Re: DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019
 

The tracklisting is perfect to me, both the album, and and the EPs. I'm glad Very silent way is removed from EP1 so I won't have to skip it. :D
But sadly the ugly cover art remained. :(

Re: DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019
 

Also ordering from the US - the shipping charges from Amazon UK are far more reasonable and the box-set price is actually reduced further once the VAT is removed. I pre-ordered on Amazon UK and the price with shipping was £46.36. LINK (Your mileage may vary.)

I'm also monitoring the Amazon US store for this as well - it looks like it might be available from the US directly. LINK

Of course, these won't be signed editions - but I really can't be bothered with autographs.

Re: DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019
 

that's still a type of album.

if the 7 disc set is the full 'album', that's a little more unwieldy.

later
-1

Re: DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019
 

From a marketing perspective it's very weird to call it a "sampler" instead of an album proper, especially after announcing it as one.

The spirit is still there! But the general public, music critics, etc, may miss this release with the focus being put on the boxset. The 90% may balk at a 7CD package yet won't take something called a sampler seriously. A regular length album that points to the larger Drift series / boxset made total sense to me. Weird they've inverted that idea and made the sampler the lower key release.

This aside. Great tracklist. A serious set of songs. Excited to hear the final episodes too with the new material.

Re: DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019
 

I'll let Rick and Karl worry about commercial success and the general public's reaction. Personally I can't wait for the box set and I'm looking forward to series 2...

Re: DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019
 

So I made the Album(sampler) playlist and gave it a listen in that order. Granted, the lengths/versions may change, and I did have to pause to flip over to YouTube for "Mile Bush Pride", but... It actually sounds very strong and flows nicely, better than I expected. Not necessarily the compilation I most prefer, but also not weak by any means (STAR and Imagine a Box are growing on me, and those were my biggest reservations). The front 6 tracks up to BYTWB are great examples of both the banging and introspective, BYTWB provides a breather and functions as the more experimental, then STAR kicks it home. Custard Speed Talk is a lovely closer for me.

Anyway, great fun previewing the compilation albeit from the previous versions.

Imagine the fun we'll have compiling playlists and alt versions from the full series! More so than already, with new tracks and edits!

Re: DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019
 

Checking Amazon US shows as unavailable. No pre-order link is given. Hoping a digital outlet will have this release in lossless format. I’m beginning to run out of space for all these boxsets! 😉

Re: DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019
 

the sheer number of tracks is blowing my mind.

Re: DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019
 

eh, i dont care about that. if they buy the Sampler, they can do more research and find that there are more tracks. or they can be happy with their sampler.

i love this process. its been such a great year to be a huge UW fan

Re: DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019
 

Generally, samplers tend to contain three or four tracks from the full album (or sometimes just edited snippets of tracks)*, so the industry use of the term is very much not an album - which is why it intrigued me that they've changed the wording. It seems like a very specific change, i.e. before they were saying "there's going to be an album at the end of it, plus a boxset of the whole series", whereas now they seem to be shying away from the idea of it being an album at all. In a recent interview Karl said they regretted the album announcement as it made it look like "ah, so this is what they were leading up to then". Instead, calling it "series 1" and "series 1 sampler" seems to put the emphasis on it just being an ongoing project that's very much outside of the standard album release format.

I'm sure more casual listeners and purchasers won't think too much about it, but calling it a sampler certainly doesn't encourage people to consider it a standalone work. I'll be very curious to see how it performs commercially.

*Beaucoup Fish's is a good example, while AHDO's is actually quite baffling.

Re: DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019
 

right, but to be fair they didn't really know where this project was going when they announced it. correct me if I'm wrong but they'd already announced it as a 1xCD / 2xLP before half the material had even been written. at some point they probably realized they had more good material than they could showcase in an hour & changed the focus of the project to be about everything instead of just the one disc. I don't think they wanted the public to see it as "an album with a lot of B-sides".

Re: DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019
 

Which interview was this?

