Leipzig Warehouse Jam 050715
 

https://underworldlive.com/music/lei...se-jam-050715/

https://www.mixcloud.com/UnderworldL...se-jam-050715/



A pair of stray Essex builders, a disused school building and a celebration of the finest seasonal legume known to man… how does that collectively sound? It sounds like thirty nine minutes of expansive, exploratory, glorious rumble. We should do this more often.


“I remember Rick mobilising the crew to find a location we could record a jam in. They found an old school building being converted into an arts centre. We had to share billing with a load of bedding plants. Two builders walked in on us jamming, both from Romford!


The one called his wife to tell her he’d be home late as his favourite band, Underworld, had turned up to play on his building site. No surprise that she didn’t believe him and obviously thought something fishy was going on, so he handed me his phone to convince her. Even I couldn’t persuade her we really were there. He stayed, went home late and got in trouble, but Rick told him we would put him and his wife on the guest list for a festival we were playing the next day. He turned up backstage beaming and introduced us to his bemused wife, looking shocked but relieved to discover that the implausible story her husband had spun her was the truth.” (Karl)


“I can’t remember much… it was the same time as the Leipzig Asparagus Festival so I ate some gigantic white asparagus” (Rick)




Tracklisting: Skyscraper/Flatz/Improv/Juanita/Twist


very reminiscent of their 2005 Tokyo set...great stuff once again

Re: Leipzig Warehouse Jam 050715
 

Marvelous.

Re: Leipzig Warehouse Jam 050715
 

jam on it... great.

later
-1

Re: Leipzig Warehouse Jam 050715
 

no email rec'd here yet. Did you find this via one of the social media channels?

Re: Leipzig Warehouse Jam 050715
 

from the Underworld Drift group. but I went and checked my spam mail and it was there.

Re: Leipzig Warehouse Jam 050715
 

cheers! had gone to my junk box too.

Re: Leipzig Warehouse Jam 050715
 

It's not Flatz, but some interstitial piece (including the beats) that was played quite often in the Riverrun period, and is probably a Darren Price composition.

There are tons of gigs you could hear it at, for example, after the end of Juanita at the 5 Days Off festival.

After the Dark Train chorus, there are a couple other "improv" pieces from that era. The airy dissonant chords were played before Rowla at Live in Tokyo, and I believe it was later used in Sunshine or maybe a demo for Sunshine. I haven't been able to track that down yet. And then just as it fades out, you can hear the Chant thing which would make appearances here and there, for example in the 2005 Christmas radio show and right before Pearl's Girl in the 2006 radio show.

As for the timing, this was one day before playing Melt Festival on July 16, 2005, at Grafenhainichen, Germany, just outside Leipzig. Did they just break into a warehouse somewhere, or did they rent it out or something?

Re: Leipzig Warehouse Jam 050715
 

Nice! Love the improv, as well as Karl's grooving on guitar during "Twist".
These recent World of Underworld/inter-Drift live jams have been reminders of how blessed we have been through the years with radio shows/live improvisations/works in progress. How many bands give you this much of the process or evolve so much over the years?

Re: Leipzig Warehouse Jam 050715
 

Fantastic stuff. Those were the days, eh? Live I mean.... loving Drift

Re: Leipzig Warehouse Jam 050715
 

Another wonderful release. Will all of these improv jams be part of the Drift Songs Boxset? If so, I will be very eager to get that version of the release.

Re: Leipzig Warehouse Jam 050715
 

i doubt any of these old tracks, live gigs will be part of anything new or released.

they don't fit in with the drift project.

later
-1

Re: Leipzig Warehouse Jam 050715
 

Yeah, I've been archiving these inter-Drift jams/throwbacks as "World of Underworld". Assume they are just to tide over the diehards between new Drift tracks. Still, very glad to hear them.

Is there a chance that, by digging through the old live improvs, R&K would become inspired to return to improving in the current shows? One can hope. But given the wealth of new material, especially certified bangers like "Listen to their No" and "Border Country", maybe this is what we get for revitalized setlists. No complaints. I've seen them live and with plenty of improv, and have all those boots to enjoy hearing. Glad they are still creating, is all I need.

P.s. got to thinking, how many bands have the longevity and creative juices as Underworld? The Rolling Stones and the Who continue to exist, but nothing groundbreaking in forever. Chemical Brothers, Orbital, Prodigy, Moby, Left field, FSOL...early nineties bands that are still kicking out good stuff. But UW (r&k partnership) has them beat by a cool decade.

Re: Leipzig Warehouse Jam 050715
 

that makes me hopefull :D

Re: Leipzig Warehouse Jam 050715
 

Tracklist?

[00] Underworld - Mmm Skyscraper I Love You
[13] Underworld - ? (what IS that jam? its at the end of the Back In The Fears track on the Tokyo 2005 CD)
[18] Underworld - Juanita
[30] Underworld - Twist
[37] Underworld - ?

Re: Leipzig Warehouse Jam 050715
 

Look, I love Leftfield, I really do, but they've released 3 proper albums in about 20 years, and two of them are pretty patchy to say the least

Re: Leipzig Warehouse Jam 050715
 

not even remotely in the same genre but They Might be Giants have been around since '82 and they spent both 2015 and 2018 doing the same "song a week" thing that UW is doing now, except they actually wrote 52 songs. and most of 'em are pretty good too.

Re: Leipzig Warehouse Jam 050715
 

In terms of just sheer volume of material released in crazy formats/online over the years, the only thing I can think of that comes close to Underworld is Nine Inch Nails or Radiohead. That They Might Be Giants stuff sounds really fun too.

Re: Leipzig Warehouse Jam 050715
 

FSOL's FSOLDigital releases have been fairly eclectic and, at times, way too much to take in. Tons of new aliases for new styles experimented with, lots of archive stuff, '90s radio shows, they've been running a Calendar Album thing for a few years now that pops a new track into your inbox every month. Most of their physical releases and books come with download-only bonus EPs.

Back in the '90s they talked about not releasing albums and just having a permanent line from their studio broadcasting to the internet. And their first release was in 1987, so they're heading into veteran level now haha.

Re: Leipzig Warehouse Jam 050715
 

The Flaming Lips have been going since the mid 80s and have continued to put out new music that cuts in all sorts of directions. The Orb deserves more of a mention than many of the more popular 90s electronic acts. Can't forget about Aphex Twin, though RDJ fell off the map for 15 years.

I think UW is more consistent and consistently on point than any others listed outside the Chems, and UW's sound is certainly more diverse and nuanced than the Chems tend to be.



Back on the main topic, what an incredible recording. I'm trying not to get my hopes up by reading to far into "we should do this more often," but I can't help myself. Would be quite the treat for those open to close shows they are planning...

Re: Leipzig Warehouse Jam 050715
 

Contemporaneous diary entry at the time of this rehearsal jam:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dirty_...7600828073449/

It's nice that it got some kind of release.
And it was all filmed? Add that to the list of things to wish for.

Re: Leipzig Warehouse Jam 050715
 

"I'm sorry some of you aren't feeling the improvs as much as you'd like"

How sad to read that part with Karl apologizing to the morons complaining about them improving, which is literally the best part of their sets. Some folk have no taste and gotta ruin it for the rest of us, I guess.