Underworld - Drift

We've been talking about this a lot on the C/D thread, but this project deserves its own one

If you haven't been following, the idea is: every Thursday they are releasing either a new track, something from the archive, or a new EP (comprised of the new stuff), leading up to the 10/25 release of "Drift Songs", which is supposedly going to be the album proper. Amazingly the new stuff does not feel rushed or poorly thought out, in fact there's a lot that ranks up with their best material (in my humble opinion). They've hit on nearly everything they've done well in the past and have explored a number of new directions that don't sound like Underworld at all. Who else is following this??

Pretty interesting concept - noticed that the album proper is simultaneously an anthology release of all the drift tracks in addition to reworking a subset of the songs for a proper "album length" release?

I've yet to hear any of the material. Is it worth diving into? Appears to be a lot of stuff to wade through.

the material's very all over the place but the best of it is really fantastic - so far my favourites are "Border Country", "Dune", "Custard Speedtalk" and "Appleshine Continuum"

Appleshine Continuum is an epic 47 minute journey

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

"Listen To Their No" is awesome if you're into the TMO/Scribble side of the group

Second episode is my favourite so far. And having just heard the fourth, 'Border Country' is a clear highlight imho.

"threat of rain" is my favorite that hasn't been mentioned yet

It's wonderful.

todays release is another rehearsal, this one from 2005, with "Silver Boots" (the original "Always Loved a Film"), "Yard Beat", and "Push Upstairs"

https://www.mixcloud.com/UnderworldLive/underworld-230605/?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Manchester+Street+Poem+2019+++18+unedited+mins+of+Riverrun-era+rehearsal+for+you&utm_campaign=DRIFT+DROP+-+230605

"Silver Boots" is one from my wishlist so I'm pretty happy with this. just wish I could download it!!

you can download it, it's just 66kbps utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Manchester+Street+Poem+2019+++18+unedited+mins+of+Riverrun-era+rehearsal+for+you&utm_campaign=DRIFT+DROP+-+230605

hmmm should've figured it would be fairly easy to do that

it definitely doesn't sound great but it's an improvement on the version I cropped from the radio broadcast in 2006

"listen to their no" -> "schiphol test" is a wonderful experience

think ep 4 is my favorite rn

https://www.mixcloud.com/UnderworldLive/atl080328/

direct from soundboard live recording of Born Slippy/Pearls Girl/Beautiful Burnout.

didn't know they were playing the original Born Slippy in 2008

Another live jam, almost 40 minutes this week:

https://www.mixcloud.com/UnderworldLive/leipzig-warehouse-jam-050715/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB6G7KgBX24

ends about 5 minutes too early if you ask me

yeah it takes a bit too long to get going and then doesn't spend enough time there once it has

the juice was barely shook!

I liked it. wonder if the box will have some longer variations of the many "film edit"s.

I guess that's the big question right now, if they plan to remix/extend the material or leave it as is for the album. As much as I love a lot of this stuff I kinda feel like some of it could have used some more time in the mastering stage - they use a sharp hi-hat sound a lot that can overwhelm the rest of the tune ("Appleshine" being a good example), which is something you wouldn't hear on a proper UW album.

speaking of 'way too short'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0mwQEtkik0

basically Holding the Moth pt. 2, which I'm totally cool with

Also: https://infiction.bandcamp.com/track/doot-doot-infiction-remix

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79bWsFwOZDg

no download this week!

Was surprised last week's was a download, tbh

the last two Episodes have had all the week-2-and-later tracks as free downloads

(Episode 2 had all its weeks as downloads)

13 minute track this week

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG74FOPyijY

no Karl on this one but it's really nice. lotta BF-era sounds here but it's a bit more modern and jazzy.

love this one! I'd been thinking there was way more Karl than not, than they've typically had across their albums. So, good restraint, like.

Someone on the Facebook pointed out that this was heard back in the original trailer with words from Dexter's Chalk over it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qDwIDPNdE0

ahhh...that's a good catch...I wondered about that track when I went back to the trailer a couple months ago. didn't recognize it here though

I wonder if all the stuff referenced in the EP2 liner notes has been released now - they reference Toluca Stars there and the with Agata from Melt Banana. should really comb through those

another interesting thing is that I've seen this referred to by the boys a few times as "Drift Series 1" which uh...implies something for 2020

STILL WAITING FOR SUE TOMPKINS (LIFE WITHOUT BUILDINGS), POSSIBLY??? ALLO, UNDERWORLD? :D

this from Karl on the Instagram posting of the "Imagine A Box" preview: "... this way of releasing our music is like a tv series - Drift series 1 has 5 episodes and each episode is made up of tracks with films - if you go to our website you can find them all in the order they came out - I hope this helps - thank you for voicing your confusion though (k)".

So yeah maybe another series?! But how many times have we seen "52 weeks of releases" (from Nov 1 last year) about this... and he's saying 5 episodes... #5 will be ending in a week or maybe two? This is only the 43rd Thursday.

Part of the fun is not having any damn clue.....

would imagine there's 2 more songs to go, especially since "Mile Bush Pride" was so short

meaning either 5-6 weeks of live recordings or mixes depending on whether or not they release anything the week the album drops

I think there was some recent interview where they said they had a good idea of what the album was gonna be and what they'd do next. so something's up

would be odd to go out on vault stuff, though some of it's been awesome

well they're going out on the album release which I'm presuming is gonna get promoted & reviewed in all the usual spots

my guess is there'll be a few new album versions of tracks (like the new version of "soniamode") they'll release in the lead up to the album

Witney, Granby, Rochdale, Preston!

I think if Soniamode is on the album it'll be closer to the original version. The second one struck me as just part of the press push they did when kicking off Episode 4 (being done with the help of a Guardian reporter and all).

I like both versions fine but i wouldn't put it on the album.

What would y'all do with one disc of "drift songs"? It is up for preorder as a double vinyl and single CD, so.. 50-80min?

I just came up with this handful of favorites and tried to make the best sequence I could (I'll be impressed if they wind up putting anything that sounds like an album moreso than most of the episodes have)

universe of can when back
Brussels
pinetum
listen to their no
appleshine
another silent way
Toluca stars
border country

1hr. Would like to have a Necks thing included, hope there is another one with them.

surprised myself only having one from #3.. most days I'd say that's the best one

would've put on "Doris" but it's already on the Manchester Street Poem album that came out that week. Highly recommended for anyone here who hasn't checked that out!

I'm really hoping that there is a new track or two and that the whole thing is remixed heavily. nothing wrong with what we got just hoping for something different since I've listened to the Drift stuff so much already.

it's kind of hard to pare this down to an hour since so many of the tracks are 10+ minutes. not a lot of room for something like "Pinetum" or "Threat of Rain" (which I doubt would have made the album anyway, they don't usually put tracks like that on the LPs proper). I'm not sure if they're gonna aim for a album full of bangers or something more chill, or some combination of both. "Listen to Their No" & "Drum Street" were both played live so I assume they're both on the LP.

personally I'd do something like

Appleshine
Molehill
This Must Be Drum Street
Another Silent Way
Dexter's Chalk
Hundred Weight Hammer
Border Country
Custard Speedtalk
Tree and Two Chairs
Listen to Their No

that's about 75 minutes and it misses a few faves but it works

I would put "Mile Bush Pride" on there but I feel like we don't have the full version of that yet

good point about the two being played live. Going to play your list later!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VohOhpwbk3M

seems to be the last track from "Drift Series 1"

says "penultimate part of episode 5" so one more left? or does that refer to when they put it out as an EP

lol yeah my bad I forgot "penultimate" means there's one left

actually it's on YouTube now, it's called "S T A R" but you can't listen to it until 9/12

email: "Join us for the premiere of S T A R - the final part of DRIFT Episode 5 - Thursday 12th September 12.00 BST"

this week is the "penultimate part"

I figured this meant next week is the last song... but it's true that "star" could be just the name of the episode (it fits well with the other one word titles), with the full episode release to services as usual (and no new song, as usual). Also the email calls this week a "cliffhanger"!

who knows!

the specific premier time is a first?

some TV interface or other is apparently showing the Star video runtime as 3m45s.. and the description includes:

'S T A R' Lyrics LYRICS HERE - - - - - - - - - About 'S T A R' TRACK DESCRIPTION - - - - - - - - -

...

I'm gonna say it is a song!

This week's seems slight at first listen... the sort of new bit you might have heard as a bridge between big songs at a gig

most of the Ep 5 tracks seem that way. lotta jams without much structure. but I like those sorts of tracks

and yeah this does seem made to segue into something. it sounds like they're trying to build up some anticipation for next week's track so I'm pretty intrigued what it is now

CLIFFHANGER

Preview of the last track sounds awesome, I believe that’s the Lenny Penne beat

yup! and then something else and... tomorrow will be interesting.