Re: DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019
 

yeah after running it through a few times it's more representative of the series than what I initially wanted out of the album. I'd replace drum street with something that at least led up to the two big bangers though. it makes the first two tracks feel unnecessarily leaden.

they took pains to make it feel like a compilation though, didn't they? I'm sure they know the difference between constructing an album and having a good playlist, and it seems they opted for the latter when it'd make sense to me to face the commercial challenge of making an album statement out of it. there's an art to that too, after all. it's not just a craven market constraint.

Re: DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019
 

I also made the album sampler playlist on YouTube. It will be a very strong album!

Re: DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019
 

Well of course it's gonna feel like a compilation if you've listened to the EPs a bunch (as I have). No way around that. I'm curious how it'll sound to people hearing it for the first time.


also we'll have to hear what edits they make on the actual product. Clearly the tracks are edited and maybe remixed some. It'll probably flow quite nicely. I wouldn't expect anything less from them

Re: DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019
 

Every album is a compilation of tracks, we just don't know the pool from which they're drawn until later, if at all. With Drift, we've seen behind the scenes, gotten a sense for tracks that have been trouble, have come together quickly, have sparked improvs, been road tested, been reworked, etc.

In retrospect, the strongest albums always seem so deliberate and focused. But take for example the Pre-Dubno DAT... What if that was the final album? To me, with benefit of years of admiring dubno, it sounds disjointed, full of works-in-progress and uncertain how to move from mki to mkii. But how many bands approach a new record with thematic or conceptual focus anymore (ever)? There's always experimenting, choices. For me, Drift has been a peering into the creative mindset of R&K, and it's illuminating. Some are finished and fantastic, others seem like deadline best efforts, and of course, subjective taste on the part of the listener.

Anyway, if we didn't have a look/listen at the year long process of creating, culling and compiling, and just had the sampler/LP, I think we'd be pleased, as the tracks are varied, well produced and appeal to a wide spectrum of genre fans. I think the compilation actually holds together very tightly, pretty sure I can mix the tracks continuously and convince myself it's a concept album (!) and there are really no duds (though that's a judgement call and even classic ALBUMS have them).

Tl,Dr: Drift gives us a look at what it must be to create an album. The "Sampler" without this Drift process is the finished commercial album we're accustomed to and wed then debate each track's merits. We've just never before seen so much of the material available for compilation (and likely Underworld has never been this prolific). Called sampler, compilation, proper album, whatever... it's great music, and now we have so much source material to rearrange into personal playlists and debate/enjoy.

Re: DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019
 

4:05 here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9A_2Rlos9fw
"Great, except when you have to say things like 'We're gonna release an album', because then it becomes perceived in a normal way. Like 'Oh, of course, so all of this is about an album'. It's like 'No, actually an album is a gift along the way, but we're going to carry on doing something else every week after that.'"

Re: DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019
 

good post holden - I've never thought of Underworld as having an album mindset the way many of their contemporaries do. they make albums because they have to and in most cases those albums are fantastic, but we all know there's so much great stuff outside of that. not just the rare stuff but their most famous tunes as well. I don't think their creative process necessarily leads there and they've said so themselves many times (including in the interview just posted). I agree with Karl, for all this to just lead up to another album seems anticlimactic. I'm glad the focus seems to now be on the entire series, not just the hour or so "best of".

Re: DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019
 

by the way, I'm not sure if this means anything or not, but did anyone else notice all the "Film Edit" tags are missing now? this potentially means different versions of Appleshine & Dune plus a lot of the stuff on EP5. though EP5 ain't out yet. so who knows if "Mile Bush Pride" actually did get extended.

Re: DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019
 

The album thing is interesting, because at certain points it's really felt like the 'album' was a definite end product - the lack of b-sides to Beaucoup Fish, the entire Barking process... the closest thing to what we've had in the last 52 weeks is probably the Dubnobass era, which provided us with 33 tracks in less than two years (plus some radio edits), over the course of various 12"s, singles and CD EPs.

