Underworld - *Upcoming 2024 Album* - The Singles, Reviewed

Underworld - *Upcoming 2024 Album* - The Singles, Reviewed

Along with the likes of Leftfield and Faithless, Underworld are one of the first and best examples of purveyors of what we now know as progressive house, often using expansive, 6/7/8+ minute run times and a number of eclectic influences to construct dance floor anthems of truly epic proportions. Made up of vocalist Karl Hyde and producer Rick Smith (and formerly DJ Darren Emerson), they have a nearly inscrutable back catalogue. Starting out as a synth-pop band of all things, with the release of their 1994 classic ‘Dubnobasswithmyheadman’, they began to produce what will likely prove to be some of the best dance music of all time. Of course mega hit ‘Born Slippy NUXX’ sticks out, but there’s so much more, whether it’s with other breakout albums like ‘Second Toughest In The Infants’ and ‘Beaucoup Fish’, or indeed with much of their later material, like with the brilliant ‘Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future’ in 2016, or the enjoyable Trainspotting crossover in the form of ‘Teatime Dub Encounters’ with Iggy Pop (hell, I even enjoyed the modern EDM stylings of 2010’s ‘Barking’ a fair bit). Now though, after a four year studio absence following their ‘Drift’ multimedia project, the boys are back on the road with some new tunes, and presumably an album to be released at some point next year too. So, with two singles out, let’s take a look.

and the colour red

There are certainly things to like about this track, absolutely, but for me personally, it does still leave a little to be desired at the end of the day. To start off with, the four-on-the-floor house beat here sounds super booming and thick, with some real heft behind it which is pretty cool. This is then complimented by a subtly morphing and shifting bass arpeggio, working to a very cool, hypnotic effect. Adding to this are Karl’s scattershot, repetitive, often abstract lyrics, yet again another recognisable and enjoyable hallmark of Underworld’s music, but I just wish there was more of it, and that’s really where the majority of the track’s problems lie: there's just not really loads here. It’s particularly evident melodically, where, while the shots of industrial noise they add to the track are kind pretty intriguing, working pretty damn nicely on a good pair of headphones, and the sine wave synth loop is admittedly a bit of an earworm, I think it just needs that something else to take it to that next level of other great Underworld tracks. Don't get me wrong, in the context of the live sets I've seen, it works pretty well as a kind of brooding, psychy, industrial thumper. On record though, it just becomes slightly more obvious that there just isn’t a whole lot of meat on the bone so to speak. Not bad by any means, but it definitely could’ve done with a few more bells and whistles.

denver luna

I’ll just get this out of the way now: the decision to release an Imogen Heap style partial acapella (especially after a five month gap) three weeks prior to this seemed a pretty weird decision, as good as it was, admittedly. So I don’t think I’m lying when I say the general reaction to the announcement of the full version was one of equal jubilation and relief, particularly given its live reception. Anyway, what do I think of it? Well, quite simply, I love it. It’s very difficult I think nearly thirty years in to come out with a track that can be accurately described as “quintessential” without feeling by the numbers, and yet Rick and Karl have managed to both do that and avoid that pitfall, and do so with flying colours. In eight minutes it presents basically everything there is to love about Underworld. Starting out with some cool eerie atmospheres, setting out the track’s dramatic tone, Rick then supplements it with a sinister bass arpeggio and a positively monstrous, thumping kick beat, sounding all the more massive when beefed up even more soon after. It then follows a classically linear structure, building upon its pulsing bass with a cacophony of open hi-hats and white noise percussion in classic 909 style, while the bass continually shifts and morphs beneath. Particularly in the second build up, the bass becomes yet more prominent, adding an extra, really gnarly, almost industrial sci-fi aspect to the beat which helps tons to develop that constantly building sense of anticipation, and more importantly just making for a slamming dance track. Atop all this, vocalist Karl Hyde, as well as giving us some nice, ghostly vocal shots between builds, he offers up his typically opaque, stream-of-consciousness lyrical style, with the same kind of eerie yet intense sense of melody the synths gave in the intro. I’ve heard some people say they’re getting a bit sick of his linguistic gobbledygook, but to me, not only is it what he’s always done (and well at that), but also, despite the fact it seemingly makes no sense, his delivery and sense of melody and drama is so distinctive that he carries it off with ease. Then, at the 5:20 mark, the track really shifts into high gear. The instrumental almost dropping out entirely, it leaves Karl and Rick to assume the role of a two piece vocal choir, and it sounds absolutely fantastic. With Karl singing the already dramatic, anthemic melodies up front, Rick acts as the otherworldly vocoder accompaniment, adding a genuinely beautiful, futuristic sheen, with some subtly icy synths working a treat floating over top. There are parts of this final build up that, as I say, sound genuinely cinematic and beautiful, and when the drums fully burst in for the final time, it just sounds like pure euphoria, there really is no other word. I would say this track sees the guys back at the top of their game, but in my opinion, they never really fell off, so actually what it shows is that two veterans of the game, even after 30 years, are still making really great stuff that positively wipes the floor with nearly every one of their modern counterparts, which is arguably even more impressive.

So, from these two singles, safe to say I’m nothing short of buzzing. Don’t get me wrong, the episodic ‘Drift’ series had some really cool stuff on it which I loved, but for their first “proper” album in eight years, this is shaping up to be one hell of a project. That’s not even mentioning the three other live tracks floating around, but I’m getting ahead of myself. To cut a long story short, Underworld are still brilliant after all this time, and I’m really excited to hear what’s next. There's not a lot of bands that can still say that, but these guys have well and truly earned it.