Early today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdzeOJc67p8

it was right on the announced time!

I'd been thinking there was way more Karl than not, than they've typically had across their albums.

beware of this one then :)

it sounds like late-90s Underworld attempting to fake a late-90s Fatboy Slim single

Also, looks like they're now calling this whole thing Drift Series One and are going to start Series 2 once it concludes!

DRIFT Series 1 concludes on 1st November, marking 1 year since the start of the epic DRIFT journey of 52 releases in 52 weeks…

"Did any of us ever seriously think there wouldn’t be a DRIFT series 2…?" - Karl

"It’s madness isn’t it?... We’ll do this together until we’re dust" - Rick

Tracklist for the box set is noted as being provisional only, but each disc so far has two unreleased tracks.

Was just going to post.

DRIFT: Series 1 – Track Listings (Subject to Change):

Sampler Edition
Appleshine
This Must Be Drum Street
Listen To Their No
Border Country
Mile Bush Pride
Schiphol Test
Brilliant Yes That Would Be
S T A R (Rebel Tech)
Imagine A Box
Custard Speedtalk

Boxset

CD1 – Ep 1 DUST
Another Silent Way
Dexters Chalk
Low Between Zebras
Universe Of Can When Back
Brilliant Yes That Would Be
Another Silent Way / Drift Poem / Better Than Diamonds (previously unreleased)
One True Piano Need Hand (previously unreleased)

CD2 – Ep 2 ATOM
Appleshine
Molehill
Threat Of Rain
Brussels
Soniamode (Aditya Game)
Appleshiner (previously unreleased)
Roof Off (previously unreleased)

CD3 – Ep 3 HEART
Dune
Custard Speedtalk
This Must Be Drum Street
Pinetum
Poet Cat
Do Breakers Trip (previously unreleased)
Seven Music Drone (previously unreleased)

Wondering if Appleshiner is a shorter version of Appleshine Continuum?

the single disc album is now the "sampler edition" with the following tracklist:
Appleshine
This Must Be Drum Street
Listen To Their No
Border Country
Mile Bush Pride
Schiphol Test
Brilliant Yes That Would Be
S T A R (Rebel Tech)
Imagine A Box
Custard Speedtalk

it's also on iTunes too https://music.apple.com/au/album/drift-series-1-sampler-edition/1479687494 which notes that most of the tracks are remastered (not really surprising) but a lot of the track times are disappointingly shorter than the existing versions, which is strange since it's only an hour long as it is so i'd think there's room for them to have the full versions? weirdly it also includes "brilliant yes that would be" which was released a bit before they officially started drift (though a snippet of it was the intro to episode 1)

the boxset tracklisting isn't fully on that news post for some reason (only three CDs out of the seven) but they do seem to be editing the tracklists of each of the EPs a little in addition to the bonus tracks (not really a surprise that Appleshine Continuum will have its own disc i guess)

presumably that is wrt "appleshine continuum", though i guess they might throw in "a very silent way" on that disc since that was the other necks collab and isn't on the episode 1 disc, as well as other bonus tracks

there were only 6 CD's before...

still with the "52 weeks" so more to come with this series...

more serieses....

I'm dust

nice to see added emphasis on the project itself, with the album now titled as a "sampler". Whole thing to come to streaming services!

Dear Customer,

This is a notification to let you know that the release date of Drift Songs has been changed to 2019-11-01.

Kind Regards,
Underworld Store

before I noticed it came from a "noreply" thingy, I wanted to reply and say it was quite alright

xp yeah I'm glad to see that too, I didn't want this to be looked at like "here's the new album + a bunch of supplemental material", since I think all 5 of these EPs can stand on their own. would be a bit like Autechre coming out with a 1-disc version of NTS Sessions for the casuals. originally was a bit disappointed that the single disc was "just" a best-of but the extra material on all the other discs more than makes up for it

love the new track too, it's a bit gimmicky but UW have certainly earned it at this point

bring on 11-1

also of interest:

https://tower.jp/item/4930781

Japan version of the sampler is actually two discs, with disc 2 containing some of the more ambient/low key bits, + 2 tracks we haven't heard yet..."Do Breakers Trip" (listed as a bonus on EP3) and "A Moth at the Door"

looking over the track times on the iTunes sampler - several tracks are a bit shorter (particularly "Schiphol Test"), not really clear if these are "new" versions or just edits/fades. funny that "Mile Bush Pride", the one track I would hope would be expanded here, is actually cut down to 1:30

STAR is fun. The original is a highlight from Riverrun. I haven't played it in a while, but it sounds like Rick did quite a bit with it here as well.

many xp's to sic: nothing wrong with lots of Karl (what's really meant here is "vocals"), it just seemed unusual for them if this was all towards an album...I think that's evidenced by their inclusion of BYTWB on the "sampler".

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/underworld-drift-series-1-star-883355/?&cf=1

Google skills.

yup, a Necks disc, with a third track that's a take on Altitude Dub!

this revealed the name of the last episode, Game

dust
atom
heart
space
game

ok

I wonder if they just release some of the extra box tracks in the remaining weeks.. there's 11! if next week is episode 5 release, there's 5 left

Full tracklist. With all the unreleased tracks I think everything from the Ep 2 liner notes is covered.

CD1 - Ep 1 DUST
Another Silent Way
Dexters Chalk
Low Between Zebras
Universe Of Can When Back
Brilliant Yes That Would Be
Another Silent Way / Drift Poem / Better Than Diamonds (previously unreleased)
One True Piano Need Hand (previously unreleased)

CD2 - Ep 2 ATOM
Appleshine
Molehill
Threat Of Rain
Brussels
Soniamode (Aditya Game)
Appleshiner (previously unreleased)
Roof Off (previously unreleased)

CD3 - Ep 3 HEART
Dune
Custard Speedtalk
This Must Be Drum Street
Pinetum
Poet Cat
Do Breakers Trip (previously unreleased)
Seven Music Drone (previously unreleased)

CD4 - Ep 4 SPACE
Listen To Their No
Schiphol Test
Hundred Weight Hammer
Doris
Altitude Dub
Border Country
Big Bear (previously unreleased)

CD5 - Ep 5 GAME
Toluca Stars
Mile Bush Pride
Imagine A Box
Tree And Two Chairs
Give Me The Room
S T A R
Doscientos (previously unreleased)
Two Arrows (previously unreleased)
A Moth At The Door (previously unreleased)

CD6 - Underworld and The Necks
Appleshine Continuum
A Very Silent Way
Altitude Dub Continuum (previously unreleased)

so in the end it did wind up being 6 EPs. my guess is they really didn't know where all this was going so they reconfigured it to something that made a bit more sense.

I'm interested in how the Necks disc is going to be mixed. I'm sure I'm not the only one who noticed that the ending of "Appleshine Continuum" sort of leads into the "Very Silent Way" groove. would be incredible if it was all mixed together. "Altitude Dub" is a strange choice - would have expected "Table & Two Chairs There"

Enough material for 6 at least. I don't have high hopes for the extras... wouldn't they be kept for series 2 work if they were anything special? Or are they determined to start fresh?

It's interesting that the Sampler leans so heavily on later episodes. I wasn't a huge fan of #1, but I could see some of the old gang on the fan forum like it best. 2 and 3 I was all in on. 4 and 5 I'm enjoying... sort of felt like it was the B material to cap a crazy, long project (besides Border Country and a couple others). I'll spend some more time with them... but clearly they're the band's favourites and that surprised me. When the box comes, I'll be trying to read it as some sort of gradual evolution in their sound, that they seem to think was successful.

well UW's extras have always been pretty good but I kinda suspect that these may be early versions or riffs off the stuff they released. like how "Dark and Long" became 10 different pieces somehow.

I agree that the high point of the project was somewhere in the middle..."Appleshine Continuum" -> all the Episode 3 stuff -> "Listen to their No" & "Schiphol Test"...but that said I've liked the Ep 5 tracks a lot, I just haven't listened to them more than once or twice because I'm waiting for the actual EP. I am surprised that something like "Dexters Chalk" or "Another Silent Way" isn't on the sampler but maybe they felt it was banging enough as it was. It looks to me like they're backtracking a little bit on the idea of the "Drift Songs" album and instead are focusing on the project as a whole. Maybe they didn't expect this stuff to turn out as good as it did.

truetruetrue

about the 90s and the many "remixes"... a lot of these things were straight up new songs labeled as remixes on singles in order to get more material out and still be eligible to chart... at least that was what I heard around, back then. Many did share elements though so it's all blurred.

the mystery continues

if anything, they usually named them as straight up new songs on the singles and then later sort-of rebranded them as versions for clarity. given how improv-based they were in the Emerson era, it's probable that they thought of them / recorded them as completely different takes on the same ideas, rather than remixing one "finished" song.

