Beautiful Burnout is a brooding, atmospheric number that turned out to be the pick of last year’s return, Oblivion With Bells On – classic Underworld, in fact.
A real sense of impending threat characterises Karl Hyde’s vocal performance, an unexpectedly restrained aside whose “sun goes down, temperature drops” refrain feels post-nuclear. Then the riff drops, more rhythmic than pitched, and we’re off dancing to a strong breakbeat and fulsome bass.
Remixes come from Mark Knight, who stays true to the nature of the vocal while providing a more obviously four to the floor tech-house beat and structure, stripping things back for the dub, and Pig & Dan of the Cocoon label, whose techno interpretation is coldly intimate, the “beautiful” mantra given a soft chord for company that eventually takes over.
It’s good to be reminded that Underworld have still got it – and now the cobwebs are well and truly dusted off from their return, it will be interesting to mark their next move.
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