Brian Eno is MORE DARK THAN SHARK

INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS & RELATED ARTICLES

Uncut DECEMBER 2004 - by Rob Young

BRIAN ENO: THE SHUTOV ASSEMBLY / NERVE NET / NEROLI / THE DROP

Four mid-'90s repackages from twinkly ambient's undisputed prime mover.

Determined to build on his groundbreaking ambient work, Eno's The Shutov Assembly (1992) signaled he was about to dial down the volume even further. Collecting atmospheres used in various art installations and art films, it's a masterpiece of cold, looming evocations of dusk and deep distance. Nerve Net (1992) veered from that course by rounding up African musicians plus Robert Fripp, Robert Quine, John Paul Jones and others for a Fourth World plastic funk session. And if ambient was music as perfume, Neroli (1993) delivers extreme unction, while the seventeen miniatures on The Drop (1997) remain a curious if colourless dabble with rubbery electronica.