Underworld & Iggy Pop - Teatime Dub Encounters (New EP: releases July 27th, 2018)

[holden]

It makes me kind of sad that there's not more hype and discussion about this. A new Underworld EP! What more could a fan ask for?(rhetorical question!)

Is it the Iggy Pop involvement/vocals that's lessening the excitement?

Is it the semi-blah "World of Underworld" launch that has underwhelmed?

Yeah, it's not 1997 anymore, but I'm personally still excited by new UW tunes. These two cuts from the EP, well... they're musically very UW and welcome. But lyrically, a bit off putting. But I'm trying to approach this EP as a side project, in the spirit of T2's themes, and just like a soundtrack, it's fine on it's own, but not really what makes UW tick.

I don't really mind either of Pop's rants/recollections after numerous plays. I get the feeling (especially from the intro hot mic words on Big) that Rick set up a recorder and Iggy just gushed whatever nonsense, then they edited it to fit the tracks. Or maybe they played the music while Pop spouted extemporaneously, for inspiration. Either way, like it or not, R&K likely chose what words to include.

Part of me wonders ( and this was probably brought up before with Bells and Circles), if Karl had spoken the same dialog, would we be more forgiving? More embracing of "edgy" new streams of consciousness/notebook documentation?