Everyone who’s anyone is aware of British composer and mastermind-producer Brian Eno’s longstanding reputation as “the 5th Beatle.” But what many people don’t know is that that’s completely false (although it’s difficult to imagine the Fab Four creating a masterpiece like “Flying” without his trans-temporal influence). Seriously though, Eno is all kinds of British, and when you’re a composer and producer, you don’t get to be British overnight. You have to put in the time. And let me tell you, no one has put in more time making records than Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste Doctor Teeth de la Salle Eno.
Take last year, when Eno made the jump to the Warp label with the pretty classically-Eno-ish Small Craft on a Milk Sea, only to shift gears with some robot beat poetry glitchpop a few months ago when he and also-British poet Rock Holland collaborated on TMT’s Eh-This-Is-Okay-Music’d Drums Between the Bells. Now the second-hardest working man in show business is coming back at us again, this time with a new EP of songs from the Drums sessions titled Panic of Looking. Another collaboration with Holland, the new EP is due November 8 (November 7 in the UK) via Warp. It’ll be served up on vinyl, CD, and digital pizza pie. It features production and artwork from Eno, as well as six new tracks that, according to his publicist, “continue the exploration of how lyric and song are perceived.” Take that, all-other-songs-with-lyrics-ever!
The lyrics, of course, are comprised of Holland’s poems, which aren’t exactly “sung” but aren’t exactly spoken plainly either. As for the sound of Eno’s arrangements, yeah, there’s synths; yeah, there’s guitars; yeah, there’s glitchy, skittery drums; and yeah, it’s all totally thoughtful and precise-sounding. But hey, don’t take my word for it. You can listen to “Panic of Looking” (the title track, not the whole EP) for yourself over here. Needless to say, this ain’t your momma’s Historical Art Society, cucumber-sandwiches, afternoon poetry reading. Or maybe it is if your mom is sleeping with Brian Eno.
Panic of Looking tracklisting:
01. in the future
02. not a story
03. panic of looking
04. if these footsteps
05. watch a single swallow in a thermal sky, and try to fit its motion, or figure why it flies
06. west bay
• Brian Eno: http://brian-eno.net
• Warp: http://www.warp.net