It would be unfair of me to compare this Eno-Hyde record to the previous one. It would also be a bit silly to do that, since I haven’t heard the previous one yet. If I was comparing the artwork, I’d say the former has a better cover. This one looks like a David Byrne LP to me.
Anyway, on to the music:
1. ‚return‘ – a beautiful composition. Another reviewer here mentions the forward momentum of Steve Reich here, and this is an example of it. Based around two chords played brightly and metallically on guitar, with other elements joining in, until they form a warm, sunny, opiated elevation. 9 minutes long, and yet it closes all to soon. Genre? I dunno – space shanty?
2. ‚DBF‘ – bewildering (in a good way), somewhere between Miles Davis‘ ‚On The Corner‘ and Happy Mondays‘ ‚Freaky Dancin‘ and S Piliso & His Super Seven. Lovely stuff.
3. ‚time to waste it‘ – I can’t get into this one.
4. ‚lilac‘ – like the opener, this one builds into something really great. There’s a synaesthesic quality to the lyrics, while in that Mbaqanga-esque guitar playing there is something bordering on spiritual/ ecstatic.
5. ‚moulded life‘ – I love this one. It’s like film music, it’s like Edgard Varèse’s ‚Amériques‘. It’s also nothing like Edgard Varèse’s ‚Amériques‘. But it does have a similarly menacing vibe.
6. ‚cells & bells‘ – a brilliantly translucent slice of slow-paced, high-calorie pop. The lyrics are delivered with a gravitas that (paradoxically) brings their comedy to the surface, The voice is a little too low in the mix for my liking and is more reverbed than it needs to be. I’d like to see this song reworked maybe 6 times over the course of an album, Raymond Queneau stylee!
All in all, a tenner well spent. Sorry Amazon, but Mr. Fopp (or at any rate the ‚restructuring expert‘ who runs his shop) was selling it cheaper.
comment by m.e.: this style can easily be detected by long-term manafonistas. It was published somewhere else, under another name. By the way, I do like this cover, too, it’s brimming (ist that the right word?) with life, high life… And the photos inside the booklet, well, now, everyone can study Brian“s Maroccan headwear:)