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

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?

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