There might be a torturous six month wait still to endure, but it seems it’s time to start thinking about your party plans over the New Year period already! One of the world’s greatest and most enduring live electronic acts Underworld will be in Australia to help usher in 2009, specifically for Melbourne’s Summadayze event on New Years Day. Revealed by Future Entertainment in ITM’s Melbourne Forums, it’s not yet known what their exact touring schedule will be; but it’s a safe bet that the UK act will make at least a few high-profile appearances around the rest of the country!

With a long history in electronic music that stretches back to the late 80s, Underworld released their fifth studio album last year Oblivion With Bells, which delivered the band another club anthem in the form of Beautiful Burnout, partly thanks to several high-impact remixes from the likes of Pig & Dan, Tiefschwarz and Mark Knight. ITM spoke to the group’s enigmatic vocalist Karl Hyde when it hit the stores (check out the ITM feature), where he spoke about the legacy the band has already left behind.

“I feel very blessed to be part of something that means a lot to people,” he says of Underworld’s Born Slippy, perhaps one of the archetypal dance anthems that still regularly gets a thrashing. “When we were kids, we had our favourite bands that had written anthems, and those songs are probably still ticking over in our consciousness to this day… You’d never even dream that you’d be part of something that would do the same thing for people…. For that to happen to us, that’s beyond a dream really.”

Stay tuned to ITM for details on their full national tour dates!