Brian Eno is MORE DARK THAN SHARK

INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS & RELATED ARTICLES

Australian Broadcasting Commission JULY 21, 2016 - by David P. Weber

BRIAN ENO: THE SHIP

Alongside installation work and production tasks aplenty, Brian Eno has kept up a steady stream of albums with and without collaborators during the 2000s.

Lately, he's put out spanking remasters of hitherto scarce yet outstanding LPs like Nerve Net and The Drop.

Albums like those exhibit the extent to which the world has caught up with Mr. Eno while some are still trying.

Where his work used to be seen as loopy or 'out there', it's the case now that many acts want to sound like him and only some are successful on any level.

Brian Eno has said his new album The Ship is partially a tribute to the victims of The Titanic, released a hundred and four years since the disaster which cost the lives of fifteen-hundred people.

It's an album that's expansively resonant if only four tracks long, although it does summarise his career somewhat.

Experienced listeners will find echoes, for instance, of My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts and Passengers: Original Soundtracks 1.

The title track is a mesh of scintillatingly slow, meditative drifting tones, track two features an unnecessary vocoder effect and that's Peter Serafinowicz on track three.

Eno's own singing, appearing on a new solo LP for the first time since 2005, is unbelievably deep.

He's always said he loved The Velvet Underground and on this LP releases his cover version of I'm Set Free, from their third LP.

Once upon a time not that long ago, Eno was so fascinated with modern technology that he questioned the worth of a defined album.

Eno was finding he was more attracted to the idea of the screen saver on a desktop, and how that would better present a satisfying listening experience in the home.

Something that changed with each hearing.

But where would that stop? Thankfully, he stuck to recording and releasing albums as good as this.

While it's fair to say this is an essential entry in Eno's catalogue, just about all of them are.

Those that don't hit or generate influence straight away tend to make an eventual impact.

And if you are still alien to Eno, don't worry as he probably feels the same about you.