It's interesting that the Sampler leans so heavily on later episodes

yeah, I'm guessing this is recency bias? or maybe they know sales on the later EPs are much lower once the album was announced, so they figure more ppl have heard the early tracks. be interesting to see if the shorter sampler versions are different mixes or just basic edits / fades.

Rebranded for clarity? Eh, like when?

it's hard to imagine them being too concerned with sales, but it's been funny how almost every single week has a different wrinkle to it. Download and YouTube, no streaming / streaming and YouTube only / just YouTube ... their people must have some interesting metrics, but i dunno if that would have influenced the tracklist

Rebranded for clarity? Eh, like when?

Born Slippy .NUXX retitled Born Slippy (Nuxx) or Born Slippy (Nuxx Mix) (or, for less clarity, just Born Slippy) on 8 million compilations

Dirty Guitar retitled Dirty Epic (Dirty Guitar Mix) on US releases

Dark Train retitled Dark & Long (Dark Train Mix) on foreign releases & the superdeluxe DubNob, Thing In A Book retitled Dark & Long (Thing In Book) or Dark & Long (Thing In A Book Mix) on foreign releases and the superdeluxe etc etc

Ep. 5 out last Thursday, been enjoying it a lot

some people on the fanboard have pointed out a few differences - most obviously is "Mile Bush Pride" which is cut down to 1:30, but there's also a replacement of the great jazzy keyboard line on "Tree and Two Chairs" and an off-beat delay on the vocals at the end of "S T A R". so make sure you keep your single tracks

makes me wonder what the EPs on the box set will sound like. I wouldn't be surprised if they made a bunch of tweaks to the entire thing, especially the early tracks

keep single tracks? Weren't some or all of those you mention YouTube-only? I'll maybe fuss about archiving YouTube rips after I see what is on the Bluray. Something like "Mile Bush Pride" might have a pretty simple visual, but I doubt they will just lop half of that off. I'm thinking the videos are the videos, whether or not they have the "(Film Edit)" tag.

Episode is very nice. The week-to-week might've been more underwhelming than the others, but I doubt I'll see it as the weakest once I get my head around the full series. It's funny when everything is introduced to you as a "single".

correction, only "Mile Bush Pride" was YouTube-only previously. Others were on streaming at least.

I think you could download some of them. I was able to get the original "Tree and Two Chairs" & "Mile Bush Pride"

editing "Mile Bush Pride" makes some sense to me since it feels like a bit of a scrap at the end, but I'm perplexed as to why they changed "Tree and Two Chairs" - it loses some of its depth. great track either way but the Film Edit is clearly better. luckily it's very easy to just swap 'em out, they're exactly the same length.

Wow that is a weird choice on Tree and Two Chairs... especially when it's the lead instrument around 9:05.

it does change the focus of the track somewhat. you may also notice the drums are turned up in the EP mix. maybe Rick wasn't happy with the keyboard line...felt it was too meandering or whatever. may be similar to why the version of "Twist" on AHDO doesn't have the guitar bit on it. it's a weird decision and one I don't really agree with but if you've got both versions it's hard to really complain

I think you could download some of them. I was able to get the original "Tree and Two Chairs" & "Mile Bush Pride"

from my records, Mile Bush Pride was the only one that had a freebie download, but all the others were available for purchase as singles from digital retailers. wonder if they deliberately did that with Mile Bush bcz they already knew it was going to be shorter on the EP.

I'm going to stop talking about the availability of anything, my files are a mess.

https://underworldlive.com/music/biro-the-leggy-romford-dub/

We're back in the archives today! An early version of Beautiful Burnout.

5 more Thursdays before the Friday, Nov 1 release

A different version of Biro The Leggy has been knocking around for years - the female vocals are "new" to the Romford Dub

This is the first of the "in between" archive tracks since May to come out as a free MP3 on the mailing list, if people haven't been checking their inboxes. Also the first track since Schipol Test, at the end of May, to go up on Soundcloud in full, for whatever reason (though Schipol was cut down to a 30-second preview after the "single" came out; This Must Be Drum Street in early April is the most recent track to still be in full there. They really, really went out of their way not to release any Episode the same way twice!)

Also correcting myself above: Give Me The Room does look to have been youtube-exclusive: the only new Drift track not to come out as a download at all before the EP release, I think.

I almost have to admire their dedication to doing this in as inconsistent a manner as possible. I guess its possible that they're workshopping different methods of distribution to see what gets the most engagement it feels like they really are flying by the seat of their pants. Can't argue with the results though. I think all five of these EPs are great.

i feel like they're working with someone working on a thesis on music distribution

i even enjoy the confusion between "episode" and "EP" (and sic, I'm pretty sure, confusing "Episode" for "part" above).

They're closer to "albums" than "EPs" I think. Of course, who cares. But it's a good larf.

not to mention the original idea that this was a leadup to the "Drift Songs" album, which now apparently doesn't exist, but there will be a "Sampler" which is effectively what the album would've been, though this may be more of a "compilation"

either way I feel bad for whoever's trying to sort all this out on RYM & Discogs

looks to me like they're backtracking a little bit on the idea of the "Drift Songs" album and instead are focusing on the project as a whole. Maybe they didn't expect this stuff to turn out as good as it did.

yeah I think they changed their mind about one "album" coming out of it almost immediately after announcing it, but better to keep moving than to issue a retraction / clarification

(and sic, I'm pretty sure, confusing "Episode" for "part" above).

Episode = the five or six weeks of new tracks being released to the public in various forms. "EP" - the purchaseable bundle of (more-or-less) those tracks that comes out in the sixth week.

And yeah, none of them are really EPs. That feels like something else that got away from them the second they announced it. 30 minutes is physically LP length, but only including an additional 30 seconds of Brilliant Yes on the first one suggests they were really trying to make the compiled releases compact / along the lines of what's counted as an EP by Underworld standards before. Of course, the second one promptly blows out to double-album length, even on CD, but they've already set the terminology, so just keep moving.

right, though #2 isn't going to be that long on the boxset, since the 47 minute track is moved to a separate disc with the other Necks collabs. no clue what any of the bonus tracks are but I would estimate that each episode will wind up between 45-60 minutes in the end (besides maybe the 1st one, which seems completely redone). their latest studio album was 46 minutes so yeah, I think you could fairly call this 5 new albums. unfortunately getting tagged as "EPs" seems to be causing a lot of listeners to overlook them. I wonder if they're gonna do a big media blitz once the boxset comes out.

we can call the whole thing a sextuple album (or maybe even septuple if you want to count the sampler disc as part of it)

a "big album"

this week "Dirty Club" is released. that's "Dirty" with the vocals from "Dirty Epic" on it. Has been done live. First dubnobass vault week?

it's download only this time. Go figure em

poking around the fan forum and googling a bit, some other versions of these last two:

I think this is the Biro The Leggy I'd heard before, which may be from January 2004 when it was webcast, or any time between then and the song's live debut in 2000 (youtube link)

They played another version that was getting closer to Beautiful Burnout at a John Peel tribute in December 2004 (direct mp3 link)


This week's Dirty Club Epic seems to be a basic mashup by The Misterons, put together in 2017 after Underworld had done some more fundamental playing around with the two in 2016.

The trailer (after-trailer?) for Karl's Tokyo Street Poem installation in March 2016 featured a snippet of a chopped-and-screwed-ish mix of the two:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a1cR7SXJ5U

Here's a live video from London in March 2016 (youtube link)

And an mp3 of a live version in Pomona, California from April 2016 mediafire link

also the Misterons version Dirty Club is on youtube and soundcloud now

I did get the emails, I'll have to catch up with the EPs / episodes, whatever.

