I remember getting my hands on Underworld's seminal dubnobasswithmyheadman (1993) and being gob smacked at how good it was. It's not often that an album will stop you in your tracks and alter the way you listen to almost everything else. The hypnotic bass lines and beats, the riotous textures and the crazed pseudo-poignance of Karl Hyde's lyrics made it one of the best, if not the best electronic “dance” albums ever made. Nearly 15 years (!!!) later it still sounds fresh and wonderful. Although 1996's Second Toughest in the Infants was a great follow up record I felt Underworld never reached the heights they did on their first proper electronic album back in 1993.

This most recent release follows some years of experimentation from the band after the departure of Darren Emerson in 2001 and the release of 2002's 100 Days Off. That album wasn't very dissimilar to the output during the time Emerson was with the band and although it received generally positive reviews it didn't make a huge impression on me. The years of experimentation after 100 Days Off led to the production of three collections of new songs under the banner of The RiverRun Project. These EPs, Lovely Broken Thing, Pizza For Eggs and I'm a Big Sister, and I'm a Girl, and I'm a Princess, and This Is My Horse were released online at Underworld Live and showed Underworld were taking a more introspective tangent. Add to this the 2006 film score for the late Anthony Minghella's Breaking and Entering, give things a quick buzz in the blender and out pops Oblivion With Bells.

The opening track Crocodile might not immediately gel with this notion of mellowing introspection and, granted, it's a 4/4 trance grind of a track with a big chorus which wouldn't feel out of place on 100 Days Off or Beaucoup Fish. Beautiful Burnout seems to take us back further in time and sits closer to the epic multiple movement tracks on Second Toughest in the Infants and I defy you to be able to sit still during the final 3 minutes of the track. By the time Karl Hyde is delivering his off beat stream-of-conciousness lyrics on Holding The Moth you're right back to dubnobasswithmyheadman and convinced that this is actually a far better record than you had hoped for.

Highlight after highlight follows and after around 10 full listens over the last few weeks I'm happy to conclude that this is Underworld's finest work in 10-plus years. The closing track, Best Mangu Ever, recalls the blissful head nodding close of dubnobasswithmyheadman's River of Bass and M.E. Rick Smith and Karl Hyde have revitalised their music in recent years and Oblivion With Bells gets a healthy thumbs-up here.