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Review

To celebrate their 30th year together, UNDERWORLD return triumphantly with their first new album in almost three years.  "Barking" is the duo's sixth studio album and the first time Karl Hyde and Rick Smith have collaborated with other producers. The record enlists the help of techno wizards MARK KNIGHT and D. RAMIREZ ("Always Loved a Film", "Between Stars") plus a whole cast of brilliant and like-minded producers from across the spectrum of modern dance music, each adding personal touches to the band's original material. Enter Welsh drum'n'bass artist HIGH CONTRAST ("Scribble", "Moon in Water"), four-time Grammy winner DUBFIRE ("Bird 1", "Grace"), Bristol-based dubstep producers APPLEBLIM and AL TOURETTES ("Hamburg Hotel"), plus long term UNDERWORLD team member DARREN PRICE ("Between Stars").

The question is, with such a glittering cast of extras, how does it actually sound?  From the first undulating pulses of submariner bass, the first vocals - soft like a whisper in the ear - and the first fizz of hi-hats that force along the pace, the sound is unmistakably UNDERWORLD. Electronics wrapped effortlessly around songs; streams of consciousness lyrics that form indelible images; a perfectly balanced mix of melody and rhythm. UNDERWORLD's sixth studio album is a thundering return to form, although it's fair to say that the band responsible have never really been below par. Like the bomb on the Icarus II in Sunshine, this new process of working had the effect of not so much reigniting a creativity within the band as exploding it into myriad new fragments. And through all of this, brilliantly and uniquely, it sounds just like UNDERWORLD.

So, thirty years in and by working with a series of handpicked co-conspirators you make the best album of your career? It was a long shot, but for UNDERWORLD in 2010, maybe playing away was just the trick.  This just leaves the question of who they'll get into bed with next time. Roll on album seven.

Format

CD+DVD Digipak

Tracklisting

Disc 1 - CD:-
01. Bird 1 (click to listen)
02. Always Loved a Film (click to listen)
03. Scribble (click to listen)
04. Hamburg Hotel (click to listen)
05. Grace (click to listen)
06. Between Stars (click to listen)
07. Diamond Jigsaw (click to listen)
08. Moon in Water (click to listen)
09. Louisiana (click to listen)

Disc 2 - DVD:-
01. Bird 1
02. Always Loved a Film
03. Scribble
04. Hamburg Hotel
05. Grace
06. Between Stars
07. Diamond Jigsaw
08. Moon in Water
09. Louisiana

Record Label

Cooking Vinyl

Release date

13th Sep 2010