it was on the album, esp. the show with the live guitar (Spain?). Ansum is also pretty great if you love 16min ambient pieces.

yeah I listened to AHDO the other day and it's a lot better than I remember it. I love all the acoustic percussion on it and the overall sound is great, also now that I don't automatically associate UW with bangers and epics the way I used to (which is why I now love OWB so much) it's starting to sound better to my ears. strange that a song as great as "8 Ball" didn't wind up making the album, though I don't know how well it would have fit. As mentioned "Luetin" is great though it's occurred to me that "Holding the Moth", from OWB, is even better.

Holding the Moth was much better before they ruined it on OWB, in my opinion. They totally killed the rhythm of the track in the studio.

strange that a song as great as "8 Ball" didn't wind up making the album, though I don't know how well it would have fit

That was recorded/released not long after BF so it seems natural that it wasn't part of their next album almost three years later.

didn't know that - I always thought it was part of the AHDO sessions just based on the way it sounded

It was on The Beach soundtrack which came out in early 2000 and I'm pretty sure I'd heard it before then (maybe via the old dirty.com forums).

Thing with Underworld though is that several of their tracks show up in live shows etc years before they finally make it to an album (if at all)

well here was my logic. I know that The Beach was Leo's first movie role in the three years since Titanic, which I THOUGHT came out in 1999, thus 1999 + 3 = 2002 - now I find out that Titanic came out in '97!?

either way - Scribble and Always Loved a Film were "in development" for 5+ years before appearing on Barking, "All These Things (In Me)", "Biro the Leggy", and "Globe" were all around from 2002-2004 before getting retitled and placed on OWB. I really have no idea how they decide what goes on the albums and what doesn't.

my underworld ranking at this time (i want to give BBWFASF a few more listens)

STITI>>BF>DNBWMHM>>AHDO>>OWB=Barking

i might have to relisten to the last two but they felt like good 7/10 albums, barking had higher peaks, OWB is more consistent, but both had issues for me in the end. i agree that barking doesn't quite feel like a "true" underworld album in a lot of ways but it's enough of one that i don't mind it.

If Barbara Barbara was just the last 4 tracks and released as an EP, we'd be talking about how UW were better than ever right now. The last 4 songs are among the best they've ever written.

March 18th, motherfuckers!

I think I'm currently at BF > DNBWMHM > Barking > AHDO > OWB > STITI

Dubno > OWB, STITI > BF, AHDO, BBWFASF

Tier 1 > Tier 2 > Tier 3

If Barbara Barbara was just the last 4 tracks and released as an EP, we'd be talking about how UW were better than ever right now.

I mean ok but the first three tracks are also awesome

yet another underworld thread that suggests everyone has really specific ideas of what constitutes a great underworld record

karl hyde gives me real Muppet vibes in the 'i exhale' video, i love it

STITI turned 20 this week.

Remember buying it on vinyl the day it came out then having a listening party at a mate's house that evening and everyone being blown away.

stiti = bf > owb > dubno > barking > ahdo

barbara may be ahead or behind owb at this point. if i'm a big sister counts it's equal to stiti and bf imo

8.1 on Pitchfork - guess their critical reputation is finally coming back?

my god the last 4 really are something completely different but so beautiful

santiago cuatro is beautiful, love the guitar

I just got the Japanese bonus track and that one is pretty great too. It's a shame they keep giving Japan these interesting tracks.

"nylon strung" is the most beautiful song

kinda feel like "open me up/i want to hold you laughing" is kind of an all time hyde lyric too, his best stuff has always seemed to use odd juxtaposition to communicate something emotionally direct

more like underwearld

Yeah, Twenty Three Blue is excellent

It's a shame they keep giving Japan these interesting tracks.

I think it's because CDs are more expensive in Japan, so they give extras to stop them buying cheap imports.

Think this is easily the best album they've done since BF

I understand the reason they do it, I just think it's too bad they choose songs that are good to give the japanese market. They should just tack on some old live version of Crocodile so I don't have FOMO.

Also, last night in Berlin they played 8 Ball and Faxed Invitation. Pretty incredible.

Also, last night in Berlin they played 8 Ball and Faxed Invitation

ok if they do this in new york i'll die

"Nylon Strung" reminds me of Orbital's "Never," and the full thing is already my favorite new electronic music album since Wonky in 2012, probably. Shows how much I keep up with this kind of stuff.

i was thinking of it as being similar to wonky the other day!

I guess I should give this a listen, then!

