Anything, Anything?

[holden]

Hey folks,
So, other than the dubno anniversary, has anyone heard any news from the Underworld front regarding new music? Karl posted in his diary a few week's back that he was rehearsing with UW, but that may have been for one of the rare festival gigs or dubno anniversary gig...

Yeah, it was about 5 years between AHDO and OWB, but here we are, going on 4 since Barking...

[jetpig]

There's been a couple diary mentions of writing with UW, but that's about it. Its a bummer that they're keeping so tightly to themselves.

[qirex]

I logged in just to say I got a kick out of your topic title.

Here's hoping we get some new UW!

[crank]

Originally Posted by holden

Hey folks,
So, other than the dubno anniversary, has anyone heard any news from the Underworld front regarding new music? Karl posted in his diary a few week's back that he was rehearsing with UW, but that may have been for one of the rare festival gigs or dubno anniversary gig...

Yeah, it was about 5 years between AHDO and OWB, but here we are, going on 4 since Barking...

There was also some recording with the lead singer from Foals.

[lemonjelly]

Just announced as one of the live acts on bbc live at maida vale in october.

[superdave]

Originally Posted by qirex

I logged in just to say I got a kick out of your topic title.

Here's hoping we get some new UW!

ditto!!

[purlieu]

Really fascinating entry to Karl's diary today... looks like thinking about UW going forward is very much on his mind...

I don’t want to write ‘lyrics’ anymore, or ‘sing’ them,
or inflict them on good music. I’m tired of ‘vocals’,
bored with most singers & repelled by ‘frontmen’ who are
conscious of their identity.
Having been an abuser of all these at some point for years
I have come to a fork in the road – carry on doing things
the same or try to change? Change, doesn’t come easy
& there are no schools or night classes one can
attend in order to expand one’s mind, nor shops at
which to buy new tools & skills. Other ‘singers’
I have spoken to in the past have all expressed
enthusiasm for exchanging experiences & ideas,
but none maintain anything like the rigour nor sustained
dedication I crave for an open & continuous dialogue between
passionate & creative people. All too often their genuine
enthusiasm is set aside for the next scheduled record, delivered
in a style that perpetuates their image of themselves – I’m
tired of that process.

When UW MKII was first brought together by Rick there
was no place for ‘singers’, ‘lyricists’ or ‘frontmen’.
The industry rejected our music with an instruction
to ‘get rid of the singer if we wanted to make
dance music or get a drummer if we wanted to keep
the singer’. There was no place for me within that
current industry mindset & had it not been for Rick’s
open-minded willingness to experiment with the
‘idea of voice’, his skill in integrating ‘voice as a
sound source’ plus my desire to relinquish ‘singer traditions’
& be open to change UW would be a very different entity.

In revisiting UW of twenty years ago for the ‘Dubnobass..’
re-issue I’ve immersed myself in the mind-set of
twenty-year-younger-Hyde , the thoughts, influences, fears &
insecurities that drove him to break with his own myopic traditions
& try working without a safety net in order to bring what he did
to the studio for Rick to then create what remains the first of
my two favourite UW albums (‘Second Toughest…’ being the other).
I’m ashamed to say, I turned back into a version of the very thing
we were rejecting back then – a ‘singer-frontman-lyricist’.

My friends ‘Efterklang’ recently decided to continue as, but
stop, ‘being Efterklang’ in order that they might not become
a cartoon of themselves & I applaud them for what some may call
bravery, others stupidity, which to me is common sense.

As artist, people who live by creating new things, we have
to keep changing or our art shrivels up, becomes ‘imitation’,
a memento of a brand, a keep-sake, a souvenir fridge magnet.

I love words, love making sounds with my voice & love
using these things in public performance & the more ‘live’
the better! I have no idea where the other fork in the road
goes, I do, however, know where the ‘safe’ road leads
& I don’t want to travel it any more.

I'm inferring from this the very 'songy' aspect to Barking in particular; the fact there are few if any unusual vocals on it, compared with stuff like Cowgirl, Nuxx, even Faxed Invitation, etc. etc. - which pleases me, as I love Karl's hugely varied approach to vocals throughout their discography, which I something I definitely missed on Barking.

[jetpig]

We can take that even further and look at his explorations as a frontman in Edgelands and doing traditional vocals with Eno on those two albums. Seeing this I'd be surprised if Edgelands got a followup.

[khouri]

Karl seems dismayed in the text but if he's the sort of artist I think he is, he'll chalk this all up to a net gain. It's only by creating and experimenting that you can come to any conclusion, positive or negative, and that's how you take the next step. I know Karl has talked a lot in the past about always moving forward and never looking back, but the path of life and art is sometimes shaped like a loop and there is value in that, like the sense of epiphany he seems to be expressing.

As for the specific thoughts about singing and vocals. That is why Underworld is the best home for Karl. It's where anything is possible, as we've seen/heard.

[negative1]

i think its an odd thing to say.

wonder why they don't mention the riverrun series of tracks.

i think those are the best post-dubno tracks and much better
than a lot of the tracks before and afterwards.

later
-1