Electronic duo Underworld have teamed up with rock legend Iggy Pop to release a new four-song EP, Teatime Dub Encounters, via Caroline International. You can stream and purchase the album here.
The EP came about from ‘a few clandestine hotel room recording sessions’ commenced shortly after the two had each released their last albums coincidentally on the same day in 2016. They first met during the Underworld-produced sessions for the Trainspotting 2 soundtrack, which features a Prodigy cover of the Iggy classic ‘Lust For Life‘.
The record is opened by the lead single, ‘Bells And Circles’, released back in late May. See the track below.
A truly strange and compelling song, ‘Bells and Circles’ sees Iggy Pop delivering a spoken-word sermon over a relentless, heavily compressed drum figure for over seven minutes. With a semi-wasted and half-serious delivery, Iggy wonders what he would do ‘if [he] had wings’, weaving an intriguing tale from his cocaine-addled past with a short history lesson on the mafia tactics of Fidel Castro’s regime. ‘I’d do all the dangerous things, those things you can’t do’, Iggy says, like smoking on aeroplanes (on which he reflects for over half the song). Giving some semblance of normality, the song breaks four times into a jubilant, melodic chorus.
Best known for his proto-punk work with the Stooges in the late ’60s and early ’70s, the new EP is quite a sudden change in direction for Iggy, who turned 71 this year. The sound is recognisably Underworld, though, who shot to fame in the 1990s with their album Second Toughest in the Infants, which added an experimental edge to the booming electronic-club scene. The group are best known for their 1995 single, ‘Born Slippy‘, which was featured in the closing scene of Danny Boyle’s critically-acclaimed film Trainspotting.
The new EP is Iggy’s first release since his 2016 album, Post Pop Depression, which was produced by Queens of the Stone Age vocalist Josh Homme. Hailed as the band’s best album in years, Underworld’s Barbara Barbara, we face a shining future was released on the same day.
Underworld are making an appearance next week at the All Together Now festival in Waterford, Ireland, and will be headlining at the Warehouse Project in Manchester in November. Get your tickets here.
Teatime Dub Encounters – out now
