Brian Eno is MORE DARK THAN SHARK

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Beat Instrumental FEBRUARY 1975 - by Lorna Read

NICO: THE END

This is not for those of a nervous disposition. However, if your favourite form of entertainment is all-night horror films, you'll love this. Nico made her name with The Velvet Underground, but since it split, she's never reached the heights of success achieved by that other ex-member of the Underground, Lou Reed. One difficulty she must have faced is the unsuitability of her voice to conventional material. It's the coldest voice you're ever likely to hear, almost inhuman in its chilling clarity and dead-pan, zombie-like delivery. Her German accent only serves to make her songs more sinister in a B-movie fashion.

With this record, however, she has found the perfect vehicle for self-expression - horror songs. And the musicians she has used, Eno on synthesizer, Phil Manzanera on guitar and John Cale on just about everything else combine to produce some pretty disturbing sound effects.

The synthesizer is used to great effect, particularly on the track, Innocent And Vain, where the sound effects conjure up murder in a graveyard, munchings, rattling chains and demoniacal laughter thrown in. You'll never have heard a more spine-tingling version of The Doors' number, The End, particularly where Nico's lunatic whispering of "I want to kill you - Mother?" blends into the howling of the wind.

As a horror concept album it could be taken several ways. It could be the end of the world, with the powers of darkness come to claim their kingdom, it could be the mental collapse of an individual or even the collapse of the Third Reich, if the final track, a version of Deutschland Über Alles is anything to go by. It's perfect for background music to a seance or a recital of ghost stories, but if you prefer something more in the easy-listening vein, bury this with a stake through the centre and buy Hudson Ford.