Brian Eno is MORE DARK THAN SHARK

INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS & RELATED ARTICLES

The Age SEPTEMBER 11, 2010 - by Michael Dwyer

PHIL MANZANERA: THE MUSIC 1972-2008

Being Roxy music's guitarist has meant plenty of spare time for Phil Manzanera these past forty years. this self-assembled anthology includes an astounding spectrum of playing and production credits, from the first Split Enz and last Dave Gilmour albums to copious british art-rock and South American projects.

The two CDs stick to songs he's co-written, including a fistful of Roxy gems spanning trippy to sultry and some of his noisier experiments with the extended Brian Eno/801 family. The revelation is disc two's more recent work, some deeply Latin-influenced, some touchingly intropspective, with a ten-minute slab of neo-Roxy weirdness at the end: Enotonik Bible Black is the original line-up sans Bryan Ferry but with Eno back at the effects rack. It seems odd that nearly twenty years of work is omitted between discs, but judicious editing is part of the master muso's craft.