Album: Brian Eno, Drums Between the Bells (Warp)

Andy Gill
Friday 01 July 2011 00:00 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.

The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.

Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.

Brian Eno's second album for Warp involves his settings of the words of Rick Holland, the lyrics recited by a range of vocalists chosen for their characterful delivery, in several cases the result of using English as a second language.

It's like an electronica version of those jazz & poetry projects of the 1960s, so it's apt it should open with "Bless This Space", a jazzy, cymbal-led groove carrying Eno's whirling electro-dubscape and calm, measured narration. From there, the arrangements veer between Prodigy/Chemical Brothers-style techno-rock ("Sounds Alien") to slower krautrock ("A Title") and the kind of typically contemplative, Eno-esque piano figures and synthscapes suitable for the lyrical ambitions to "imaginate", "find new colours that fly" and see "the really real in things". It's pleasant enough, but sometimes the words do rather get in the way.

DOWNLOAD THIS: Bless This Space; Dreambirds; A Title; Breath of Crows

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in