Underworld - Barbara Barbara (18th March 2016)

I'm going to be grabbing this for sure. Like most others I wasn't a huge fan of Barking.... but I love almost everything else Underworld has done (beaucoup fish being my favorite).

Exhale sounds legit to my ears.

If you Pre-ordered the album they sent you the 8 min mix of that track already. And yeah, its nice.

Yeah, no nostalgia trip with Underworld for me, every album has been different, for better or worse. A Hundred Days Off was half instrumental which put some people off; the Riverrun EPs were a pretty interesting way of releasing material, especially in 2005; some felt the cinematic element of Oblivion With Bells was out of touch with their dance roots; some hated the commercial sound of Barking; this one is obviously going to be pretty different; they've never stopped challenging their audience and themselves, and that's something I really love about them.

If you tune in right now Ski Sunday are playing I Exhale right through the current program. It suits bombing at high speed down a mountainside imo. Killer tune.

Just watching the 90 minute stream of last nights gig.

Some nice new arrangements of older tracks - for example some good new improv noodling in Dark Train and Scribble.

The new tracks sound great overall - Low Burn, If Rah and Nylon Strung are all winners and I am now more excited about this album.

Ah hah!

So I think this I Exhale tune is exemplary. I love it. So much so, because I know Underworld are a fantastic 'album' band, (we know they can put together a decent set of songs for a long player, better than most) I've been on tenterhooks, hoping that I'm not going to be massively disappointed by the following album.

Funny how I really hate Pitchfork most of the time until they post up a high scoring album that I want to like. Then I punch the air lol.

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/21509-barbara-barbara-we-face-a-shining-future/

*breathes a sigh of relief*

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

STREEAAAAMMMMM

(waiting for CD+vinyl to arrive tho)

  On 3/15/2016 at 5:35 PM, fletcher said:

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

 

STREEAAAAMMMMM

 

Four tracks in, these are the slow-burning Underworld tracks I always wanted more of (Thing in a Book, Banstyle) - just as explorative as those tracks, with a more relaxed?, texture-y treatment. Particularly Low Burn, which is lush.

Not as "progressive" (in the kraut-rock sense) as their work in the 90s, nor as classically mixed. New stuff sits between that space and something more immediate. I really dig the way Karl's vocals are treated, and the mixing is brilliant. I was not expecting either of these things after Barking (not a fan).

This might be the post-Emerson Underworld album I was waiting for, tbh. Looking forward to more listens

Everything I've read about this record is making me super-excited for the weekend. I can enjoy certain elements of Barking, but I really want an Underworld album to explore.

Surfed through this early doors (5am) on my bike ride to work and while mooching around before the rest of The Walking Dead turned up (some more dead than others). So my (very) fleeting impression was, First track is killer. Second track I couldn't wrap my head around and work out whether it was terrific or terrible, I think I put it down to post I Exhale blues. Third track picks things right back up again, a very sublime perfect tune indeed. Then I remember a very lush and chilled guitar instrumental. The second half was again, very sublime and dreamy, almost poppy.

I do remember thinking that though I really liked it, and reckon a lot of these tunes will be growers I was left wanting a bit more roughly hewn chaos, especially in the second half (and some pummeling one-inch punch drums). But sometimes a bit of calm is a good thing.

First listen through just complete: loved it.

Slightly poppy as you say and definitely a bit less techno than previous efforts.

Now running through Beaucoup Fish just because. And will give it another listen next

Although Low Burn is, for me, the absolute standout, in some ways I almost wish it weren't there as it's the only one with those lush pads that are normally over UW albums, and it kind of leaves me wanting more. It's interesting, there's nothing on it that wouldn't have fit on a previous album, and yet overall it feels very different for them. I'm not sure about Santiago Cuatro, maybe it just goes on a bit long for me, would have preferred a shorter piece like Ess Gee or Good Morning Cockerel. Otherwise I really like it, though. The second half is really beautiful. I think once my expectations have disappeared and it's grown on me it might become one of my favourites of theirs. Either way, lovely stuff.

Anyone know who the woman is on the cover?

Hmmm beginning to fall in love with this album or maybe I'm just happily drunk on a sunday afternoon?

Track 2 is still dodgy but the rest is (or so it seems) just perfect, dreamy and rather fantastic.

  On 3/20/2016 at 1:18 PM, fumi said:

Anyone know who the woman is on the cover?

Barbara

Listened last night. This is a proper Underworld album imo, quite nice.

Favorite was track 3, I believe.

Full album price for 7 songs, pure balls

wat?

It's 45 minutes long, regular album length.

  On 3/20/2016 at 7:08 PM, Rubin Farr said:

Full album price for 7 songs, pure balls

Whatever you do, don't ever listen to music pre-1985, the albums over often under 40 minutes!

Few more listens and I've come 180 from how I felt listening to the preview/I Exhale months ago. I think this is a beautiful little album. I even love the breather track in the middle.

To me it fits in with their 2005 material in the riverrun series, my favorite output of theirs last decade.

Last half has a "pop" feel that I haven't really heard from them before. Ova Nova is standing out to me, but Low Burn seems to be the early standout.

To me this is a rare success from a seasoned artist going back to their roots- it's a delightful surprise for me.

Had one listen through and I like, think I will buy. I was bit afraid it was going to be a bit monotonous from hearing a few of the new tracks on the 6Music live gig, I thought the new stuff really stuck out and all the tracks seemed to have the similar tempos without much variation, but as an album in it's own right it works well. Just wish it was a bit longer, at least there's this to stick on the end.

Edit: Actually what was that site for buying Japanese bonus tracks? I remember a lot of chatter about it around the syro release

I bought the 24BIt edition in Japan with the bonus track.

The sites it is available at are: e-onkyo and ototoy.

The sites have geo-restrictions so unless you're over here, you won't be able to get them

Oh yes, I think it was ototoy and the geo-restrictions weren't there before, shame.

It's been like that quite a while. mcpete tried to get the bonus track from Garden Of Delete but couldn't.

Anyone else seeing them at the roundhouse this week? I got Friday tickets, cannot wait.

Was listening to a 1998 recording from berlin's "I love techno" last night - blistering techno at the time when Karl sounded like a maniac on the microphone. I know he has chilled out a bit since then - speaks more poetry between tracks etc. and they have a few more slower tracks in their repertoire - but they still nail it live.