Re: DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019
 

Yeah! it went from "okay well I guess b-sides aren't really the productive thing to do anymore and the AHDO ones are just generous side-notes" to a literal embarrassment of riches and an open look into the process. my high school brain would have *popped* at this. even now as a tired 30-something they've still dominated my musical interests for the year with this series.

Re: DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019
 

Thats all well and fine. But those were promo's only, so its
fine calling those samplers.

What will be interesting, is when promo samplers of this
'sampler' album show up. Will it have some of the tracks,
or all of them.

So if it's a sampler album, it sure has a lot of tracks for one.

It's more of semantics to me.

later
-1

Re: DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019
 

This is true. It is an oddity to commercially release a sampler. A sampler is usually a promo item. UW have definitely done something unique with the Drift series. What other band has released new (exceptionally great) music every week for a year... I think the sampler should just pose as a stream item to entice listeners to purchase the boxset. The only sampler worth a purchase is the vinyl if you need that medium.

It’s amazing how much sounds have been recycled and turned into fantastic tracks. I want a longer version of S T A R S!!! Rick & Karl, if you’re browsing, thank you!!!

Re: DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019
 

Of course, but that's what's interesting: they've made a specific decision to change the wording of the album's title, and thus the connotations that go with it.

Re: DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019
 

Regarding the cover art, why does the dog show through the letters I and F, but not the R? Its shoulder looks chopped off, as it should appear a little bit behind the R. Tomato wouldn't be that sloppy with their compositing, would they? Or is this a graphic design fluorish I'm missing?

Re: DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019
 

That's bothering me now. Perhaps the lighting on that side of the dog meant there would be insufficient contrast between the R and the yellow part? Or maybe it looked off because it would cut right in the middle of the R? But you'd think that they'd keep it consistent with the other letters, so I don't know!

Re: DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019
 

as much as i love dogs, this cover art does nothing for me at all

Re: DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019
 

hah did not notice the 'R' thing before, now it's gonna bother me forever


for what its worth I thought all the cover art for this series felt kinda placeholdery. like something generated by the label because you didn't turn anything in. doesn't really fit in with their other covers.



if I remember correctly around the time of the mega-deluxe reissue there was an interview with Karl where he spoke highly of this era and called it "true Underworld" or something like that, then implied that UW were heading back into that direction (by which I mean, no direction at all, just doing whatever sounds good to them). I guess they really did mean it after all.

Re: DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019
 

tracklisting appears to be changing. Appleshiner on the official site is now listed as Appleshine (All The Lights) (previously unreleased).

Re: DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019
 

the Japan bundles include this very nice DRIFT Series 1 t-shirt
https://rockinon.com/news/detail/189592
https://ro69-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com...size_image.jpg

Re: DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019
 

bit of an odd design, that. if i wore a shirt of a show i liked, would i be celebrating a particular season of it?


anyway, checked today on the offchance that they changed the sampler tracklisting, or the cover art. looks like they're really gonna stick with that.

Re: DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019
 

I can't see any differences. Where have you seen the change of tracklisting?

Re: DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019
 

to clarify: i checked today to see if they had changed anything, considering that it's supposed to be somewhat flexible.
they had not, and i am a little sad for it, but not too sad.

Re: DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019
 

fun to revisit the old Drift trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qDwIDPNdE0




parts of "Tree & Two Chairs" (with the "Dexter's Chalk" vocal) and "S T A R" (VERY briefly) there, which wound up being two of the last tracks


acapella bit from 1:13-1:31 is unreleased thus far. I'm guessing it's a bonus track

Re: DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019
 

has anyone found a digital-only option for the full massive box set?

Re: DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019
 

I am guessing it won't go up until closer to the release date.

Re: DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019
 

I continue to look, and have so far failed. Came here hoping someone else had ;-)

Re: DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019
 

i dont so much mind buying the box set, but i inevitably just end up ripping the cds* and putting the box in a closet.

*i dont even have a cd drive anymore.

Re: DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019
 

so how do you rip discs then.

later
-1

Re: DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019
 

from someone else's drive