DRIFT Series 1 - New album, Nov 1, 2019

[TheBang]

This has leaked. Just starting to go through it now. So far:

Another Silent Way and Low Between Zebras are the same as the EP, except they're not segued into each other. A Very Silent Way is the same as on the EP.

Dexter's Chalk has a longer, non-segued ending, and that is also still a different ending from the film version. Also, the lyric "atishoo, atishoo" starting at 2:00 has been truncated (thanks, potatobroth).

Universe of Can When Back gets the most changes from Episode 1, and I don't think it's for the better. They've added an industrial steam hissing sound (which I like) that comes up periodically starting at 3:19. Lewis' crazy sax contribution (one of my favorite parts) has been significantly truncated. It no longer comes in at 3:05, but later at 3:36. From 4:05, the entire ending diverges, and there is a small violin bit at the very end that was not previously heard.

Another Silent Way / Drift Poem / Better Than Diamonds includes "you and me, nothing's a drag" near the end, but not in the same way as heard on the Reykjavik teaser. It includes a different Drift Poem passage from Matthew Trevannion. It also has the harmonizing chorus voices as heard in the Drift trailer that had not been released yet. I'm not sure if those chorus voices are part of Better Than Diamonds or Another Silent Way. Karl says "better than diamonds" a lot at the end. It also has Ooooo’s that are like the ones heard in Pinetum.

Brilliant Yes That Would Be gains a new extended coda, which has a different texture since it uses a piano instead of synth, but still fits the mood.

If Brilliant Yes That Would Be is melancholic, then One True Piano Need Hand is its brooding, sinister cousin.

[dubman]

Originally Posted by TheBang

Universe of Can When Back gets the most changes from Episode 1, and I don't think it's for the better. They've added an industrial steam hissing sound (which I like) that comes up periodically starting at 3:19. Lewis' crazy sax contribution (one of my favorite parts) has been significantly truncated. It no longer comes in at 3:05, but later at 3:36. .

when I say I'll never fully understand this band....

damn it.

[TheBang]

Originally Posted by dubman

when I say I'll never fully understand this band....

damn it.

The great thing about this process is that we'll always have the previous versions, if that's what we prefer.

Originally Posted by dubman

Hell of a thing to try listening to it as a stand-alone. Almost wanna make a thread on how perception changes from what an album is expected to be, and how these tracks were revealed to us. I’m almost certain I would have a different reaction to these tracks if this was presented traditionally, which I think is the point of their frustrations with the format!

That was definitely going through my mind as I was trying to grind through the box set analysis, especially the new tracks. Trying to listen to and absorb all the new tracks was very much like listening to a new album for the first time. And it was in stark contrast to the way we got all the other tracks, getting a week to digest it by itself on its own merits and then evaluate it again later as part of a larger collection, and then maybe within the context of a curated collection (the sampler).

[dubman]

Originally Posted by TheBang

That was definitely going through my mind as I was trying to grind through the box set analysis, especially the new tracks. Trying to listen to and absorb all the new tracks was very much like listening to a new album for the first time. And it was in stark contrast to the way we got all the other tracks, getting a week to digest it by itself on its own merits and then evaluate it again later as part of a larger collection, and then maybe within the context of a curated collection (the sampler).

A question I kept asking myself as I was trying to sequence an alternate album out of all this was if it made sense on the continuum of previous underworld albums. was it something I’d expect from them after not hearing a thing in 3 years, and not just “dubman’s favorite tracks” (even though it was absolutely kind of that). I already knew most of these inside out, so trying to dissolve parts of that familiarity to make my best plausible underworld album of 2019 took pretty much all day.
“Big bear can’t be second. I know you wanna hear it ASAP but big bear’s not a second-track track. It’s a punchy number in the last third”
“You WILL have a long middle one and you WILL make it flow right on either side of it. Now step back and see if it makes actual sense with the rest”
“I know you thought Seven Drone Music would be the perfect closer but it’s not quite closing. It needs a short... something... to bring it over. Like what ‘Witness’ does in Lovely Broken Thing”
ALL. DAY.
I got there though.

...I think