Brian Eno is MORE DARK THAN SHARK

INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS & RELATED ARTICLES

Musician JUNE 1981 - by Chris Doering

ROBERT FRIPP: THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN / DAVID BYRNE/BRIAN ENO: MY LIFE IN THE BUSH OF GHOSTS

Awright, everybody, get on your dancing shoes, but don't forget your thinking caps, 'cause it's... rhythm 'n concept time! To get things started, here's Boppin' Bob Fripp with his happy feet, his crazy fingers, his audio collages and his avant-garage League Of Gentlemen (named after a gang of 19th century Wall St. crooks). The League's laying down that basic punk groove, which Fripp's gonna embellish with some guitar dissonance (not to mention the cognitive kind) and some polyrhythmic complexities so you can hear the kind of textures all those three-chord bashers were hearing in their heads but couldn't play. Meanwhile, The Roches, M, P&L contributor Chip Stern, and the late J. G. Bennett are going to explain how to dance, how to rock, and how to change the world. Bet you didn't know thinking on your feet could be this much fun did you?

Whew! Tired of pogoing already? Well let's get down with David and Brian, the friendly ghosts in the machine. They've got some piping hot Afro-funk grooves ready for ya, plus they've thrown in some taped radio voices and ethnic recordings, a little tape manipulation, and some of those neat little "accidental" things that always seem to nappen when Eno gets near a tape recorder. What's the concept? Oh, background's as significant as the foreground, Third World's as "cultural" as the West, the body's as important as the mind, all the good '70s stuff. Dig the way that Lebanese mountain singer blends in with the African rhythms, and the way Eno's synthesizer follows her microtonal style. The Global Village People, all right!

Woah, what'samatter, where ya going? The monotonous repetition of dissonant one-chord riffs creates aural ugly wallpaper? Look, this stuff is art, not entertainment. You miss the solos, the emotional expression of the individual voice? You must have missed the Byrne and Eno interviews in the last issue - all that stuff is out now. These are the blueprints for the music of the '80s, so forget about all that self-indulgent, freedom of expression stuff. These times demand brilliantly hollow intellectual exercises that you can dance to... if you really wanna.