Monday's Long Song

Underworld's latest single came out last week, an eight minute epic that contains everything that is good about them, a song that sounds like classic Underworld, more of the same perhaps but when your same is this good why not give more of it? Denver Luna opens with warm and wobbly synths and Karl's voice, layered and FXed declaring 'strawberry jam girl'. There's a pause, an inhalation of breath maybe and then a kick drum kicks in... and we're off. 

What follows is brightly coloured forward momentum, a psychedelic blur of synths, drums, rushing, whooshing sounds and Karl's endless lists and non- sequiturs, occasional breakdowns and re- entries and the sound of a duo who haven't given up but are moving onwards. The Drift project seemed to re- energise them, find a new way to be Underworld and now they are right back in the groove. I sometimes think of their music as being like a train, one of those Japanese bullet trains, speeding through the night, lights flashing past in the blackness of the windows, speed and progression, rushing forth and going somewhere, very linear music. This is all of that and more. The acapella section in the fifth minute, Karl's multi- tracked voices symphonic, on the borderland between melancholy and euphoria, is superb. 

'Sleeping girl/ Kiss the animal... siren siren... stonewashed jean man... pizza sermon... the satellite is coming... reflection flection inflection connection...'