;UNDERworld - BarKING
Barking is the title of Underworld’s first album in three years, and their first to be constructed with a brilliant cast of co-conspirators. All the tracks were written by the band in their Essex studio before being given to handpicked studio heads from across the whole spectrum of dance music to add some of their style and creativity to the band’s raw material. The result is a pimped-up Underworld record and their finest collection of songs in over a decade.

From the first undulating pulses of submariner bass, the first vocals – soft like a whisper in the ear - and the first fizz of hi-hats that force along the pace, the sound is unmistakably Underworld. Electronics wrapped effortlessly around songs; streams of consciousness lyrics that form indelible images; a perfectly balanced mix of melody and rhythm. Underworld’s sixth studio album is a thundering return to form, although it’s fair to say that the band responsible have never really been below par.
To celebrate their 30th year together, Underworld return triumphantly with their first new album in almost 3 years.

‘Barking’ is the duo’s sixth studio album and the first time Karl Hyde and Rick Smith have collaborated with other producers. The record enlists the help of techno producers Mark Knight and D. Ramirez (Always Loved A Film, Between Stars) plus a whole cast of brilliant and like-minded producers from across the spectrum of modern dance music to add personal touches to the band’s original material. Enter Welsh drum and bass artist High Contrast Scribble, Moon In Water), four-time Grammy winner Dubfire (Bird 1, Grace), Bristol based dub step producers Appleblim and Al Tourettes (Hamburg Hotel) and long term Underworld team member Darren Price (Between Stars).
 
The question is, with such a glittering cast of extras, how does it actually sound?
From the first undulating pulses of submariner bass, the first vocals – soft like a whisper in the ear - and the first fizz of hi-hats that force along the pace, the sound is unmistakably Underworld. Electronics wrapped effortlessly around songs; streams of consciousness lyrics that form indelible images; a perfectly balanced mix of melody and rhythm. Underworld’s sixth studio album is a thundering return to form, although it’s fair to say that the band responsible have never really been below par. Like the bomb on the Icarus II in Sunshine, this new process of working had the effect of not so much reigniting a creativity within the band as exploding it into myriad new fragments. And through all of this, brilliantly and uniquely, it sounds just like Underworld.

Teaser single Scribble – released June 28th and given its world premiere by Zane Lowe on Radio 1 – makes out like Yellow Magic Orchestra gene-spliced with Grooverider blasting out over a packed out Friday night dance floor at Fabric. Forthcoming single, Always Loved A Film, is an ecstatic blast of pressure-cooked euphoria and there will be plenty of remixes to be had and heard. In the meantime, the single will get it's first play on BBC Radio 1 (Pete Tong) on Friday July 16th, between 9:00pm - 11:00 pm. Always Loved A Film will be released August 31 on OM Records. At the other end of the scale, the album’s closing track, Louisiana, is a beautifully sparse and keening number, stripped bare to piano and Karl’s vocal.

So, thirty years in and by working with a series of handpicked co-conspirators you make the best album of your career? It was a long shot, but for Underworld in 2010, maybe playing away was just the trick.

Just leaves the question of who they’ll get into bed with next time. Roll on album seven.
Underworld are Rick Smith and Karl Hyde. They have been working together in music for thirty years since meeting in Cardiff University in the late ’70s. Following time working in various bands with luminaries like Conny Plank, Iggy Pop and Debbie Harry, Smith and Hyde (with help from DJ Darren Emerson) began experimenting with making club music in the early ’90s, first as Lemon Interupt then reactivating one of their old band names - Underworld - releasing their first single proper, Mmm… Skyscraper, I Love You, in 1993. As well as becoming the first band from the nascent ‘dance’ scene to grace the cover of a weekly music paper, they scored massive critical hits with each of their album releases (Dubnobasswithmyheadman, Second Toughest In The Infants,Beaucoup Fish, One Hundred Days Off and Oblivion With Bells).

In 2005, Underworld released the Riverrun series, a trio of downloadable mixes of new material and works-in-progress, making them one of the first acts of their scale to attempt to directly sell their own records. The band continue to release alternate versions and curios through www.underworldlive.com.

Underworld’s continuing relationship with director Danny Boyle has seen their music used in many of his movies. In 1996 a former B-side track, Born Slippy (Nuxx), soundtracked an entire summer, selling close to a million copies when released as a single. They recently scored Boyle’s sci-fi movie Sunshine.

In the early ’90s Smith and Hyde helped co-found the design company tomato. Karl has recently worked extensively with Brian Eno on the collaborative Pure Scenius project, playing largely improvised gigs at Sydney’s Opera House and at the Brighton Festival.

Underworld remain one of the most innovative and dynamic live bands on the planet – after a series of already announced Australian dates this June, they will be touring the album extensively towards the end of the year.

The tracks on Barking are:

Bird 1 (additional production by Dubfire)
Always Loved A Film (a/p Mark Knight & D. Ramirez)
Scribble (a/p High Contrast)
Hamburg Hotel (a/p Appleblim & Al Tourettes)
Grace (a/p Dubfire)
Between Stars (a/p Mark K & D. Ramirez)
Diamond Jigsaw (a/p Paul van Dyk)
Moon In Water (a/p High Contrast)
Louisiana

Format: CD album / CD/DVD / 2 x 12" vinyl / Special Edition Box Set / Digital - itunes (with bonus track) / itunes LP format (same as CD/DVD plus bonus track)

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