Wonky is great tbh

Low Burn <3

x-post:

Yeah, I'm still listening to Wonky quite a lot.

finally an album of "bruce lee"s

Man I thought this was a joke, but two songs in and this is like listening to someone build a wall.

been listening to this nonstop since Friday. can't say where it fits in the UW pantheon - agreed that it's similar to Wonky in terms of quality, but I never really thought UW dropped off a cliff the way Orbital did. but this is really good - think "Low Burn" and "Nylon Strung" are gonna be the two everyone raves about, but I think the first two tracks rule as well, and I even dig "Santiago Quatro" a lot, for a fillerish track that is. as a side note I always had this MP3 attributed to Underworld called "Gypsy Hairdo" - think it was from a mk1 demo tape I got off an FTP server - and I always assumed it was mislabeled, since it's a bouncy flamenco instrumental that sounds nothing like any incarnation of UW. but now I think it may be legit.

I've listened to this maybe 6 times today. "Motorhome" is so gorgeous and maybe my favorite, the 90s house organ on "Ova Nova" is such a great touch, and "Low Burn" is of course brilliant

damn this is moving

Rick Smith came up with the title of the album through his father, which was one of the last things he said before he died. Karl Hyde in an interview said that Rick's mother's name is Barbara and said that she was fearful of the future without him and that's when his father said to her that quote that would then become the title for the album.

this album is certainly better than the last three imo, as much as i do enjoy those ones to varying degrees

right now If Rah is my favorite (I'm also one of the people that liked Ring Road)

"if rah" rules, i love that huge synth line that emerges halfway through

i also love "ring road"

I like Ring Road, but i'm still not loving If Rah. The story in Ring Road drew me in but I can't find anything in If Rah to cling to.

luna luna luna luna
luna luna luna luna

The moment where "If Rah" blossoms into a huge beam of light is probably my favorite single moment on the album.

i don't want to know what happens when you say "luna" eight times on ilx

hey sug

i need sug

this is definitely the sort of album you want to hear again right away after it finishes. lately I've been thinking that "Low Burn" may be one of their best tracks full stop, dunno if I've been this obsessed with a UW tune since "Jumbo". or "Parc", maybe.

anyone else hear a lot of the Chemical Brothers in "Motorhome"? structured very similar to the ballads they do every album, uses the "Wonders of the Deep" synth and does the psychedelic flangeout just like the Chems always do (without exploding in the end, for better or worse)

think I'm ready to declare this a top-flight UW disc, especially if you add in "Twenty Three Blue". "Ova Nova" is so damn good, I'm getting chills from it

I wish it had been an EP with If Rah and I Exhale being a stand alone single.

Twenty three blue is amazing, should have been part of the album proper

100% agreed, its definitely one to crank the hell up

Making their first ever performance on Later this week.

Extended show on tomorrow night with 3 tracks from Underworld.

oo

I've been revisiting this album over the past couple of days and "If Rah" is really, really, really satisfying.

i love "twenty three blue" but i think i'm cool with it not being on the album

at least i don't really have a sense of where it would fit

"If Rah" recently got the full single / remix treatment, including one from Herbert: https://open.spotify.com/album/4L9dkMglcgAdkup0nQVZK1

I really couldn't imagine a radio edit for "If Rah" due to the pace of the build but this works surprisingly well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbphaKMepqY

I love how it just gets into it from the start. The first 30 seconds of that tune loop around in my head a lot.

Oh shit, I'm just now listening to this album and I'm properly gobsmacked.

luna luna luna luna
luna luna luna luna

OTM

I really really enjoy the entire record, but 'If Rah' and 'Motorhome' are my favourites, simply because I love how both tracks develop.

OTM

― ¶ (DJP), Sunday, December 18, 2016 5:45 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Every Underworld album has at least one song that I find indispensable and will play on endless repeat at the drop of a hat; "If Rah" is that song from this album.

Also at one point I had my sons singing the "luna luna luna luna" part almost unprompted.

Hehe, that's awesome!

big thing about "If Rah" is that it just bangs right out of the box, as though the usual slowbuild/intro was just lopped off. good decision IMO.

and then it builds on top of that bang to become a bangernaut

I regret almost every single facet of my previous post

just saw this was nominated for a Grammy too. I'm guessing it's going to lose to Jean Michel Jarre but it's cool to see them (finally) get some recognition, it's about as overdue as Aphex Twin's was

(and yeah I know, fuck the Grammies)

wait is he saying "shoot the stars, pizza bread" at 0:56?

I used to hear "beads of prayer", but yeah now it's "pizza bread"

https://underworld.tmstor.es/cart/product.php?id=31223

https://img.tmstor.es/underworld/31223.jpg

Beckinsale was great in this but I was peeved that they never revealed who Barbara was (the werewolf, maybe).

