Brian Eno is MORE DARK THAN SHARK

INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS & RELATED ARTICLES

Prog SEPTEMBER 2020 - by Rob Hughes

BRIAN ENO AND JOHN CALE: WRONG WAY UP / BRIAN ENO AND JAH WOBBLE: SPINNER

A pair of wildly different Eno couplings, expanded with two bonus tracks apiece.

Brian Eno and John Cale had been cropping up on each other's recordings for years prior to getting together in earnest for 1990's Wrong Way Up. The impetus was Cale's well-received Words For The Dying (issued the previous year), on which Eno had added keyboards and served as producer. Alas, the goodwill ran out on their new endeavour. Eno postulated that the pair succumbed to "cabin fever", while Cale claimed to fall foul of Eno's volatile temper, culminating in a surprise attack with a chopstick. Even the sleeve appears ominous: portraits of both men separated by a line of drawn daggers.

Whatever the circumstances, however, Wrong Way Up is an inspired vision. Not least because it marked Eno's return to song-oriented work, for the first time since 1977's Before And After Science. It's rarely less than bold and inventive, from the jittery avantrock of Lay My Love, featuring Nell Catchpole's looped violin, to One Word's itchy funk and the strident Been There Done That. Perhaps best of all is The River, a dream-pop lullaby on which Eno delivers one of the finest vocals of his career. The two bonus tracks - Grandfather's House and Palanquin - initially appeared as B-sides back in the day.

By contrast, 1995's Spinner is an instrumental set with its roots in Eno's soundtrack to Derek Jarman's film, Glitterbug. Eno sent over what Wobble described as "scraps and fragments of sound", on top of which the ex-PiL bassist was required to create something more substantial. These discreet ambient pieces are fleshed out by the addition of a smattering of helpers, among them Can's then drummer Jaki Liebezeit, who brought abstract jazz rolls to the title track and atmospheric Transmitter And Trumpet.

It doesn't always succeed, with some compositions being too ephemeral for their own good. But the best bits, be it the eerie sci-fi dub of Unusual Balance or Steam's muted synthetic chatter, still warrant attention.