Drift Ep. 2...wishes and predictions

[joethelion]

Originally Posted by potatobroth

came here for this. wasnt disappointed.

Well, I thought someone had to bring it up... again.

[holden]

Ok, so...first track out is extended "Appleshine", a downtempo piece we'd heard parts of before. Definitely a beautiful track in it's full form, with new (to us) vocals and coda.

Wondering: more ambient tracks to follow, or is this the calm before the storm?

Also, I believe that this is the first Drift track to have a standalone download. Wonder if this is the new norm (hey, we've asked) of weekly downloads, or if some of EP. 2 will be streams only and then collated into an EP for sale some weeks hence?

[TheBang]

I'd guess the styles are probably still going to be a mix like Ep. 1. I do think Border Country will show up.

Another Silent Way had a standalone download (paid). But the rest were all video only. I expect Ep. 2 will probably be the same. Videos, maybe some SoundCloud, and then a release for purchase when the full EP is done.

[TheBang]

Interesting tidbit I found in the bio text for Sonar:

https://sonar.es/en/2019/artists/underworld

Their latest project, Drift, is a self defined “journey without a fixed destination” consisting of 5 EP’s (and possibly an album) to be released over the course of a year.

Some quick math, if we say each Episode takes about 6 weeks to release, that's 30 out of 52 weeks. So that leaves about 5 weeks between each episode for World of Underworld releases.

[holden]

Now that is very interesting! Fun to know what we might be in store for in the future.

[purlieu]

The question is whether that album will be something new, or a 'best of' compilation of the EPs.

[holden]

Will tomorrow's release be the long-awaited "Border Country"? After the curveballs of ep. 2 thus far, what do you think is in store?

[dubman]

Listening to EP2 on the walk to work this morning and...
I dont think we're getting physical releases of this.

now familiar with rick's process of 31 alternate versions of any particular track combined with this being a "very public experiment" mirroring riverrun, i don't see how they would end up releasing these as an album without first messing around, perhaps drastically, with tracks that previously cohered in less than a day.
plus they've always thought about formats that were not only non-album, but non-physical. sometimes the finished work belongs best on a digital medium (a la autechre's elseq). the physical isn't necessarily canon.
these are meant to be enjoyed for what they are, these EPs aren't necessarily building towards something, they are the moment. Whether we get a statement via album from all of this seems like one possible idea instead of the goal.


Though I hope, considering the universally positive feedback, that they don't mess with them toooo much if we do see an album out of it

[holden]

... i agree with you, dubman, and i'm okay with it all.

If Drift tracks are just "of the moment/of the time" sketches, that's fine with me. They are collated into episodes for some reason and we are getting to hear/enjoy regardless of physical release. Since we're getting free mp3 downloads for Ep.2, i think you're right that this is much less likely for physical release. Maybe the conclusion will have different versions for sale?

If certain Drift tracks get re-released, i am confident that Rick and Karl will pick those they most appreciate and clean them up to their level of perfection. I'm guessing that if a physical version appears, it will be sufficiently different from the previous versions to justify a sale.

[purlieu]

I'm absolutely, all-for digital-only releases of this kind of stuff. It's what it's all about, it's totally up-to-date, it's the version of Underworld that fits in perfectly with 2019 in a way that a lot of their contemporaries don't.

I'm also sad about it because my listening largely comes from looking at my shelves and picking out things I want to listen to. But I suppose there's nothing to stop me burning a disc of it all, which is a nice bonus.