When their lynchpin club DJ Darren Emerson unexpectedly quit in 1999, it looked very much as if Underworld, one of the finest dance bands of the 90s, were all but finished. After a protracted period of soul-searching, however, Karl Hyde and Rick Smith have decided to carry on andshy;- and as their new album triumphantly shows, they're still very much in business. Partly it's because they've reinvigorated themselves by taking a leaf out of Moby's book, throwing a selection of blues and folk samples into their familiar mix of looping grooves and fluid techno music. In fact the album could have done with even more of these insertions, since elsewhere its mixture of pounding beats and symphonic guitars occasionally borders on the monotonous. Overall, however, AHundredDaysOff is a strikingly self-confident album that should pull off Underworld's old trick of appealing to indie kids just as much as hardcore clubbers.
