Underworld - Classic or Dud?

Had never realised what an airtowel was until this second

I didn’t until you pointed out that was what the image was supposed to depict
I’m satisfied to have that mystery cleared up but I will kind of miss its former status in my life as a nonsense phrase

Maybe also worth noting that this is a “Born Slippy” (the original) jam as much as it is “Air Towel”, I heard this recording in bootleg form years ago and came to the same realization then

never thought of the "Airtowel" -> "Born Slippy" thing before. I hear it now. though to me the "definitive" original Born Slippy is the one on Bootleg Babies...what a corker

anyway, here's 26 minutes of "Pearl's Girl"

https://soundcloud.com/underworld/pearls-girl-jam-080624

fuck

Also these two tidbits of news:

Underworld 2019 News Coming Soon

We have some exciting news coming on the 21 May, including some new live shows. As a subscriber you will have access the exclusive ticket pre-sale. Watch out on Tuesday 👀

#DRIFT Episode 4 Starts next week

hope this never stops tbh

i feel very fortunate to be an underworld fan in 2019

You can't buy a physical copy anywhere (I know I'm old fashioned)?

― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Friday, April 26, 2019 11:00 PM (three weeks ago)

Hey Nick - you can pre-order the CD now direct from the band

By the end of the DRIFT series, more new music and film will have been released by Underworld in its one-year duration than in the last fifteen years.

Born lippy: how I helped Underworld write a socialist banger

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/may/21/born-lippy-helped-underworld-write-socialist-banger?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

Obviously not about me, I didn't help them.

nice, about today's new (bonus?!) track.. haven't got to listen yet.

I hope Sue Tompkins (Life Without Buildings) shows up somewhere along the way. Karl mentions discovering/meeting her in the episode 2 notes!

ordered the box set immediately

today’s track seems like it might be a “proper” single - not on Thursday, no free download, serviced to radio (well, to one DJ), tied to print media coverage, &al. also it’s a belter!

I’d guess the next chapter starts on Thursday, to ride the promo wave

yup it do

the track in the announcement video sounds awesome...wonder what it is

really digging the new "Soniamode". sounds like a proper track now

https://youtu.be/D_c0cnV5hGk

so this pretty much confirms what that one interview I alluded to above said - it'll be 5 EPs plus a studio album, though I'm curious as to what exactly the album's gonna be...will it be a 'best of', or will the tracks be remixed, edited, smashed together? or could it be new stuff?

really digging the new "Soniamode". sounds like a proper track now

― frogbs, Tuesday, May 21, 2019 6:40 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm this rips

I'm curious as to what exactly the album's gonna be...will it be a 'best of', or will the tracks be remixed, edited, smashed together? or could it be new stuff?

DRIFT SONGS expands and enhances a selection of the recordings from the DRIFT Series since since it began in November 2018.

So I'm assuming some of the other tracks will get a treatment similar to what they've done with Soniamode.

DRIFT #4 starts on Thursday and if it's running for 12 months presume there'll also be at least a DRIFT #5 and probably #6

well its supposedly 7 discs which includes a Blu-ray & the album itself which suggests there will only be five, BUT they could probably spill 6 across 5 CDs, especially since they'll have to split up EP 2 anyway

yeah, I assume they're just going to fill the CDs, rather than breaking the arbitrary Drift "episodes" onto specific discs

This is on their FB page.

"nearly halfway through" !!!

We’re now nearly half way through our #DRIFT series. We really hope you’ve been enjoying listening and watching as much as we have had creating. We will be releasing a full album: DRIFT SONGS in October to the conclusion of the 52-week series:

great new track out, the one heard a bit last week when they had the video announcing a coming announcement!

No download? But it's on streaming services.

Funny thing about the nearly half way, yeah. Doesn't really make sense given the Oct 25 album release.. but it could mean there are 6 episodes rather than 5.

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

this is, of course, completely fucking killer

whoa, this is right up there with "Two Months Off"

though I think they might have recycled the "Skyscraper" bass line ;)

No download? But it's on streaming services.

