Brian Eno

Small Craft on a Milk Sea (Warp)

By Lou Battaglia
Published: November 7th, 2010 | 7:31am

The godfather of all things ambient has returned with a new project that is, at its core, a collaboration, not unlike his 2008 release with occasional partner-in-crime David Byrne—Everything That Will Happen Will Happen Today (Todo Mundo). In this case, however, Small Craft on a Milk Sea bears only the name of the master, while recognition of the understudies, Jon Hopkins and Leo Abrahams—formidable musicians in their own right—is left to the inside of the gracefully designed album jacket.

Like all Eno solo albums, most people will probably drift right over Small Craft, finding little worth coming back to. Some tracks, such as lead single "2 Forms of Anger" and "Dust Shuffle," are probably catchy enough for the kiddies who never heard of Eno prior to MGMT naming a song after him, while others like "Bone Jump" will appeal to Eno purists and those pining for untreated, naked analog synth sounds of the late 70s and early 80s.

The majority of listeners will be left unimpressed by the record, however, due to a lack of any sort of urgency. That might seem contradictory when we are talking about the progenitor of non-linear ambient soundscapes, but it's actually not. This music, unlike Eno's Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy (E.G. Records), Another Green World (E.G. Records), or even the Thursday Afternoon (Astralwerks) project, fails to illicit any sort of tension and nothing within the music cries out to be embraced. Instead, most songs feel like a technical exhibition in formal structures and refined sonic ideals. In other words: all head and no heart. "Paleosonic" comes the closest to achieving any sort of tension and release, and its positioning at exactly track 9 out of 15 is emblematic of the cold, clinical academic structuring of the album. Small Craft on a Milk Sea is well-crafted, but it lacks the relevance and drive that are fueling an entire wave of Eno disciples who have recently come to the forefront.

—

Brian Eno official site

Brian Eno MySpace page

Warp Records