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Formed in the ‘80s – both having survived Thatcher - and still in their original wrapping (the artwork for new album ‘Oblivion With Bells’ bares more than a passing resemblance to 1992’s ‘Dubnobasswithmyheadman’) - Underworld and the Wispa bar have more in common than you may think. Ok, maybe Underworld are yet to appear on Spar counters across the land, but there is no doubt that their return is starting to cause a bit of a stir. We catch up with surviving band members Karl Hyde and Rick Smith, and Hyde is quick to refute claims, however, that their recent live homecoming at Knebworth House was anything like a comeback gig.
“Via our internet webcasts and live touring we’ve played to more people than at any time during our career,” Hyde tells Gigwise proudly. No mean feat considering if you pooled the band’s air miles for the last sixteen years of touring as Underworld Mk2 (Mk1 was a guitar-orientated funky electropop offering that ran from 1987-1990), you could buy a small island or at least a very big yacht to take you there. It is, arguably, their brazen attitude to new technology and indeed their appetite for change that explains Underworld’s longevity and rich creativity. It’s no wonder they have outlasted many of their peers in the dance group demographic.
Barely stopping for breath, Hyde lists: “Since our ‘Hundred Days Off’ album we’ve released three download albums, a triple live album, two major film scores, a film score, five twelve inches, our second book (In the Belly of St. Paul), a season of live web radio broadcasts and the first in a series of web television casts to tens of thousands of people. Then we set up our own record company (Underworldlive) and toured the world several times.” Workaholic doesn’t quite cover it.
With a rumoured 200 tracks penned since their last physical album in 2002, Romford’s finest chose cyberspace to release what was called ‘The Riverrun series.’ This meant downloads straight into their fans laps, breaking the cycle of write/record/tour/promote, but also allowing for feedback direct to the band. The series started with the release of ‘Lovely Broken Thing’ and ‘Pizza For Eggs’ in late 2005 and culminated in five limited 12” recordings cut with remixes of the previously released series.
With eleven tracks appearing on their latest offering and fifth studio album, the bloody fantastic ‘Oblivion With Bells’, the selection process must have been harder than filling a bag of pick’n’mix at the cinema. What do you leave out? “Fortunately we had help”, says Hyde. “‘Oblivion With Bells’ [the title comes from the track ‘Faxed Invitation’] was selected from all the material we had and the responses we’ve been getting to playing the tunes out live.”
It is however, that very live experience that could soon be turned on its head, as Hyde explains – Underworld are driving forward, but keeping an eye on the past. “In 1992 we played for 18 hours as part of a larger group called the ‘Experimental Sound Field’ when Glastonbury gave us our own field to set up our quadraphonic sound system and giant Cyclorama wrapped around a stage that was a tower in the middle. This became the blueprint for Underworld as it is today. Our ambition is to be able to play in that original way again and take it on tour.”
After breaking the personal taboo of collaboration in the last year – Underworld shared the soundtrack duties for the 2006 Anthony Minghella movie, ‘Breaking & Entering’ with orchestral arranger Gabriel Yared - Hyde confirms that this partnership was not a one-off. “We’ve had a long running jam going with Mr Brian Eno and have begun a collaboration with Nina Nasyasia [and] on this album we worked with Pig & Dan, Pete Heller, Clodagh Simonds (Fovea Hex) & [marimba player] Larry Mullins Jr.” He admits that, “it would’ve come out two years ago but we kinda got sidetracked having fun writing the film scores.”
Smith suggests that their work in the film genre – a further collaboration, this time with composer John Murphy, they also supplied the soundtrack to long-term friend Danny Boyle’s latest film, ‘Sunshine’ – has had a profound affect on their latest material. “I do think large aspects of the new album sound like two guys who’ve had great experiences with film music, who have a passion for film and travelling and for ambient, more gentle and perhaps what is less generally understood as ‘an Underworld sound.’”
The minimalist styling of ‘Holding The Moth’ - a bouncy Villalobos-inspired number - best illustrates another of Underworld’s current moulds. “The music that is being played in German clubs has had a significant influence on this album. We altered our playing to suit the playing style of [techno god] Sven Vath so that we could jam together in our collaborative Web Television cast from the Cocoon Club. I guess you could say we really like that scene a lot.”
Despite the new direction, the trademarks loom heavy. ‘Ring Road’ sees Hyde off on one of his famous psycho-geographic jaunts (this time around Romford on St. George’s Day) whilst ‘Beautiful Burnout’ feature’s the trademark synth swathes and swells with a decidedly sinister edge to the splendour. ‘To Heal’ is the album’s hidden gem, the simplistic beauty melts away to leave nothing but bliss aimed in every direction, the like of which has not been seen since ‘Blueski.’ Although admittedly a lot calmer than previous outings, new single ‘Crocodile’ blends an echoing vocal with a purring beat to kick off the album’s journey. Beginning Saturday evening sipping ice cold vodka on a packed roof terrace in North London and finishing Monday afternoon, alone but smiling inanely on a Cala Conta beach, Ibiza.
Although the influences are ever-changing, the writing process has remained the same of late, “we started by writing on our lap tops then swapping the lap tops and writing on top of each other’s work and [we] kept that process up for four years.” Consistent writing is a vital tonic in the cerebral mixer, but it is playing live where Underworld truly shine as they delve through their enormous back catalogue for classic after classic, remixed and remixed. With rumours of a 14-hour live jaunt on top of their three-month world tour, it’s time for all those that took Tim Lovejoy’s ‘Dance is Dead’ to heart to admit their mistake and head back to the dancefloor. The wispa’s are already starting, ‘Underworld are back!’
