Brian Eno is MORE DARK THAN SHARK

INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS & RELATED ARTICLES

Los Angeles Times DECEMBER 13, 2014 - by Randall Roberts

BRIAN ENO: NERVE NET / NEROLI / THE SHUTOV ASSEMBLY / THE DROP

Fans of Brian Eno's oft-blissful ambient music of the 1970s often overlook the composer-producer's work in the 1980s and '90s, an era in which he was producing U2 and composing the ubiquitous start-up music for Windows 95, among myriad other creative endeavors. The four albums represented in a new Eno reissue campaign shed light on this lesser-known mood music, much of which is instrumental and suggests a more rhythm-heavy extension of his excellent odes to silence, Music For Films, Music For Airports and others.

The four - Nerve Net, The Drop, The Shutov Assembly and Neroli (Thinking Music Part 2) - are now available as expanded two-CD sets or downloads. They confirm that even when focused on making music designed in part to obscure the line between background and foreground music - with velveteen beats, easy melodies and typically evocative structural explorations - even the crannies of Eno's catalog are filled with wonder.