$21.78 incl shipping to get that sent to the US, no thanks

You can hear Eventually But 2h25m into this Lauren Laverne show:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08c295c

Also a new track called 'I Remember' at 1h55m when Karl sat in for Gilles Peterson last week

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08b2dm2

man I would totally not mind if they released an entire album that sounded like "Motorhome"

what if as a concept they made that album and it only was played in a motorhome. you get on it, and it's just driving around places while you listen to the album

Breaking And Entering soundtrack is one of the best things they've ever done. Beautiful music.

luna luna luna luna
luna luna luna luna

I'm just now getting around to the DJ Koze mix of "I Exhale" and I don't know if it's right place, right time or I'm just in a MOOD but srsly at this very moment this is the best fucking thing in the world

wait there's a what

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYSUltr5R7Y

https://soundcloud.com/underworld/i-exhale-dj-koze-remix

xp: lol jinx

lol at the chanty chorus sounding like a group of background singers chiming in

also loving herbert's dub of "if rah"

luna luna luna luna....YEAH!

luna luna luna

in love with

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Choc_Dipped_Coconut_Luna_Bar.jpg
http://pastdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Luna-resize-1.jpg
http://www.space.com/images/i/000/007/473/original/moon-watching-night-100916-02.jpg

there's a possible fourth jpg but i won't do it

You don't look so normal
People struggle
sug

there's a possible fourth jpg but i won't do it

http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/sailormoon/images/b/b2/Lunadraw.jpg

Everything DJ Koze touches turns to gold.

there's a possible fourth jpg but i won't do it

― nomar, Wednesday, March 1, 2017 2:35 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

http://photos.amazingsocks.com/300/656s-gold-toe-athletic-6-pr-pack-cotton-crew-sock-white-16278.jpg

Can't get into this on the whole, but Motorhome is lovely, and a bit... Beatlesy?

I don't know about Beatlesy, but I really love how that track develops.

So, the NYT has an interview up with a dude named Jad Abumrad. I'd never heard of him before, but apparently he's a big deal in US media circles because of something called 'Radiolab'.
The following exchange caught on my attention:

What were you listening to when you started at Oberlin?
Bad techno. My musical taste goes high and low. I was into, like, Underworld’s “Rez.” It’s like the best techno song ever made, still. It’s horrible music, but legitimately an amazing song.

Can anyone parse this strange statement for me?

Musical self-loathing snobbery?

where can I pillory this man

was under the impression from earlier in this thread that they were doing more straightforward sets these days but they're doing a facebook livestream right now from amsterdam and it feels basically as improvisational as everything everything—already heard radically different versions of "between stars" and "bruce lee" feeding into each other

maybe not this thread actually, but one of them

Watch here:

https://www.facebook.com/underworldlive/videos/10155046373457849/?hc_ref=ARTuScL5mUjkKV5upwnP2P_4ZibcCyBufZ_Z964XehV_THM2Yq-fU2FuT_47HZbquHk

(They have basically done straightforward track pause track pause track sets for quite a few years tho. Would be great if they go back to the improv continuous mix days)

I would be delighted to know that Underworld are a great live act again! Someone on the Underworld forum said they were recording the set, hope it ends up somewhere accessible.

so far this show has been extremely continuous

I wonder if they've ever played a set where they haven't done Rez/Cowgirl?

Still sounds amazing mind

Ok. This is fantastic

wish i were there

oh well i'll settle for a desk rave

I think the recent ones are relatively continuous but don't vary much? As in, they have a little leeway, but two sets of equal length will have the same songs in the same order, with the mix being about the same

ah yeah that's prob what's happening here

whatever this song they're currently playing is is wonderful

I should be listening to that stream but instead I'm cherrypicking my favorites across the albums and grinning like a madman

oh it was "air towel"!!!! wow

the live arrangement of "low burn" is improbably beautiful

stream died in the midst of "king of snake," rip

sssssssnaaaake

more like "sssssssnaaa-"

twenty four hours

A recording of the Amsterdam show can now be found at your favourite file sharing sites

it has been on mixcloud all this time btw - and they've given us King Of Snake without the cut too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvMqR4X3TQI

I just wanted to share that my sons were running around the house last night shouting "LUNA LUNA LUNA LUNA/I LOVE THIS" completely unprompted

I think I can call it a day on this parenting thing, clearly I've succeeded.

wow, this is absolutely killer - haven't heard them do this sort of improv in a long long time

the fact that these guys only have two official live albums (counting the impossible-to-get Tokyo '05 set) is criminal

i’ve spent an unreasonable amount of time searching for a working torrent of tokyo ‘05

if you're on slsk I can zip it to ya

Great work, DJP.

Nice to see them back to mixing things up more in live sets. I was at the Tokyo show in '05 - catching the Amsterdam stream was like a flashback.

I listened to Barbara Barbara again the other day. I can't fathom how they remain this great. This is my favourite work of theirs since the Riverrun EP's (I liked everything in between as well, including side projects)

BRAVO

i’ve spent an unreasonable amount of time searching for a working torrent of tokyo ‘05

It's very easy to find on soulseek

20+ people sharing right now

(duh - that link I found is only for premium users, isn't it? sorry) :(

http://thequietus.com/articles/24344-underworld-brilliant-yes-that-would-be
Nice 'n moody - Fenneszy guitars in the last part