DRIFT Series 2 speculation

[Mike]

Originally Posted by khouri

That said, it seems unlikely Rick and Karl have just been idle.

I agree - it would be surprising if there has been nothing happening creatively. I'm sure they are not holding back any creative output for ego sake, but I am glad they are not jumping on the "lockdown set" bandwagon. After all they were doing it 15 years ago... before COVID-19 existed.

Reading this also made me think about how some of Underworld's creative output has been ahead of it's time, pushing the boundaries of what is possible.

Just some examples:

"Experimental Sound Field" an experiment in audio engineering and resilience in live jamming.

Band updates by Fax:


underworldlive.com - Seeing how the internet could work for them - especially very early days with text / videos diaries / music downloads

Everything, Everything - A superbly engineered live show, and taking advantage of what the DVD format had to offer above a "video" with programable playlists, 2 video "angles" with completely different visuals and additional content available online.

Riverrun - Selling digital downloads on their own store? Was anyone else doing this back then?

Live radio shows and jams from the studio 2004 - 2009 - streaming online... who else was doing it then?

DRIFT - Releasing 5+ hours of new music in 1 year - challenging the traditional album concept - and then they fulfil us with snippets of the past and new versions of old gems in between chapters.

Reflecting on this would probably make a good article on borndirty one day.

[purlieu]

Originally Posted by Mike

Live radio shows and jams from the studio 2004 - 2009 - streaming online... who else was doing it then?

Probably not many, although it's worth remembering that FSOL started doing that kind of thing in 1994.

[khouri]

I could be mistaken but I’m pretty sure the very first person to sell a digital download song was David Bowie, but possibly Prince?

[joethelion]

Originally Posted by khouri

I could be mistaken but I’m pretty sure the very first person to sell a digital download song was David Bowie, but possibly Prince?

I think it's all down to how it's phrased:

Because Duran Duran claim to have released the "internet's first-ever digital single for sale" ... but that was in September 1997, and Bowie's "Telling Lies" came out as a digital single in September 1996 - a full year earlier, albeit as a free download.

However, I don't know if you could technically call Bowie's "Telling Lies" 'a digital single' because they released a new remix each week, for three weeks. So, I guess it comes down to - whether or not you consider the staggered release as negating "the single" ...but then again, the downloads eventually were released in physical format as well.

Prince might've been the first to have exclusive releases available online? (Does that sound right?) ...Or he may have been the first (or one of the first) major performers to release an album as a download.

So maybe it was just that Duran Duran were the first to charge for a digital single.