Strawberry Hotel: Vinyl 2LP

Underworld’s 11th Studio album ‘Strawberry Hotel’ on double vinyl gatefold, 180gsm blackheavy-weight vinyl cut at half speed. Welcome to Strawberry Hotel. Here, gleaming tensile techno forms clean, straight lines while scratchy acoustic guitars scuff up edges to produce ghostly audio. Poetry is snatched from the overhead, removed from the overheard; words borrowed from the ether are spun into dizzying new shapes, sometimes reappearing in new settings, twisted back to front, side to side. Each track a very different room - some soundtracked by little more than metronomic kick drum and robotic voice, others deep in layer upon layer of melody and euphoric noise - and each room unmistakably, uniquely Underworld. The only advice from Underworld’s Rick Smith and Karl Hyde upon entering: “Please don’t shuffle.”

 

Strawberry Hotel tracklisting: Side A

 

1. Black Poppies

2. denver luna

3. Techno Shinkansen

4. and the colour red Side B

5. Sweet Lands Experience

6. Lewis In Pomona

7. Hilo Sky

8. Burst Of Laughter Side C

9. King Of Haarlem

10. Ottavia

11. denver luna (acapella) Side D

12. Gene Pool

13. Oh Thorn!

14. Iron Bones

15. Stick Man Test