“UK-based electronica outfit Karl Hyde & Rick Smith, aka Underworld, are set to release their fifth studio album, Oblivion With Bells, in October.According to a recent press release (PDF), Oblivion With Bells draws heavily on the duo’s vast array of musical influences, including those of Nick Drake, Def Mix, Ricardo Villalobos, Can, James Holden and Brian Eno, and their own experiences performing worldwide.

The album apparently “kicks off like Saturday night with Sven Väth, Simian Mobile Disco and Frankie Knuckles all fighting to get on the decks, then takes you over the flat fields of rural Essex, through Kings Cross with its olympic dreams and piss stained alleys, ending blissed out in a hidden cove in Ibiza.”

According to Billboard, a track list has yet to be announced, nor has a label; the group parted ways with longtime label V2 after the release of the 2003 best-of, 1992-2002.

The duo promises to debut material from the new LP during a host of 2007 live dates, which resume June 30 in Knebworth, UK. The group will also play three U.S. shows in September.

In related news, group member Rick Smith was injured after a riot forced the abrupt cancellation of the Ejekt Festival in Athens, Greece on Saturday. He was hospitalized briefly in Athens and is now recovering in England.”

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