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" This year, both partners in one of the longest-running musical marriages around have decided to have the odd night to themselves. After Underworld&amp;#039;s collaboration with Danny Boyle on the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony, Rick Smith went it alone to soundtrack Boyle&amp;#039;s headmelting mind-heist Trance, and, inspired by his Pure Scenius hook-up with Brian Eno and Leo Abrahams (co-producer here), Karl Hyde has recorded this solo debut. Smith&amp;#039;s score certainly wasn&amp;#039;t a showcase for Underworld-style beats, but Karl&amp;#039;s outing is even further away from the dancefloor. Teaser &amp;#039;Cut Clouds&amp;#039; is the stand-out. A sparse, organic, percussion-light and slinky snail&amp;#039;s pace space-out, it&amp;#039;s like a slow rise of the blinds to the devastating beauty of the blinding sun. The other eight songs here don&amp;#039;t match up to that exceptional moment, but there are still a few that get close. Opener &amp;#039;The Night Slips Us Smiling Underneath Its Dress&amp;#039; sets the tone for Edgeland as a night bus soundtrack. Headphone music for the way home as you drift in and out of your surroundings and the serotonin ebbs from your body, awaiting the dawn. &amp;#039;Shadow Boy&amp;#039; is a strung-out, eight-and-a-half-minute mini-symphony that starts with such deceptive gentleness before building in waves and layers until it totally overwhelms. Like the Trance OST (and Underworld&amp;#039;s last long-player Barking, for that matter), there are tracks here that flit by without the melodic or rhythmic strength to properly engage - namely &amp;#039;Shoulda Been A Painter&amp;#039; and closer &amp;#039;Sleepless&amp;#039;. And despite some lovely turns of phrase (&amp;quot;Above the head of T-shirt drifters&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;All the trees in the park stood up and started dancing&amp;quot;), the lyrics here aren&amp;#039;t as compelling as his band&amp;#039;s best free-form cut-up, Burroughs-esque poetry. But there&amp;#039;s still so much here to like. We desperately hope that Karl and Rick are true to their word and another Underworld record will make its way to our ears before too long, but if they still want to stretch their independent limbs with things like the Trance OST and Edgeland, we won&amp;#039;t complain too much while we&amp;#039;re waiting.  Tracks to download: &amp;#039;Cut Clouds&amp;#039;, &amp;#039;The Night Slips Smiling Underneath Its Dress&amp;#039;, &amp;#039;Shadow Boy&amp;#039; If you like this, you&amp;#039;ll like: Brian Eno, Underworld, James Blake Watch the Karl Hyde &amp;#039;The Boy With The Jigsaw Puzzle Fingers&amp;#039; music video below:      "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/music/album-reviews/review/a471218/karl-hyde-edgeland-album-review/>