uDiscover

Underworld’s DRIFT Series 1 project concludes on 1st November 2019 with a collection of new material released as a box set, LP & CD. The box set features 7 CDs, a Blu-ray and an eighty page full colour book.

What is DRIFT?

• It’s precisely one year inside the minds of Underworld.

• It’s a journey that began on 1st November 2018 when Underworld released the track Another Silent Way and set off with no map, no fixed destination and a simple mantra (“Drift is the opposite of ‘normal’ or ‘usual’ practice; we’ll do this until we’re dust.”) ‘Rick Smith and Karl Hyde’s aim was to create and publish music and film episodically for 52 weeks and see where the journey took them. Within a few weeks, the experiment found its own path, prompting the electronic pioneers to react to previous releases and create new works accordingly. Over time, the duo’s innate curiosity opened up a unique space in which they could experiment, learn and explore new frontiers - together and with others (including Tomato’s Simon Taylor, Australian improv-trance band The Necks, techno producer Ø [Phase], Japanese noise band Melt-Banana, economics writer Aditya Chakrabortty and members of Black Country, New Road). During the 52 weeks, five self-contained episodes were released (respectively in November, January, March, May and August) - collectively, they formed DRIFT Series 1.

• It’s a unique and expansive audio/visual document of that open and constantly evolving recording process - seven discs of immersive and exploratory music that dive deep inside the band’s psyche. And it’s also a carefully picked single disc sampler that guides the listener straight through the centre of the project.

• It’s a series of extraordinary films that take you from Shibuya Crossing to the Moroccan desert to rural Essex via the inside of supercomputer.

• It’s a book that delves into process and explores the motivation behind one of the most ambitious creative endeavours ever attempted by a recording artist.

And… at the heart of it, there’s some of the best music Underworld have ever made - as much a progressive leap forward into the unknown as their classic debut dubnobasswithmyheadman.

DRIFT Series 1 collects the entire body of work and will be made available on the 1-year anniversary of the first release. The DRIFT Series 1 Sampler Edition comes out the same day. The DRIFT Series 1 box set comprises 7 CDs, 1 Blu-ray, and an 80 page exclusive book documenting the entire DRIFT journey from start to finish in interviews with Rick Smith, Karl Hyde and Tomato’s Simon Taylor along with pictures, poems, commentary and lyrics.