Re: Paul Van Dyk is a musical genius. How amazing will he make Diamond Jigsaw?
 

only listened to it once, but I dont like it. Its just too generic and bland. Theres not enough variation. Which is a trademark underworld sound. Its disappointing to hear Underworld dumbed down like this.

Re: Paul Van Dyk is a musical genius. How amazing will he make Diamond Jigsaw?
 

100% agree, Stimpee. I actually never liked this track in any shape or form and PVD hasn't helped it at all. The lyrics are boring, and the sound is out of the 80s.
From what I've read, seeing it live is something to see, though.

Re: Paul Van Dyk is a musical genius. How amazing will he make Diamond Jigsaw?
 

I really like it. Especially the breakdown towards the end.

PVD will have nothing to do with the lyrics.

Re: Paul Van Dyk is a musical genius. How amazing will he make Diamond Jigsaw?
 

sadly thats their job and thats what works for them, UW needed these elements to make this album what it is though... it needed undersimplyfying if thats a word...

UW, Rick, in particular, can make their sound too complex and difficult for 'normal' persons ears and as such the touches by the external producers have generified this album for the better.

I know most ppl don't want UW to be a generic band, but thats what they guys wanted with this album - to make it accessible - and thats what it is... the strangest thing i have noticed is that ppl who are undecided about the tracks on Barking like different tracks, some like the poppy numbers some like the downbeat tracks, but most like some elements...

If Diamond Jigsaw was released without knowledge of PvD's production - no one would have noticed, because its the same song UW wrote, and it maintains most UW elemets, including a Guitar which KH has been playing for over 30 years... don't forget KH was a session guitarist for many people back in the old days before most of you were born...

keep the faith guys...

Re: Paul Van Dyk is a musical genius. How amazing will he make Diamond Jigsaw?
 

listen to the guitar solo at 4:20 onwards - tell me that isn't a riff straight out the New Order school of rock...

which, imo, makes this track even more awesome....

Underworld, I love you more than the way you used to love me....

Re: Paul Van Dyk is a musical genius. How amazing will he make Diamond Jigsaw?
 

If anything Diamond Jigsaw's drums sounds more like a rock band than tech-house. Who knows if it was Rick or PVD who programmed those. UW have done plenty of tracks with very simple rhythms. We've definitely heard UW do a bit more rock-style sounds in recent times (Boy Boy Boy, that Manic Street Preachers remix...).
Can't really say I agree with you about Knight & Ramirez doing boring programming either. There's a lot of details in the rhythms of ALAF and Between Stars (have you listened on a good pair of headphones?), and who knows which bits were programmed by who? Personally I was kinda getting tired of all the shakers and bongo's on the previous two UW albums and appreciate a little bit of a different, more varied sound. The rhythm sounds (fucking synth plop) on Bird 1 are pretty bad though ;)

Re: Paul Van Dyk is a musical genius. How amazing will he make Diamond Jigsaw?
 

Live it reminded me more of Robert Smith but either is good news for me :)

Re: Paul Van Dyk is a musical genius. How amazing will he make Diamond Jigsaw?
 

btw I liked Diamond Jigsaw from the start and I still do. The New Order-ish guitar is a nice bonus in this version I think. It's simple but fun, kinda like TMO :)

Re: Paul Van Dyk is a musical genius. How amazing will he make Diamond Jigsaw?
 

UW channels New Order. It's awesome!

Re: Paul Van Dyk is a musical genius. How amazing will he make Diamond Jigsaw?
 

everything is awesome. in every way.

Re: Paul Van Dyk is a musical genius. How amazing will he make Diamond Jigsaw?
 

Im glad you guys like it. For me it sounds dated, sounds Underworld mk1, and comparing it to old New Order stuff isnt a compliment. Just makes it even more dated. It just sounds like Underworld-by-numbers. Feels bad to say it but its just bland.

Re: Paul Van Dyk is a musical genius. How amazing will he make Diamond Jigsaw?
 

The guitar is a dumb idea no matter where it came from, but if underworld wanted to make pop songs, I think this one went well for them. Crap as an "underworld tune", but really I'll take it if it's enjoyable

Re: Paul Van Dyk is a musical genius. How amazing will he make Diamond Jigsaw?
 

The demo version of Diamond Jigsaw on the Barking bonus disc is, as Karl said, NOTHING like Underworld. No synths, just guitar, rock drum sounds and Karl's singing. It's a fun, upbeat little ditty but definitely not Underworld.

