Quote:
Originally Posted by khouri
Obviously I can't know exactly how Rick's new gear works but based on what I heard and observed, it seems like he is triggering and manipulating all the sounds live just like he used to -- but I'm honestly at a loss as to what end. If the goal is to reproduce the album arrangements as closely as possible, you hardly need to go through that trouble. I also think that it's no longer possible to segue between tracks. The segue between Ova Nova and Nylon Strung was such a hard cut that I suspect only one Ableton session is being loaded into the console at a time, and Darren just activated it on the beat.
Again, I can't presume to know what Rick's thinking is, but the end result is a distinctly not-live Underworld Live. Very few surprises, no flow from one song to another, no "conversation" as Karl has described it. These shows are really electronic music recitals -- of uncommonly brilliant songs, no doubt -- but recitals nonetheless. Whereas not even ten years ago, on the Oblivion tour was brimming with inspiration, unpredictability and sonic bliss. I just don't get what the appeal is of this style of performance to the band or to the audience.
That said, the crowd loved it and the guys seemed overjoyed, so maybe I'm just not keeping up with whatever's happening.
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I have to say I fully agree with this. While I thoroughly enjoyed this show in Amsterdam a couple of weeks ago, I could not help but wonder what happened to the improvisation, the mixing and the surprises. Of course it was not really a surprise as they've been playing like this since the Barking tour but still...
Rick and Karl still tend to emphasize this improvisational aspect of Underworld live in interviews, but in reality it's all but dissapeared. The new tracks all sound virtually identical to the album versions when played live and Dark Train, Push, KOS, Nuxx, TMO etc, while always great to experience live, also don't really have anything new to them in this tour.
I also don't understand why they don't mix the tracks together at all. I find it hard to believe the technology of today doesn't allow for it, while technology 20 years ago did. It must be a conscious decision by Rick but as you say I cannot fathom the rationale behind it. To me, all the pauses between the tracks take away the momentum and some of the most exiting bits in UW live history were the moments in between the tracks. The anticipation of not knowing what track was gonna come next, and hearing elements from different tracks combined into new pieces.
Yes now they have Ring Road/Minneapolis wich works really well, and the new Dirty Club. But these combinations have been decided beforehand, and are not the result of spontanious live improvisation.
On top of that, Karl doesn't play any live guitar anymore at all, which is a crime especially on 8-Ball, and there's not much visual elements to the show anymore. No Green Laser (tm), no falling inflatable balls during Nuxx, no inflatable towers on stage, no Tomato visuals (well there's some visuals but it's really just the track titles)...
So in the end "all" that's left is hearing a collection of awesome tracks played really slick on a really loud soundsystem, and Rick and Karl seem to be really into it again. And that's great, but as a long time fan, and looking back at the history of their live show, it is frustrating because I can't fully understand why they do it this way.