Available on itunes: https://music.apple.com/us/album/listen-to-their-no-single/1463935549

and Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Listen-Their-No-Underworld/dp/B07RXZPB6M/
(who also have the Aditya Soniamode: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RXXTTNJ/ )

IIRC the first track in Episode 3 was also purchase-only, no freebie?

As yes you're right - same as the start of episode 3. Not sure where I got my Dune MP3. Anyway I ordered the box :D

i like how they put it out early in the day - that was new. Had it on repeat driving to work!

yea I've probably listened to it a dozen times already. woke up with it stuck in my head. starting to get really jealous of everyone who gets to go to those shows, there are so many new tracks that would just be killer live

This thread gives me the impression that Underworld has, in the last four months or so, released approximately 138 hours of can't miss, best-they've-ever-done material.

i'm on record as someone who enjoys the AHDO/OWB/Barking albums to varying degrees but i think they're re-peaking w/BBWFASF and this project.

I couldn't even make it through Barbara Barbara but I love this new stuff.

yeah, BBWFASF did nothing for me

for me BBWFASF is just a bit below their DNBWMHM/STITI/BF peak

As good as their albums are one thing about UW is that they've always done excellent B-sides and one-offs. They have so many awesome tracks that they'll play once during a radio broadcast or live show and then shelve forever (or rework them into something totally different). They used to bundle single tracks on their website but I think a lot of them are gone now. So it's neat that with Drift they're just putting all this stuff out there for download. I've been waiting for them to do something like this for years.

all true.. I've caught up with the fandom and bootlegs a bit as a result of Drift. The guys on the fan board don't seem to know most of the Drift tracks at all!

"Pinetium" might be my favorite thing. I don't see it mentioned much

it was really cool seeing Karl and Darren Price play dubnobass in full at Primavera Sound in 2015. Didn't make me anticipate any future material much though. And,well, goddam!

I meant to say.. it's the in-between-episode things that seem to date back a ways. "are you rockstar" seemed to be simply released from the vault... whereas the "Drift Songs" if not brand new are at least new recordings

This thread gives me the impression that Underworld has, in the last four months or so, released approximately 138 hours of can't miss, best-they've-ever-done material.

it's not BEST they've ever done, that's silly. it's, like, second or third best they've ever done.

that'll be a fun discussion at year end

xxp I may be wrong but I've got the impression that the Drift tracks are (more or less) written/recorded new each week - although probably using lyrics/beats/melodies that Rick & Karl have accumulated over the years.

Soniamode sticks out as one that they say in their write-up has been kicking around a long time. Most appear to be pretty recent creations but I never got the impression it's been a one-song-per-week focus creatively.

that is, I get the idea they have the whole thing at least sketched out... not that they're meeting every Friday like, ok what now? :)

Oh yeah, I imagine they have a plan but some of the accompanying notes (especially to Brussels and Soniamode) seem to imply the tracks have only come together in the last few days.

Whatever, I still find it amazing that these guys who are into 30+ years together as a band are churning out new tracks every week that have an incredibly high hit to miss ratio. Long may it continue.

And as evidenced by the single version of Soniamode, a lot of these tracks are probably going to get polished up and be even better on the album.

yeah, hell i dunno. The text on the new track was sweet, "Two people helping each other forever..."

And yeah, while there might be a bassline or pattern reused here or there in the Drift stuff, it seems to be all material written and recorded between 2017 and, in one case, the week of release.

In between chapters they've dropped stuff from 1997 to 2018: things they've had on the web in like 96kbps before, one they've never released studio versions of before, one brand new track they used as an intro on the first commercial Drift, a 26-minute 2008 studio improv version of Pearls Girl, and so on.

(So far it's about 3 hours 45 of Drift, over an hour of additional material. Plus other bits only on Mixcloud, like this 1998 jam/rehearsal for Beaucoup Fish figuring out the live versions)

xpost!

some of the accompanying notes (especially to Brussels and Soniamode) seem to imply the tracks have only come together in the last few days.

I think they specify that when it happens because it's unusual, not that they're writing a piece a week. The Necks sessions were in early 2018, and they noted that some of those were riffing on pieces they'd already written/recorded for Drift.

Whatever, I still find it amazing that these guys who are into 30+ years together as a band are churning out new tracks every week that have an incredibly high hit to miss ratio.

40 years this year!