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"Oblivion with Bells" by Underworld
Label: Side One Recordings
Release Date: October 16, 2007
Check out the predecessor to Oblivion with Bells with Webjockey Flur's Rifflist, "'A Hundred Days Off' by Underworld."
Lush in its layers, Underworld's latest release, "Oblivion with Bells" is one to impress both audiophiles with its sound design, and club-heads just looking for a groove. For long time fans who have been waiting five long, long years for this album, they'll find plenty to dissect and get psyched about; amid the expected big drums, Rick Smith and Karl Hyde have hidden plenty of Easter eggs ranging from slide flutes to cell phone recordings. That Underworld, in their half-decade long hiatus, has been inspired from a variety of mediums (they've kept busy with everything from film scores to internet radio) is evident immediately.
This album is exceptionally easy to listen to. While it could be seen as a drawback that there is no standout, big single (except perhaps for "Beautiful Burnout"), it's a welcome relief to find an album that spans solid from start to end, instead of having only the occasional 99cent highlighted track.
Some dissent on that point may arrive after a listen to "Holding the Moth" or "Ring Road." The two most challenging listens, they rely heavily on repetition and an almost tribal chanting. Overall, however, there's a vast and varied array covered here. The album's two opening tracks "Crocodile" and "Beautiful Burnout" stretch from the sun to the subterranean. Songs like "Glam Bucket" stay dark, while others like the unworldly and futuristic "To Heal" show the group's appeal to a director like Danny Boyle.
If Oblivion with Bells is only the beginning of several steps in a new direction for this surprisingly progressive group, then we can only wait to see what else Underworld will bring to the surface.
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