I like PVD's remix a lot but I'm afraid the awesome synthpop version from the Las Vegas show will remain the best version of this divisive Underworld track.

Re: Paul Van Dyk is a musical genius. How amazing will he make Diamond Jigsaw?
 

i was quite surprised that the 80s synth version wasn't the one chosen for CD2.

Re: Paul Van Dyk is a musical genius. How amazing will he make Diamond Jigsaw?
 

I think Diamond Jigsaw might be the worst track on the album. I've listend to a lot of Paul Van Dyk's work and think this can't be one of his best examples. Even on the BBC radio show with Karl Hyde, the host mentioned something about how Diamong Jigsaw is not like most work Van Dyk makes... I guess the host didn't care for the track either because he didn't play it at all during the show.

just my two pence...

Re: Paul Van Dyk is a musical genius. How amazing will he make Diamond Jigsaw?
 

EXACTLY. Underworlds production is intricate, detailed, evolving, and all around more mature than EVERYONE they worked with on this album. These collaborators should be learning from Underworld, not producing them. If you compare any of the new tracks with the older tracks, the new just fall back to repeating hooks, boring drum work, and the old epic trance peaks and valleys. This album in uninspired and mainstream. What were they thinking???

Re: Paul Van Dyk is a musical genius. How amazing will he make Diamond Jigsaw?
 

Yeah, I'm fine with Barking, not too impressed with it, but it is a decent album. I just hope that the next Underworld album is just Rick, Karl, and maybe Darren Price (what I'm saying is hopefully it won't be full of collaborations like Barking).

However, it would be cool if for an album they decided to collaborate with artists like Massive Attack, Orbital, The Chemical Brothers, Boards of Canada, and Aphex Twin.

Re: Paul Van Dyk is a musical genius. How amazing will he make Diamond Jigsaw?
 

Ooooo some of those collaborations sound interesting. I would like to hear an IDM take on Underworld, maybe with Flying Lotus as well.

But I think it would be cool if Underworld did something like that as an extra disc added on to a release that contained only their own material. With Barking, they did the opposite.

Re: Paul Van Dyk is a musical genius. How amazing will he make Diamond Jigsaw?
 

the chemical brothers,aphex twin,massive attack.........back to the 90's.
fresh :(

Re: Paul Van Dyk is a musical genius. How amazing will he make Diamond Jigsaw?
 

so, having made music which is basically electronica for the past 15 years, Karl Hyde and Rick Smith who made two albums as a guitar based band in the 1980's are not allowed to use guitars again...

come on guys get over it...

you don't have to like the track, but there is NO method to Underworld - no set in stone 'Underworld' formula,

Karl and Rick are having fun on this track, at least they are playing instruments and singing proper tunes, rather than putting out bland soundscapes for the few hardcore fans who are into computer games soundtracks...

music for listening doesn't have to be complicated or intricate, it can be simple and melodic - its not a crime - those of you with a better understanding of music should make your own stuff and listen to that, plenty of people are enjoying the simplistic popularist approach that this album and its collaborations have created...

i'm not sticking up for Underworld for the fact they are my fav band, but for the fact that this album (Barking), is simply one of their best, and i'll happily say that their previous effort (OWB) one of their worst, not bad though, just not as good as previous outings...

trying to say how this album should have sounded or who should have been involved is futile... you don't have to like it but this is what UW chose to make and its a triumph (well in my opinion!)

Re: Paul Van Dyk is a musical genius. How amazing will he make Diamond Jigsaw?
 

IDM is the most vile thing to call any type of music. Ugh.

Re: Paul Van Dyk is a musical genius. How amazing will he make Diamond Jigsaw?
 

What does IDM stand for?

Re: Paul Van Dyk is a musical genius. How amazing will he make Diamond Jigsaw?
 

"Intelligent Dance Music"

Ugh² (-> to the tag, not the style of music)

Re: Paul Van Dyk is a musical genius. How amazing will he make Diamond Jigsaw?
 

It's the world's most ridiculous genre name, but the actual music associated with it is amazing.

Re: Paul Van Dyk is a musical genius. How amazing will he make Diamond Jigsaw?
 

It's a label, not a genre. (A label invented by heinous cunts, incidentally)

I can't imagine any musician who made any type of music would ever want their music referred to as *shudders* IDM.

(Or, if they did, I suspect their music might be fucking appalling)

Re: Paul Van Dyk is a musical genius. How amazing will he make Diamond Jigsaw?
 

missing the van halen beats in Diamond Jigsaw - try this booty from 2002

featuring justin warfield on vocals...