When's it gonna stop? When are artists who I formerly loved gonna stop
putting out terrible albums?
First it was Autechre going complete abstract wankery with Confield, then
Jack Dangers puts out that EP with nothing but his B material, then Speedy J
puts out a cd of some of the most un-brave sequence of loops after a career
of producing nothing but brave music, and now Underworld.
Their new cd A Hundred Days Off may or may not be out in stores yet. Either
way, it's crap. It seems they got all the good music out of 'em in their
past three albums. This new one is all all total Euro-cheese disco techno
shit that you expect to hear at a shopping mall. Gone are all the hard, dark
edges and all the hookiness of Beaucoup Fish, gone is the journey through
the songs of Second Toughest...and Dubnobass..., gone are all the textures,
gone are all the interesting bits.
I suppose in a live context some of these songs will be fun. On cd they fall
flat, especially the couple of really slow "groovy" downtempo numbers.
If you like their early 12"s for JBO (the MMM Skyscraper... one with 4
versions, the Rez 12"), then you might like the new album. For me, it's sad
to say, but the album is worthless.
What's next- will Gridlock put out an album of all 12 bar blues standards?
Will Not Breathing go reggae?