The box set is out in three weeks, if you don’t get around to tracking down 47 weeks of back catalogue by then

There is that, yes.

nice, stripped down version of "Best Mamgu Ever" today.

download, or: https://soundcloud.com/underworld/best-mamgu-ever-wales-in-japan-2019

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0009l5r

"Rebel Tech" version of S T A R can be found here, skip to the 39 minute mark

its basically an entirely new track

yeah it's funny they capped off the new releases by for the first (obvious) time reusing old material... now they have a totally new version of that, which is going to be on the Sampler thing.

last Thursday's release was a nice take on "Why Why Why".... still only available at the link that was emailed I guess.

you'd figure if any of the other Sampler tracks were different versions or edits, they'd also be labelled as such. which means that the box has to include one CD that's entirely redundant apart from 3 minutes. bonkers.

according to iTunes a lot of the tracks on the sampler do have different track times than the EP. Schiphol Test in particular. and of course Brilliant Yes That Would Be is a full 6 minute version rather than the 30 seconds we got on EP1. of course it's not yet known if there are any differences on the EPs proper, though the tracklisting for the first one does suggest they've been worked over a bit

can definitely see them doing a lot of minor tweaks like they've been doing on the EPs. the one change I'm hoping for is a less sharp hi-hat on Appleshine, every time I hear it I feel like it wasn't mixed properly

Soniamode original recipe completely scrubbed. Hold your downloads tight.

there's a video preview of the box's book that makes it look like all the episodes have liner notes like we saw online for ep2. I'll be going on a underworld internet blackout when this thing starts shipping until I have devoured the box. can't wait :D

and of course Brilliant Yes That Would Be is a full 6 minute version rather than the 30 seconds we got on EP1

but presumably the version on CD1 in the box is also full-length, as the title is spelled out

(separately, it has also been available since April 2018)

glad they did that, it's a nice one

oh right, it was part of that "World of Underworld" thing correct? predating the Iggy Pop EP.

that book indeed looks amazing. hard to see too much but there's definitely a lot of text in those pages. the liner notes to EP2 were excellent, not only a fun read but it also planted a ton of clues about what was to come.

big question mark is those unreleased tracks, on one hand it's difficult to imagine there's anything particularly good left in the tank, on the other "Underworld B-side" has always been an indicator of quality

yeah, nothing came of World Of Underworld other than Brilliant That (released on youtube 5/4/18 and as a single 5/5/18), a covermount 7" with two old tracks** on it, and the first three minutes of Appleshine (as Apple Shine For Belfast) on youtube*, and their themed Spotify playlists. It's p clear that it was a false start for Drift:

Over time, the World of Underworld will evolve as new releases and unearthed material appears on streaming platforms and they become a platform for experimentation, for creative process and spontaneous releases

I'm counting the belated releases of Teatime Dub Encounters and Price's Everybody Jack as part of them figuring out what turned into Drift, too

* in an extremely cool trick, after the full Appleshine was uploaded, the original Belfast video started seamlessly switching to the new one at 3:15

** a Pearl's Girl B-side, and the bonus track from Barbara Barbara

https://music.apple.com/us/album/drift-series-1/1483468013?app=itunes&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

looks like a lot of tweaks

EP1 - "Brilliant Yes That Would Be", "Another Silent Way / Drift Poem / Better Than Diamonds", and "One True Piano Need Hand" take up about 34 minutes. so way different than the released version

EP2 - "Appleshine" is *not* cut down and "Appleshiner" is now called "Appleshine (All of the Lights)"

EP3 - "This Must be Drum Street" is now 7 and a half minutes.

EP4 - basically no changes (outside of one new track)

EP5 - Toluca Stars & Tree and Two Chairs are now the "Film edits"

"Altitude Dub Continuum" is 31 minutes long. "Appleshine Continuum" now cut down to a mere 34

there's nearly 2 hours of previously unreleased stuff on here, depending on what you count. either way seems like plenty of stuff even for those of us who've followed it from the beginning

bring it on

daaamn thanks for that. I assume the Bluray will have the full Appleshine Continuum.
iTunes release doesn't include the new version of STAR i guess, as it lacks the Sampler disc that the box has. Heh

--
Very pretty ambient bleeps released Thursday for download, "SYDNEY HOTEL ROOM PEAL"
https://underworldlive.acemlna.com/lt.php?i=60A99A1A750

The email didn't say it was the last "weekly Drift drop" or anything... maybe yet another release on the day before the retail releases.

looks like box shipments are delayed 3 weeks. someone posted their store page listing on Facebook. funny I didn't get an email like I did when it went from Oct 31 to Nov 1. I logged in and viewed may day one order, sure enough, Nov 22 shipping.

oh well, digital feast this weekend!

my* day 1

yeah looks like promo copies of the single disc have already been sent out so it looks like this thing is finally 'finished'

wonder how many media outlets are gonna review this as a 5xLP instead of one disc + a bunch of bonuses. with the unreleased material it really is 5 proper albums plus the Necks disc

The Necks disc is no less proper!

how dare you

apparently those of us who preordered the box only get the Sampler edition d/l tomorrow

not sure if I'm gonna wait 3 weeks for it or just pirate the thing

recap video... works as a nice trailer for anyone looking at this thread like, wtf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE8y6Z9nafA

I checked the box store page cuz the email they sent about preorders was confusing.... well, there is no download included.

I'll tell you this much, disc one is a great soundtrack to serving truckortreaters

ok I got the sampler download and it's sounding awesome so far. it definitely feels like an album proper (the songs do fade into each other, somewhat) and the whole thing appears to have been remastered. its a bit quieter and less trebly but sounds great when cranked up. lotta subtle differences in the tracks, especially "Drum Street" which sounds like it was reassembled from scratch. as a single disc it's definitely up their with their best but man do I wanna hear the full version

Nice.

I've only played disc one of the box so far. The long version of Brilliant Yes That Would Be is gorgeous.

Be back once I've listened to all 7 discs!

listening to the sampler and it does flow remarkably well as an album. i wouldn't put it up with their very best but it's solidly enough second tier underworld which is still quite good? looking forward to properly digging into the full near-6 hour box set sometime but it'll take a while

I see the keyboard line in "Tree & Two Chairs" is back

Well, wow...

New material is pretty great. They could've easily had a sixth "episode" here. I want to listen to that stuff again on its own soon. I made a playlist of all of it, besides the new Appleshine and the one that's a longer Another Silent Way, basically, and it comes to 80 minutes.

I noticed Pinetum has a new ending, and Dune uses a different vocal take (and has some new background vocals - Rick? - on a bit near the end). I'm sure there's loads of little differences like you said.

The little touches that make the Sampler disc songs fit together are cool, but I think the approach is smart, to call it that. I don't know if it plays great for me as an "album" but whatever... i was overwhelmed by the time i played this after the rest of the box. Have to do some proper listening the weekend.

I'm hoping the Sampler doesn't steal the thunder from the rest of the box - most reviews I'm seeing online only cover that disc, and if you go on RYM the Sampler is the "main edition", you have to click around a bit to find the full boxset

They're doing all they reasonably can to push the full thing. I'll be interested to look around for reviews in a few weeks.

I'd be really interested to hear what any new or casual fans would think after a 6 hour listen!

still haven't spent much time with the new songs. Played the new Necks track four or five more times in the background though, it's great.

the only thing I can really compare it to is these last couple of Autechre releases but I think its fair to say that UW's output is a bit more diverse. its not really something you can review after one listen.

I did ask a friend who was into them back in the day if he'd checked it out yet, he said "6 hours of Underworld, I bet I can tell you exactly what that sounds like", first track he heard was "Dune" and he was like "wait this is nothing like what I expected"

is the sampler a continuous mix? bc that's exactly what i wanted them to do omg

can't wait to trawl through the box

ok it's not exactly a continuous mix but they did manage to make it feel very album-shaped which i'm so impressed with

i also love that it is somewhat by necessity their most bangin' album ever

it is a good job. I remember the Sampler tracklist coming out and everyone commenting was like... Those songs??

Listen to their No into Border Country is pretty jarring, as is anything coming after Border Country. Guess they didn't want to close on that note. Custard works better as a closer than I would've thought.

track for track the flow of it reminds me a lot of Beacoup Fish. you know...chill opener, several singles in a row, some more ambient stuff, then you got "S T A R" taking the "Bruce Lee" / "Kittens" spot, wonky rhythm track "Imagine a Box" somewhat like "Something Like a Mama", then a striking closer

i still think my favorite thing from the drift series is "threat of rain"

great one. the brand new songs on the box remind me of that episode 2 vibe. You should like em. That was my fave episode.... now ...I
.. don't... know... anything

further reports now that i'm deeper in the box:

- as with the eps the first disc is still the weakest. i enjoy the "pearls girl"-y ride of "another silent way/drift poem/better than diamonds" a lot though
- "roof off" is a jam
- frankly i'm getting blown away by the episode 3 all over again. the extended "drum street" is a dream. were "poet cat" and "dune" always this amazing? is "pinetum" oddly sinister to anyone else and if so does the sourceless knocking freak y'all out? and forget what i said upthread, "custard speedtalk" is by far the best track to come out of these sessions and is a quintessential underworld experience. and both of the new tracks slap. wonderful

the 15 minute suite on disc 1 is a trip

the live/looped(?) drums on "custard" are so beautiful. i feel like, given their approach to improvisation, i've always sort of unconsciously wanted a jazzier underworld record and ... i finally have one and it's more gorgeous than i'd ever imagined

yeah first time I heard it I was about 2 minutes in before wondering if it was in fact the best UW tune ever

