[Dunwho]

Hello all... Been a while!

First couple of full listens this week. Overall I am positive - think its a really confident release with a strong direction and lots of the different directions they've been going in since OWB seem to be resolving into a clear Underworld (Mk.4?) sound.

Main positives:
Ottavia is a triumph of an experiment. It has such drama in both the reading and the music. I really enjoy listening to it an imagining the stage performance.

They appear to have landed on a progressive techno sound which I personally really enjoy. At its core most songs have a central groove or melody/pattern that they grown and augment throughout. I think of Rowla, Moaner, Spoonman in those instances... But on top of this they've seem to have resolved a sound they developed for Barking and BB which has this more refined structure that is bass melody driven. Barking was a very confident album in a direction I really disliked (chorus/verse pop type consumable tunes) and this seems like a confident thrust in a different direction. An experimental, dance focused experience that I can imagine would be fantastic to hear live.

Negatives:
I think it is too long and the balance of bangers to the fore and more experimental to the back is not my favourite. I feel the album could have ended with Ottavia and by then i start to get quite tired... With a 9 min trance tune still to come I found it just dragged a bit. Felt like a full album and then 4-5 bonus tracks. I'd almost cut out 2-3 tracks and bring forward some of the songs near the end to break up the energy slightly.

But overall I really like it.

Let me try and place it:
1. STITI
2. DUBNO
3. BF
4. OWB
5. SH
6. AHDO
7. BB
8. Drift
9. Barking

Was not sure to include drift there... 'd almost also include rhe riverrun series then... But i'd love to just emphasise how bottom of the list of everything Barking is.. its right down there... Underneath the Radar is higher than barking in my book.