KINGS HALL, BELFAST
SATURDAY 6 OCTOBER 2007
Doors 7.00pm. Tickets are £25.00 (plus booking fee and subject to credit card charges and the commissions of Ticketmaster and it’s agents) and are available across the counter from all Ticketmaster outlets, online at www.ticketmaster.ie , and on their 24 hour booking line on 0870 243 4455
When Underworld released their last album “A Hundred Days off ” no one thought it would be nearly 2000 days until the next one arrived. It hasn’t been a case of lazing around in the Essex countryside though as the last 5 years have thrown up the 1992-2002 anthology album, two major film scores (Anthony MingellasÂ’ “Breaking and Entering” and Danny BoylesÂ’ 2007 “Sunshine”), a self-published typographic journal “In The Belly of Saint Paul”, a series of pioneering digital-only releases, internet-radio broadcasts, a groundbreaking live web-tv broadcast and gig in partnership with Apple and FrankfurtsÂ’ techno giants Cocoon and countless gigs around the world.
During all of this action Rick and Karl, with the aid of trusty laptops, a couple of home studios, Abbey RoadsÂ’ legendary facilities and a Pig Shed, have been carefully developing ideas for the new album “Oblivion with Bells”, an album that was finally completed in a flurry of activity and excitement in spring 2007.
True to form Underworld tread their own path through modern electronic music tipping a nod to current sounds, styles and production techniques but never afraid to let their song writing and musicianship shine out in this digital world.
“Oblivion with Bells” draws heavily on Rick and KarlsÂ’ vast array of musical influences (Nick Drake, Def Mix, Ricardo Villalobos, Can, James Holden, Eno) and experiences performing worldwide to create a truly unique Underworld journey. The album kicks off like Saturday night with Sven Väth, Simian Mobile Disco and Frankie Knuckles all fighting to get on the decks, then takes you over the flat fields of rural Essex, through Kings Cross with its olympic dreams and piss stained alleys, ending blissed out in a hidden cove in Ibiza. Epic techno nestles next to frail acoustics, beatific prose next to sharp urban observation, amazing sound texturing mixed with mobile phone recordings, rarely has the Underworld palette been so rich.
The Summer of 2007 sees Underworld playing a handful of European festival dates (where you can expect new material to be debuted along side deep grooves and some classics from the Underworld jukebox) ahead of their tour, which kicks off in North America in September.
www.underworldlive.com