Autumn 2010 and the arrival of Underworld's sixth studio album – Barking – sees the band perform a feat of creative regeneration once again and with that three UK tour dates have been confirmed at London’s O2 Academy Brixton, Manchester Academy and Glasgow Barrowlands this November.
As before, a little outside encouragement has acted as spark to the band's creative flame. From the first shuddering machine pulses of opener Bird 1, clearly this music is from a band reborn.
Pioneering musically and questing lyrically, Underworld have forced the pace of electronic music since their Lazarus-like resurrection in the early '90s. The band's first album as a trio (with Darren Emerson, a young DJ who lived in the next street in Romford), Dubnobasswithmyheadman, was met with the kind of plaudits reserved for the upper- echelons of rock royalty. The result of several years returning and refocusing, Dubnobass offered Underworld a kiss of life that other bands so far into their career can only fantasise about. Over the next fifteen years, the band plotted a course that took them from cult status curio selling 500 singles out of the back of a van to soundtracking summer after summer as festival headliners the world over; from conducting sonic experiments for subterranean dancefloors to scoring movies for directors Danny Boyle and the late Anthony Minghella.
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. Just leaves the question of who they'll get into bed with next time. Roll on album seven.
To see Underworld live:
Saturday 20th November
London O2 Academy Brixton – 0844 477 2000
Thursday 25th November
Manchester Academy – 0161 832 1111
Friday 26th November
Glasgow Barrowlands – 0844 499 9990
Tickets are £22.50 regional (£26.50 London)
Tickets now on sale
Available at link / 24 hr hotline 0844 811 0051