For all the 90s nostalgia of this year’s Picnic, Underworld don’t smack of throwback programming. This, despite the fact that the techno outfit are touring the 1994 game-changer, Dubnobasswithmyheadman, usually played in its scowling entirety.
The policy has been gamely relaxed for Stradbally. Under the cover of darkness, they pummel through Dark & Long (whose title is also a pithy and succinct review of the entire gig), the crackle and throb of Mmm… Skyscraper I Love You and the accelerated stabs of Spoonman. But there’s also room, in the thumping Two Months Off or the thin metallic smack of Scribble, to see the incremental gains and erosions in dance music over two decades.
Arms out and chest up, frontman Karl Hyde still comes across as a muttering prophet, making mantras out of twisted material. But in the bright concluding bounce of those chords in Born Slippy, a more delicious hook than any number of lagers, they’re generous enough to get their round in.
In Three Words: Dark and long.
Like this? Go see: Mano Le Tough (for relief)