I wonder if that direction was something picked up by Karl's solo excursions - lotta live drums on the Hyde/Eno records, mixed towards the front like they are on here

xp about Pinetum, it's a weird one. Fun or scary depending on my mood, like, I find. I've heard this description about a lot ambient music, and though I like plenty of that stuff, not much of it ever sounds happy to me

i didn't spend a lot of time with episode 5 before the box came out and wtf how is "toluca stars" so beautiful

"so beautiful" that's my review of drift series 1 by underworld

i've always sort of unconsciously wanted a jazzier underworld record

"Tree and Two Chairs" probably gonna be up your alley then

it really is, as is "doscentitos" which is prob my favorite of the new new tracks

I don't think I enjoy UW enough nowadays to listen to six discs but the sampler is quite nice, certainly it caught my attention more than Barbara. "Appleshine" and "Brilliant Yes" stood out as highlights

Oh yeah "Custard" was really interesting too! The synth work is kind of "Rez"-y but the vibe created by the piano/live drums makes it so different

he'll be back

I'm only an Underworld dilettante but this is luminous. Custard Speedtalk is the drifting summer capsule I need right now.

i'm really loving the sampler as its own thing. best underworld album since oblivion with bells imo, maybe even better than that

as i said a few posts ago, this song is incredible

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J34Z7hE35sc

i don't think the sampler is quite as good as barbara barbara but i'm still enjoying it

finally going through all the new tracks from the box-set and some of these are wonderful - "another silent way/drift poem/better than diamonds", "doscientos" and "two arrows" are all fantastic. this is making my attempt at a drift best-of even more difficult

Big Bear is such a fucking jam

I sort of lost track of this throughout the year - downloaded things and then left them lingering on the computer somewhere.

Now playing ... there's actually loads of amazing stuff on here.

"one true piano need hand" kind of rules if you think of it as a ten minute prelude to Appleshine

the first "Drift" show is happening like right now. Rick "and the Misterons" do a set before the main one. Interested to hear something out of this

the one modification I make is putting "Are You Rockstar?" as Track 1 on EP 3. it makes a great prelude to "Dune".

* the first "Drift" show is happening like right now. Rick "and the Misterons" do a set before the main one. Interested to hear something out of this *

?

https://underworldlive.com/drift-live/

"and the Misterons"

keeping Darren busy

Listen to Their No
Jumbo
Juanita
Another Silent Way
Border Country
Dirty Epic
S T A R (Rebel Tech)
Rez/Cowgirl
TMO
KoS
NUXX

wheeew

not enough Drift, too much NuXX imo

Juanita and Dirty Epic though

yeah Jumbo / Juanita / Dirty Epic are great classics for a Drift show. way too many bangers from this year to need to keep leaning on Snake & Nuxx for the encore though!

Rez / Cowgirl ending main set, Two Months Off opening encore before, say, Listen To Their No or Big Bear and Border Country is a perfect amount of pandering that still flows

Looks like this was the Antwerp setlist!

https://i.ibb.co/5kgdxM7/75552894-10212183819429217-546777700744822784-o.jpg

a) wooooooww that is killer
b) bodes really well if they’re mixing things up that much, night to night

At least one song from every album too

I like how they list the decibels for each track :-)

lol

assuming they're BPMs which means STAR is in happy hardcore territory

wot a laf

https://youtu.be/ixxG2DCeSX8

http://youtu.be/ixxG2DCeSX8

ah, fuck this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixxG2DCeSX8

i thank you

think i'm happy enough with my Drift single disc best-of

Appleshine
This Must Be Drum Street
Listen To Their No
Border Country
Brussels
Doscientos
Schipol Test
Custard Speedtalk
Another Silent Way
Dune

https://underworldlive.com/events/
San Fran on May 15
LA on May 16
NYC on May 20
Detroit on May 23
Toronto on May 27

Seems like there's a new version of the box set forthcoming for the bargain price of £35

New DRIFT Series 1 – CD/DVD Boxset

DRIFT was released as a sampler and a super deluxe, seven-disc box set that sold out on release.

Responding to both demand and many people’s changed circumstances, the band have remodelled the package for a new compact edition that contains all of the original seven CDs and accompanying BluRay along with a perfect bound, 50-page book and a previously unreleased, hour-long recording of Rick Smith’s DRIFT pre-show set recorded live before Underworld’s show at Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam on November 23rd 2019.

Had to go find that on the Facebook group just now cuz it looks like the store closed message is back up. The writeup also mentioned a new Underworld Bandcamp page. Currently empty. Wonder what they're cooking up. (Also fans of hard, hard takes will enjoy the past couple days of the Facebook group... lol)

Lol yeah - not many fans of Drift actually in that group

Just wild. I'm still beside myself that Drift happened. Single artist "communities" are always brutal I guess.

a UW bandcamp page is long long overdue

the bargain price of £35

Plus £9.46 shipping and £7 VAT.

https://underworld.bandcamp.com/album/ricksdubbedoutdriftexperience-live-in-amsterdam

Assuming all those girls names are off the Manchester Street Poem album?

And the bloke's name.

Full Rick set is now available as part of the original box set's download (it was missing a couple of tracks before today). I guess you have to re-download the entire massive zip file though!

https://daily.bandcamp.com/features/underworlds-drift-series-1-interview

Lolz:

Hyde: Can I say something? I don’t even know what song you’re talking about. Like, you would have to sing them to me and then I go, “Of course! I know every detail of that track.” But “Threat of Rain” now? Don’t know what it is. [Smith plays the track from his phone -ed.]. Oh, I was listening to that last night! I love that one. The way you did that hi-hat thing is amazing. Those reverbs they’re just…it’s so incredible. [back to interviewer] This is a constant problem. I have no idea what anyone’s talking about.

Also sounds like Series 2 is a definite go :)

Hyde: One day we’ll be able to encourage [session drummer extraordinaire] Steve Gadd to join the band.

to be fair Hyde is barely on that track

also it kinda speaks to how accomplished these dudes are? like, I remember the band pulled out "Dirty Epic" in like, 2010 or so, and someone noted that Karl was reading the lyrics off a piece of paper because he'd forgotten them! I mean, imagine writing so much great music that you can't even remember how "Dirty Epic" goes

Can I say something? I don’t even know what song you’re talking about.

ha ha, Karl OTM

relieves me to hear Karl himself has trouble remembering their music from the titles. even for some UW songs I love, it's taken me years to associate the music with the title

Two-part podcast "interview" with all the questions cut out: in part 1, they talk about how Drift came from a complete change in their relationship. For no apparent reason whatsoever, in Australia in 2017, Karl started listening to Rick for the first time ever, and that facilitated this more fluid way of working. (Karl also talks about how validating he found the process of publishing Drift - aside from their output not being mediated through the publicity/licensing machine, they'd also get immediate feedback not just from youtube comments, but also friends dropping a text to comment on the week's release.)

In part 2 they talk in broader terms about the role of the artist in society,their application of this, and not being a band.

MP3 links above, website here

the Sydney Opera House youtube channel has been releasing a lot of archive recordings (and new performances to empty rooms) during lockdown: here's a full version of Border Country from a few weeks before its Drift drop

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1g_IIXnFsU

(other recent uploads of likely interest include full shows by Four Tet and Amon Tobin's ISAM 3D-mapped set, though the latter won't convey the full molar-shaking feel of being on the hollow wooden floor)

https://store.underworldlive.com/products/rez-live-at-reading-1996

Hope this link works - I removed a lot of bumph at the end in case sic gave me side eye.
New free download of Rez live at Reading

heads up that you can go through the checkout without creating an account, just putting a token character in each field.

oh damn it's THAT performance of Rez, awesome

hopefully a teaser for full show releases from the DAT archive, or other selected bangers for the next "in-between" Drift freebies. the video of Rick fiddling with the Arp isn't long enough!

Revisiting this tonight. Gratitude to the boys for such an enormous gift.

interesting... first new non-archival release since the Drift box, isn't it?

Halsey - I am not a woman, I'm a god (Underworld’s Drift Mix)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2Fjtbl5jEw

Let me be the first to say this is horrible. I actually have liked a couple Halsey songs, her SNL performance in particular was powerful. This remix is garbage though. Definitely cashing a check here. At least they didn't waste any good ideas on this remix.

it's certainly surprising

Hate the trend for remixes on major labels to be 3 minutes long when you suspect there are normal length versions that remain unreleased as they don’t bring in the quantity of streams

Are they working on Drift 2 ? They just sent out a mail with a free download of a new 10 minute Dark Train mix ("from the pigshed") called "Drift 2 Dark Train"

Released in the summer of 1994, one could argue that Dark Train was Underworld’s first proper anthem. Where previous singles Mmm… Skyscraper I Love You, Rez and Cowgirl had provided the soundtrack to countless nights in dank basements and underground clubs, Dark Train drove a hole directly through the walls and parked itself on the main dance floor. It quickly crossed from techno world and into the super clubs - those buttoned up, shiny new sonic meccas that sprang up all over the UK in the mid ’90s. Once there, it began to shape the sounds around it, an irrepressible, irresistible virus in the mainstream. Often imitated over the years, Dark Train was never equalled.

