HARDHOUND

Underworld – Barking

Author: Colin | Published: 6/11/10

Underworld - Barking

Underworld - Barking

Underworld - Barking

Underworld - Barking

Underworld - Barking

Underworld - Barking

Underworld - Barking

Underworld - Barking

Underworld - Barking

Underworld - Barking

Artist Underworld
Title Barking
Label Cooking Vinyl
Year 2010
Design Art direction, photographs and paintings by John Warwicker, Tomato
Music Techno/Dance/Vocal
Desktop Download image
Listen Underworld – Scribble:

Notes Underworld’s connection with left-field design agency Tomato is well-documented. That relationship has resulted in a number of challengingly abstract, monochromatic cover designs that are defiantly anti-taste and as attitude-rich as Karl Hyde’s curated stream-of-consciousness engagement with Greater London and its environs – Underworld are the chroniclers of this contemporary metropolis par-excellence.

The brilliantly titled Barking (second only in the title stakes to the unbeatably moniker’ed Second Toughest In The Infants) goes all technicolour on us while retaining the anti-design aesthetic of previous releases. With latter-day Underworld much sunnier in its disposition, the bright colours make a lot of sense. Bright may be an understatement though: there are times when you can hear the colour without looking at it. It’s as visually noisy and unruly as a shopping street on a Saturday morning.

This is the deluxe version of the album and the physical packaging is great, consisting of a sturdy 10″ slipcase with a hardbound book containing the discs and a multi-page glossy attachment in magazine format. There’s a second CD of alternate mixes/sketches that are enjoyable if inevitably less impressive than the final versions, as well as a DVD of films for each of the album’s songs which are ultimately a little disappointing.

At an Amazon price of £30 it’s an affordable deluxe edition which better suits the idea of the industrialised democracy of music presentation than the increasingly ubiquitous limited and highly expensive editions.

Below:
– Dubnobasswithmyheadman (1994)
– Crocodile (2007)
– Second Toughest In The Infants, vinyl (1996)
– Oblivion With Bells (2007)


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