Pitchfork Forkcast: Premiere: Underworld: "Crocodile" [Stream]

Premiere: Underworld: "Crocodile" [Stream]

In a year of dance-music crossover success stories, when 1990s touchstones like Chemical Brothers and Daft Punk have returned to the public eye, techno kingpins Underworld have gone comparatively unmentioned. It's been five years since the UK duo of Karl Hyde and Rick Smith released their last album, A Hundred Days Off, following the departure of Darren Emerson to pursue DJing full-time. "Crocodile", the first single from upcoming fifth studio full-length Oblivion With Bells, makes a few updates but doesn't stray far from the trance-inducing formula that gave Underworld their 1996 Trainspotting-boosted dance anthem, "Born Slippy .NUXX".

It takes just a few seconds of gauzy synths for the kick drum to enter, followed by a minimal bass groove. Hyde's vocals are echoey and robotic, no surprise, though their initial dreamy swoop wouldn't be too far out of place on, say, Simian Mobile Disco's "I Believe": "Is that you, is that/ Is that really you?" Well, it's definitely not Justice, as the track spreads out like an evening on 90s-style intoxicants.

[from Oblivion With Bells; due 10/15/07 on Different]

Thu: 05-15-08: 03:30 PM CDT
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