Ostensibly a remix of Dark & Long, in reality this was always very much its own thing. Completely reimagined from the original, it was an irrepressible groove, a signal to move and an instruction to ride the train with zero regard for the destination. Eighteen months after release and club ubiquity, the track gained a post-club afterlife in Danny Boyle’s 1996 film Trainspotting. There, it formed part of an unforgettable juxtaposition in the film’s cold turkey scene - the claustrophobic, bedroom bound visuals offset by the relentless elation of the music.

This new mix of Dark Train builds on Underworld’s recent live performances of the track. For this exclusive release, Underworld have reimagined the original mix in the Pigshed as if it were being played out, and we were stood together in field or concert hall, riding that train together.

the soft launch continues lol. Mm this is nice

yeah I'm surprised we've heard basically nothing of them since Drift 1 finished but I assumed they were still doing...something

you know I listened to that Drift stuff so much in 2019 and the start of 2020 all of it is burned into my brain as the immediate pre-pandemic music. anyway numbers are down so time for 6 more albums I hope

As noted elsewhere, numbers yesterday were the second-highest of the entire pandemic, and have been rising consistently since June, bar one fortnight in summer. Hancock was fired in June for breaking distancing rules*, Jarvis announced Freedom Day for three weeks after that and promptly caught covid himself. TWO DAYS AGO he announced that mask-wearing would be a Plan B if things continue to get worse, and maybe MPs should do it anyway to set an example — only to be contradicted in Parliament by JRM, who claimed that you can’t spread the virus to people you know.

Numbers for 16th to 18th October are up 18% on the week before. What the fuck are people talking about on this board?! Karl and Rick are in the age group second-highest for hospitalisations! Cases in under-19s are literally the highest they’ve ever been. 1 in 63 people are actively symptomatic!

*by fucking an aide in his office, not for awarding her brother million-pound covid relief contracts, which he also did.

wow racist much, autocorrect

16th to 22nd October, that one was me.

look the pandemic started as soon as Drift 1 stopped so maybe Drift 2 can end it

i had the less controversial thought that Nov 1 will be the third anniversary of the start of the thing.

They really could have been churning out Drift At Home EPs of ambient Rick stuff for the last year

irl lol xps

they've never really sat still over the last 40 years so I'd imagine they've got *something* going on

i should remember this as i read the box's book and the episode 2 online notes and whatever else but...i don't get the feeling that very much (any?) of the Drift tracks were conceived, brand new, week to week. More that it was a massive clearing of the decks, fleshing out an existing idea or demo week to week. I imagine they've been building the stockpile back up.

and maybe finishing a few things in advance for Rick's sanity this time round

the thing about that there are like 2 dozen unreleased tracks that have been played live once or released as demos online or played on a random radio show and I don't think elements of any of them wound up here. the only real callback is the "Lenny Penne" beat in "S T A R"

idk if any of the tracks were just like "here's something we did yesterday" but I'd guess a ton of it was written after Episode 1 was started

Is there that much? "Are You Rockstar" was one... and they just straight up released it on a Drift off-week. Do you think they're still working on, like, "5 Points"... or is it more likely they're not as into as some fans were? I mean I'm mystified as well - if they were done with it, it would've been a nice single or at least bonus track on the Beaucoup Fish reissue.

But anyways I meant "clearing the decks" more as in whatever they had made lately as sort of ideas for a next album, that turned into this project instead.

do they still sound like ex-libertines fan discovers dance music, nme-approved trance then? because I can strangle myself in contentment that nothing has changed.

not sure they've put much out since last time you said you didn't like them

new board description

Update today: 1 in 55 people are now currently infected, Javid responds that he doesn’t anticipate a need for mask-wearing or distancing before January

sic wtf are you doing to this thread

xxxxp I still want "Bamboo"!!

in case anybody is actually getting their covid news from this thread I want to keep it accurate!

do they still sound like ex-libertines fan discovers dance music, nme-approved trance then? because I can strangle myself in contentment that nothing has changed.

― RobbiePires, Sunday, 24 October 2021 11:37 (two days ago) link

This could almost be a thread of its own: whether there is any contemporary dance music that is not apt to be described as insufferably middle class and conservative at this point.

Of course any such discussion would be more interesting if everyone agreed not to conduct it on the basis of not having had an original thought in over twenty years.

good to see you, Tim!

Drift 2 Dark Train now on Spotify as a single with the original plus Most 'Ospitable

it's available for order on vinyl with those tracks now too. Not too attractive

this remix of dark train is dope

degree to which it is dope because it is almost indistinguishable from the regular dark train: unknown

yeah, that is true

we spend a little longer on this train, even though it moves a little bit faster. Doesn't seem like it has any newly recorded elements though

The blurb on it suggests that it’s strictly Rick playing the song live-in-studio exactly as he would at a current-era greatest hits festival show, but with Karl’s vocals as one extra track.

I quite like Underworld, but as I've noted before, I just want the fucker to STOP. SINGING.

If we lived in less perilous times I’d FP you have that

xp - do you mean you'd like his voice to appear less, table? Or that you don't want him to be "singing" as distinct from saying things?

I've got a lot of time for Karl Hyde releases - which tend towards "singing songs" - but his voice/lyrics seem even more essential in Underworld tracks, which seem different than that.

hereby challenge table to not enjoy "Edgeland"

I do wonder how much I'd really like his voice if they hadn't been a monumentally important band for me since I was a teenager

I personally love his voice though I guess he does try to do more than he probably should sometimes

made a playlist for tonight and the two UW tracks on it are "JAL to Tokyo" and "Faxed Invitation" and I am immensely enjoying them both

I quite like Underworld, but as I've noted before, I just want the fucker to STOP. SINGING.

― I'm a sovereign jizz citizen (the table is the table), Friday, October 29, 2021 4:15 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

What a ridiculous post lmao

Here comes Christ on crutches...

This could almost be a thread of its own: whether there is any contemporary dance music that is not apt to be described as insufferably middle class and conservative at this point.
Of course any such discussion would be more interesting if everyone agreed not to conduct it on the basis of not having had an original thought in over twenty years.
― Tim F, Tuesday, 26 October 2021

well, they are now, but they certainly didn't start out that way, more so idprole - which the British music media loved compared to the lumpen hooliganism of the nuum, and in some senses I can sympathise. It's just that underworlds form of vaguely class conscious dance music was always too 80s. Just perpetually stuck in that technopop average mean, never venturing into proper hard techno, gabba, psychodelic acidic mayhem, industrial freakbeats, dub abstraction, etc. But then despite liking pop in hip hop, rnb, new wave, 80s synth music, after the post-acid recalibration of the musical timeline I've never found dance pop all that appealing - even in the glory years of 91-92 'ardcore, to me, (in a reversal of reynolds judgment) it was the folding of pop into rave, not rave into pop.

not sure they've put much out since last time you said you didn't like them
― ufo, Sunday, 24 October 2021

Listen to Pearsall's rampage Turbo mixes, happy hardcore kids discover trance. You get extreme sickly sweet corney euphoria at breakneck 170+ tempos, what's not to like? best of both worlds. Underworld could only dream of. https://soundcloud.com/sonicrampage/sets/rampage-turbo

never venturing into proper hard techno, gabba, psychodelic acidic mayhem, industrial freakbeats, dub abstraction, etc

thank god

thank god
― scanner darkly, Friday, 5 November 2021

Reverse snob, I see.

everyone stop bickering and put on the Pizza for Eggs EP the first 8 minutes with "Food a Ready" and "Back in the Fears" is some of the coolest music on the planet

i like uncool music though. cool music is overrated. that's precisely underworlds problem.

Ok put on Ring Road then

"underworld are too cool" is not really a complaint i ever expected to hear

which of the songs on Drift are the coolest, Robbie?

& also particularly at odds with robbie's previous complaint, "ex-libertines fan discovers dance music, nme-approved trance" makes them sound pretty uncool!

mega mega cool

& also particularly at odds with robbie's previous complaint, "ex-libertines fan discovers dance music, nme-approved trance" makes them sound pretty uncool!
― ufo, Friday, 5 November 2021

You must not be aware of trance being the cool thing in the dance music press now. Lorenzo Senni, Evian Christ etc. We're even, shock horror, having a full on sasha and sewer-digging--crapshoot revival with the likes of Adam Pits, Lisene, and the australian lot, Guy something.

which of the songs on Drift are the coolest, Robbie?
― bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Friday, 5 November 2021

All of them, where's the schranz? That's what would really make it great and uncool for me.

