Underworld - Barbara Barbara (18th March 2016)

I'm .... not sure ......

  Quote

So what’s there in the shining future? The opening punch of a two-note detuned bass riff crunching over relentless percussion; the elegiac swoop of strings as they stretching out across off-world electronics; a demented lupine howl that curls itself into an unshakeable earworm; celestial techno and South American acoustics; voices that warp into harmonic riffs; found lyrics that form fine-tuned monolgues; head music to dance to..

 

I Exhale

If Rah

Low Burn

Santiago Cuatro

Motorhome

Ova Nova

Nylon Strung

Out 18th March 2016

First bit sounds a bit too downtempo/cliche for me but kinda gets interesting when the beat drops out. Second track is fucking wicked, and the third is nice too. I quite enjoyed their last album (not as much as Oblivion With Bells though) so I'm looking forward to what they come up with next. Then again, I think I might be a weird case, since I've approached Underworld only recently and so don't think Second Toughest or Dubnobass is their best release..

Excited that it's just them producing and no guests like on Barking.

Will try and grab a ticket for the roundhouse gig too

That first one is completely bonkers, totally not what I was expecting. Gonna hold out judgement until I hear the whole thing. Middle one sounds like classic Underworld, last one is pretty cool and interesting. I'm really happy about the absurd title and only seven tracks, immediately signals a shift away from the pop formula of Barking. And it's good that I'm surprised by this clip, the last thing we need Underworld doing is resting on their laurels.

It was... OK

Oh hellz to the no. I hope this is a terrible example, although from the look of it, there aren't many more tracks to set it right. I'll be listening with higher hopes to this in the meantime:

Aye, the first one totally reminded me of that era Underworld !

Bit of an insight into the making of this album:-

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

  Quote

 

There were lots of moments, screaming into electrified banjos, scratching guitars instead of playing strings, being a crowd instead of being a solo singer, listening to something that Rick was mumbling in a corner about something, writing it down and going, “There you go, we’ve got the opening line to the next tune.” It was those things, which were 180 degrees in the opposite direction of what I used to think about an Underworld record. Every day was a conscious decision to remain as unconscious as possible and not think, “Oh, this is going to be difficult to play Saturday night on the main stage.” If dubnobass had any influence at all it was that when we came to make these recordings it felt, to me, like being in a band that had no history. It felt like starting again and that felt really good.

Amazeballs

Think this might be the first Underworld album I'm not going to buy ...

underworld goes full-on balls-to-the-wall post-90's chemical bros.

I like that. Bit strange though. Doesn't seem to go anywhere.

Bruce Lee was a weird single and that grew on me after a while.

Tickets in the bag for the Roundhouse gig at Easter

Karl Hyde on 6 music this afternoon for a 3 hour show, starting 3pm GMT. A radio show featuring some underworld stuff apparently

think it was ok. 2nd tune was definitely danceable, but it didn't feel very interesting. still, props to their new approach & who knows; it might have to grow on me

A second preview clip featuring snippets from the rest of the album went online yesterday on Spotify, and was then pulled last night. God knows what happened there. But I'd imagine that'll get an official release soon.

I would rather listen to like UNDERWORLD SOUNDCLOUD DUMP imo

like I remember there was tracks from the underworldlive site or whatev that were pretty interesting

yeah this was good

like i do wonder how much unreleased material they have

I immediately thought of 'Change the Weather' and 'Under the Radar' when that preview started. I mean, I'll buy the new one because I'm kind of a completist, but not sure how good this one will be.

I actually rather enjoyed 'Barking.' Especially the opening track.

  On 2/10/2016 at 4:48 AM, Braintree said:

I immediately thought of 'Change the Weather' and 'Under the Radar' when that preview started. I mean, I'll buy the new one because I'm kind of a completist, but not sure how good this one will be.

 

I actually rather enjoyed 'Barking.' Especially the opening track.

Same here. I loved Barking, probably because I saw them live 3 times around that era. Scribble and Diamond Jigsaw are such fun rave tracks.

Barking is my least favourite of theirs, although it has some good moments. The production makes it sound fairly anonymous though, which is something Underworld haven't sounded before.

Underworld doubtless have many an unreleased track. So, so many have been played on their radio shows, and a bunch were uploaded to their site about 15 years ago which still haven't been released.

  On 2/10/2016 at 11:08 AM, purlieu said:

Barking is my least favourite of theirs, although it has some good moments. The production makes it sound fairly anonymous though, which is something Underworld haven't sounded before.

 

Each track was co-produced by someone different, so true it doesn't hold up as a true underworld album it does play through as a great collection of Karl Hyde guest vocal cameos to some club tracks.

Just heard I Exhale on 6music. Cool tune imo. Not sure what replay value it may have as it does seem a bit one dimensional, though the groove is pretty addictive.

They are playing the 6music concert tomorrow night so the gig will be streamed on the red button live and probably also on the radio stream

I'll probably check it out. Thing is with Underworld they are so heavily ingrained in my psyche from the 90's (when I was in my twenties) it's a bit hard to take them seriously nowadays. It just seems a bit too close to the realm of nostalgia for my liking. That's probably just me. I still like them though, pretty legendary band imo.

It's not quite nostalgia levels for me yet. If you are the prodigy these days when they bust out the old hits it really looks lacklustre and they are cashing in.

Karl still sings "Pearls Girl" like he means it. His venom, poetry and grit are all still there.

This is the full original 8 min version (which I just stumbled upon)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvU8wuXQgE8

I got to admit I'm steadily falling in love with this song, I just love the way it punches, and his vocals sound brilliant, loads of stuff swirling around in the background. Yeah tip-top tune.