Foals’ Yannis Philippakis and Underworld’s Karl Hyde have recorded music for a potential team-up.
The two “did some stuff” in studio last month, Philippakis revealed to BBC 6 Music. “I met [Karl] at a festival in Japan and then we just became friends ... We just wanted to make some music together ... [and] just hung out ... There’s no agenda, but [the tracks] will come out at some point.
Hyde has been a fan of Foals since at least 2010, when he saw them perform at a festival in France. Last weekend, Hyde attended one of the band’s gigs at London’s Alexandra Palace, and described the experience on his blog: “Wild energy, abandoned to the beat, pinned to the stage with light,” he wrote.
“Following unfettered threads, colliding incandescence. The funk, the cycling looped guitars, Afrobeat and Rave. Everything sounds like home, we catch each other’s eye in glancing smiles, fuelled in the presence of passion. Then we all met in the bar for hugs and laughs.”
While Philippakis and Hyde have now initiated their collaboration, Jagwar Ma’s Gabriel Winterfield has remarked on how easily a proposed collaboration with Foals can fall away: “When we toured with Yannis ... it would be a late night and, you’re in arms, and they say, ‘You know we should do some stuff together,’” Winterfield explained to The Mic magazine. “And then the next morning happens and it’s just like, ‘Nah’.”
Though Foals have now wrapped up their UK tour, they are set to play two of their biggest-ever gigs headlining Parklife and Bestival this summer. The band have also begun writing material for the follow-up to Holy Fire. “The appetite’s there now,” Philippakis told Rogers. “I’ve been writing some lyrics and we’ve got some big riffs.”
Last week, Holy Fire’s production duo, Flood and Alan Moulder, won the Music Producers Guild prize for producer of the year. The honour comes paired with a Brit award nomination.