Hundred Weight Hammer is pretty rad

Ok put on Ring Road then
― frogbs, Friday, 5 November 2021

how about this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JuLV93OQOs

dance music ilx really doesn't need a toxic psycho "gifted child" asshole right now imo, so i'm fp-ing and not engaging and i would encourage others to do the same.

i mean Underworld mk1 aka the uncool years... cmon?

Sorry to overstate with nasty pejoratives but this person is not a good faith actor

also true

Sorry to overstate with nasty pejoratives but this person is not a good faith actor
― Linda and Jodie Rocco (map), Friday, 5 November 2021

No need to apologise, just have the balls to say it.

You’re not a good faith actor and you have terrible taste

You’re not a good faith actor and you have terrible taste
― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Saturday, 6 November 2021

I don't care, I do not believe in the irrevocability of the beautiful, unlike Kant and dance music ilx. Nothing wrong with the terrible.

No need to apologise, just have the balls to say it.

― RobbiePires, Saturday, November 6, 2021 1:05 AM (forty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

oh this apology wasn't intended for you, believe me

oh this apology wasn't intended for you, believe me
― Linda and Jodie Rocco (map), Saturday, 6 November 2021

Thank heavens for that. I would not like to be in your debt. Shame for the other poor souls, though.

You must not be aware of trance being the cool thing in the dance music press now. Lorenzo Senni, Evian Christ etc.

This was semi-true five years ago and Evian Christ probably peaked attention-wise in 2013!

This was semi-true five years ago and Evian Christ probably peaked attention-wise in 2013!
― mh, Sunday, 7 November 2021

As far as I'm aware the ritual backlash against trance hasn't happened though as one would expect it to. If anything, it's all over a lot of contemporary techno and house, see that Roza Terenzi album - sounds like a record which would have come out from the English prog superclub scene of the 90s.

It's possible you spend way more time thinking about trance than anyone else here.

It feels like this attempt to pin a particular musical trend or affiliation on Underworld. They’re electronic dance music for NME readers, they’re trance, they’re a crossover act. Sure, they’ve probably been all those things. I guess if any of those disqualify you from enjoying their music, then don’t bother?

It feels like this attempt to pin a particular musical trend or affiliation on Underworld. They’re electronic dance music for NME readers, they’re trance, they’re a crossover act. Sure, they’ve probably been all those things. I guess if any of those disqualify you from enjoying their music, then don’t bother?
― mh, Sunday, 7 November 2021

It's more that I just don't get the appeal. They had their 90s lager lout moments with the first album and born slippy - which I don't necessarily like but I can at least appreciate as a reflection of a particularly mid 90s British cultural moment. Now they just seem to be piggybacking over whichever populist trend will make them vaguely relevant, which is kind of sad and tryhard.

Which populist trend does each song on Drift piggyback over?

(also wouldn’t piggybacking on the trends be tryharder-y?)

i'm not going to listen to all 7000 minutes of that abomination to offer an accurate assessment. polemic is the spice of criticism.

appleshine continuum is truly funkless, though.

polemic is the spice of criticism

Ah, to be 19 again...

the nostalgic impulse is strong, is it not? I suppose if I was paid I could listen to the whole prog opus which would make Steve Wilson embarrassed with shame for his Porcupine Tree albums not being long enough.

“funkless” is a populist trend? when did this start? I

after 2011.

the death of both the UK and Euro hardcore continuums, the gothification of industrial techno, lo fi house, the victory of tech house.

the rehabilitation of new agey aesthetics, the turning away from degenerecy, filth, smut. airports rather than bunkers. no more friction.

parklife!

their finest moment, darren emerson knew a thing or two about the funk.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGWx5EPdz7w

Nothing else really like it in their discography.

i'm not going to listen to all 7000 minutes of that […] Nothing else really like it in their discography.

🧐

just listen to paul hardcastle - king tut m8.

Just point yourself in the direction of your dreams
Find your strength in the egyptology melodics
And make your transition into becoming a tyranical pharoah.

It's more that I just don't get the appeal. They had their 90s lager lout moments with the first album and born slippy - which I don't necessarily like but I can at least appreciate as a reflection of a particularly mid 90s British cultural moment. Now they just seem to be piggybacking over whichever populist trend will make them vaguely relevant, which is kind of sad and tryhard.

― toxic psycho "gifted child" asshole (RobbiePires), Sunday, 7 November 2021 23:07 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Can I please come and live in whichever universe you're in, where the delicious 11-minute spoken word beauty of 'Dune' is considered a populist trend.

As far as I'm aware the ritual backlash against trance hasn't happened though as one would expect it to. If anything, it's all over a lot of contemporary techno and house, see that Roza Terenzi album - sounds like a record which would have come out from the English prog superclub scene of the 90s.

― toxic psycho "gifted child" asshole (RobbiePires), Sunday, 7 November 2021 17:15 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

the death of both the UK and Euro hardcore continuums, the gothification of industrial techno, lo fi house, the victory of tech house.

― toxic psycho "gifted child" asshole (RobbiePires), Monday, 8 November 2021 00:22 (three hours ago) link

the rehabilitation of new agey aesthetics, the turning away from degenerecy, filth, smut. airports rather than bunkers. no more friction.

― toxic psycho "gifted child" asshole (RobbiePires), Monday, 8 November 2021 00:24 (three hours ago) link

This feels like a convenient narrative folding in the last thirty years of dance music, which could make sense if one is applying a reynolds circa 1995 lens and not directly engaging with events on the ground and/or how sonics change meaning over time as the social context for them also changes.

In particular, I can see how for soapbox purposes it might be tempting to set up this oppositional narrative where trance and new agey aesthetics are opposed to degeneracy, filth and smut ("airports rather than bunkers") - but that rests on a bunch of unspoken assumptions regarding who is currently listening to trancey techno with new agey motifs, why, how, and what all those choices mean.

First, if we're gonna conflate Roza Terenzi with trance or prog-house revivalism (and why single out her? Bicep both make more sense and are a better stand-in for "mainstream" trends; Modern Love sounds more like B12's Time Tourist in truth), it's important to note that her scene is not really about reviving trance (or prog-house) per se but is rather stealing ideas from trance, techno, 2-step, electro, IDM and breakbeat (circa 1999).

That's hardly unprecedented or something that in broad terms wasn't happening in the 90s necessarily, but prog-house and trance went there only briefly and kind of by accident - the East Coast edition of Northern Exposure 2 is my standard reference point here, but even that's not a great fit; certainly we're not talking about Tripomatic Fairytales or An Accident In Paradise or Vorsprung Dyk Technik or Ima or even Northern Exposure 1. A more accurate but more boring comparison might be the Plank and End labels - although again that might well be accidental. Sonically, I tend to think the particular constellation of stylistic influences at least implies a certain exhaustion with house, which as a rhythmic template has been broadly dominant for the last 20 years or so.

None of which is to deny that on occasion artists within this scene play with more overtly trance signifiers, or that there isn't a lot of more (sometimes overlapping but most unrelated) straightforward 90s trance revivalism at the moment within hard techno scenes - though whether it's framed as a fashion thing (say, Charlotte de Witte remixing Age of Love) or as just people doing basically what they've always done (say, Chris Liebling) largely depends on the examples you point to.

What's the attraction of trance revivalism for people at the moment? IME it has been embraced most enthusiastically at clubs and parties that promote themselves as very queer, with a strong emphasis on trans and gender fluid audiences. They're typically very sex positive, costume heavy (craft-ish dress-ups somewhere between ravey and titillating) and druggy - a lot of ketamine, acid, nangs, pills and amyl. They're also often rudimentary / outdoorsy set-ups: bush doofs and illegal parties in parks and nature reserves rather than big clubs (what clubs I've heard this music in tend to the smaller side - and yes, often they're in basements). I read the new age / PLUR vibes as being in part about reviving the pageantry of nineties rave and in part because the utopianism of the music seems to chime in with the "we're making a future society" dreams (or more cynically, pretensions) of a lot of the audience. But a big part of it is probably just that trance is druggy, and in particular works well with ketamine.

I'm not going to make grand claims for any of the above - there's nothing terribly earth-shattering about young people taking drugs and trying to make their home-brand versions of Burning Man - but I'm dubious of attempts to project some binary of dance music which is middle-class/safe/white/sexless/funkless/commodified/ versus the edgy and exciting and sexy music of the intransigent working class youth or whatever - seems like it's a lot harder to make stick in 2021 than it was in 1995. (in any event: "proper hard techno, gabba, psychodelic acidic mayhem, industrial freakbeats, dub abstraction" - this just sounds like a DJ mix for an art gallery installation at this point, other than that I'm not convinced "industrial freakbeats" is a thing).

Not that any of this has that much to do with underworld, mind. But then you seem to be mashing together a whole bunch of only-tenuously-connected-or-reality-based propositions, so maybe that isn't really surprising.

their finest moment, darren emerson knew a thing or two about the funk.

Nothing else really like it in their discography.

― toxic psycho "gifted child" asshole (RobbiePires), Monday, 8 November 2021 00:43 (nine hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Great track, sure, but isn't it kind of boring / tired / small-minded to just check for their one blatant martian tribute?

Does killfile still work on this thing?

I'm dubious of attempts to project some binary of dance music which is middle-class/safe/white/sexless/funkless/commodified/ versus the edgy and exciting and sexy music of the intransigent working class youth or whatever - seems like it's a lot harder to make stick in 2021 than it was in 1995. (in any event: "proper hard techno, gabba, psychodelic acidic mayhem, industrial freakbeats, dub abstraction" - this just sounds like a DJ mix for an art gallery installation at this point, other than that I'm not convinced "industrial freakbeats" is a thing).
― Tim F, Monday, 8 November 2021

ha. Industrial freakbeats was coined by DJ Kovert (of praxis fame) an area of hardcore I don't think you have ever had much interest in (so I can't take much credit for that one, I'm afraid.)

Again I don't have an issue with trance, my issue is with the pilfering of the most tired and stayed aspects of it, why not for instance reference old 150+ bpm german hardtrance, played by the likes of M Zone at all the big raves? or even if we're chiming in with the queer angle, Tony De Vit style big pianos/hoovers handbag and hard house? Must I remind you of your posts on dubstep vs UK funky in 06-07? Insofar as there is any sort of class dichotomy, it's about dilution rather than an opposition.

This could almost be a thread of its own: whether there is any contemporary dance music that is not apt to be described as insufferably middle class and conservative at this point.
― Tim F, Tuesday, 26 October 2021

I mean this might be completely true, but then cue hungry wives song, where do we go?

also nothing wrong with funklessness, but only and only if the music in question fully embraces it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuluJnFRE-0

It's possible you spend way more time thinking about trance than anyone else here.
― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Sunday, 7 November 2021

Perhaps. It has mystified me after I dropped 15 tabs of lsd one saturday evening completely in an alternate reality, whizz bang explosions, pyrotechnics, saddam hussain being skewered into a kebab, and yet, still, i couldn't enjoy it when the hosts put it on.

revisiting the drift sampler today. amazing how it's their best record since beaucoup fish and yet only hints at the brilliance of the overall project

my only real nitpick is that a lot of the tracks may have benefitted from a proper studio master...the hi-hats are too sharp and some of the tracks sound kinda thin. like listen to the loop in "Big Bear", it's almost like it was mastered for laptop speakers. though I guess if they'd taken the time to do all that it would've messed with the concept of the project. most of it does sound really good.

curious what they've been up to since this wrapped up. Karl made it sound like they were still in the midst of a big creative outburst but we've heard virtually nothing since the pandemic started.

still haven't listened properly to Drift

Beaucoup Fish was and will always be one of my favorite albums from the 90s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLDOLgxuii8

Big Bear is such a fucking jam

Spent a while the other day reading about this band on here. Never listened before. Gave Big Bear a try in the evening. The next day,
I listened to the "Space" record (the one that closes with Big Bear) four times. Holy HELL

They have an insane amount of great music out there let me know if you want a Spotify playlist or something

Three playlists in the poll results thread iirc

Frogbs, I'd love to see a "deep cuts" best of since it sounds like there's a lot of top-drawer material outside the major studio albums. Remixes and alternate versions and B-sides and old songs getting remade and picking up slightly different names, those kinds of things...? Or do the two compilations with years in the titles (are they compilations?) mostly have it covered?

Not a hurry in any case, I think I'll be luxuriating in these Drift albums for ... months?? I've been altering Drift 4/Space and Technodelic all day every day. Can't get enough. Yesterday I tried Drift 1 since the consensus seems to be that it's the least awesome one. But it sounds just as good as Space.

I'm loving Karl Hyde's vocals. They remind me of David Longdon from Big Big Train, same early Genesis influence, maybe? Smooth and powerful. I didn't like Longdon at first either -- that kind of delivery is so earnestly emotional that I immediately distrust it. Yeah they can sometimes veer cheesy (not on Big Bear, Karl kills it on Big Bear) but pretty soon the way the vocals work with and against the music becomes interesting. The lyrics are both vivid and vague: striking enough to pull me out of the music's spell at odd moments, so that I start thinking, "Huh, I wonder why he chose THAT phrase for this spot," and then the things I start thinking about as a result get colored by the melody or synth texture or some shift or drop in the beat and then I have no idea where or who the hell I am, there's just this world I'm lost in the middle of... what a rush! And the feeling is addictive! There's seven songs on Space and already I get that "oh hell yes THIS ONE" feeling with each.

But I'm glad I heard Big Bear first. That song is so awesome and the vocals so fierce and the lyrics so good that I thought, "What the hell? People don't like this band because of Karl?" Then heard the rest of Space and thought, "Oh, okay, I see why he's divisive" -- but it was too late, I'd already heard Big Bear. CLEARLY the man knows what he's doing. And sure enough...

It was such a treat when Drift was coming out weekly, just this wonderful endless-feeling stream of great stuff. I hope they do it again.

here's quite a few non-album/obscurities highlights:

Dark & Long (Thing in a Book)
Dark & Long (Most 'Ospitable)
Dark & Long (Dark Train)
Spikee
8 Ball
Twist (Music Bank Jam Take 7)
I'm a Big Sister, and I'm a Girl, and I'm a Princess, and This is My Horse
Why Why Why
You Do Scribble
Born Slippy
Mother Earth (FM Mix)
Airtowel A2778 Live Jam for Web Dec 2000
Oich Oich
Deep Arch
Twenty Three Blue
Please Help Me
Ramajama
Parc
Cherry Pie
Pearls Girl (Tin There)

note that a track being labelled a remix or having is not a reliable indicator of whether it really is a remix - "born slippy" and "born slippy .nuxx" are unrelated, as are "dark train" and all of its 'remixes', but "pearls girl (tin there)" really is a remix of "pearls girl".

i recommend just going through the albums in chronological order firs though, starting with dubnobass. the 1992-2012 and 1992-2002 compilations aren't anywhere near comprehensive

Excellent revive.

If you think this fondly of "Hundred Weight Hammer", I don't think you're going to be put off by really any vocals. I'll be replaying the "Space" disc today.

had not heard Big Bear before, why the fuck did they leave this off the initial release of D4????

their post-Barking era has been really excellent, moreso because that felt like a bit like a veteran act releasing a vv professional, solid, legacy type work vs exploring exciting new terrain. The Eno/Hyde albums, Edgeland, BBWFASF, Drift, the recent singles...just a great time to a a fan.

basically a solid decade of uninterrupted unpredictability

"that felt like a bit like a veteran act releasing a vv professional, solid, legacy type work"

what is "that" here, Barking or the post-Barking era?

Barking imo

ufo’s list is really good, I’d add Bamboo and Puppies off the top of my head. Food a Ready/Back in the Fears is amazing too if you like the more New Wavey side of them. Which I think you would.

I’ve been listening to them since I was 13, so Karl’s lyrics never really struck me as being that unusual…until I started revisiting his work. He’s got sort of an Eno approach, idk how much sense the songs are supposed to make, it’s more a collection of phrases that stuck in his head

i like it well enough but it's not really the Underworld i ever want to listen to though i know for others it's a bit better than that xp

i always associated karl's lyrics with nighttime driving or commuting, everything you might see around you in overheard snippets or on the signs you pass by

yeah agree about Barking, it's a worthwhile listen but hasn't carved out a distinctive spot in my mind

I love the Eno/Hyde records

Also I think they are gonna be announcing a new album very soon and thus far the new stuff they’ve been playing live has been incredible, so nows probably a good time too

Anything very recent to make you think that? The "And the Colour Red" single was 9 months ago!

i was looking at the wrong thing... 13 months ago lol. That was around the time a handful of songs were debuted live.

Denver Luna came out in October

I mean the beginning of this slow trickle. With the Colour Red single they wiped their social medias and all that stuff that might make you expect a new album cycle kicking off. It's been nice anyway. I like the Kettama tracks too.

Thanks all!

I'm still joyously in "Space often, Space alone" mode.

They're giving away the MP3 of Black Poppies (Unplugged) on their mailing list, though sadly it seems to be a 128kbps rip of the Youtube audio?

90% of my listening is to full albums, or album sides, but I love the feeling when something vaguely familiar and really good comes up on shuffle and you can't place it right away.

"Is this from Technodon?! It could totally be from Technodon. I guess it could be The Smile too, but..."

Answer: Altitude Dub!