Defend the Indefensible: Brian Eno's The Drop

[img]http://img.maniadb.com/images/album/171/171805_1_f.jpg[img]

For all the man's accolades, I can probably count on two fingers how many times I've seen or read someone say even a slightly nice thing about this record. Two-and-a-half stars on AMG seems quite generous. It comes off as the worst of both worlds for Eno -- wandery generative content devised by the Koan system with crummy MIDI-fied digital instrumentation that seems utterly lacking in the kinds of subtle treatments that made him famous. I read once Brian describe the melodies as very "Mahavishnu-like."

According to the Hyperreal Eno discography:

"The Drop showcases a new kind of music which Brian created. The album title went through a number of changes, including Swanky, Hup! and This is Hup! Reviews were less variable, being mainly hostile to the album — partly, I suspect, because the album didn't deliver what's normally expected from Brian. Drop music was originally called "Unwelcome Jazz" because "most of the people I played them [the pieces] to don't really like them" according to Brian. He said: "they all share this quality of having melodies that go in very odd directions and take sharp turns and so on. They have another characteristic: they use a combination of instruments that are so recognizable, that come with a huge amount of cultural history, you know, like jazz piano sounds, the ride cymbal, all that sort of things. As soon as you hear those instruments you have some kind of picture of how the music was made. Within that, I place those things in an electronic landscape, which is completely another world, a world that never belonged to that music." Another proposed title was Neo Geo, and there are instrumental/approach similarities with Ryuichi Sakamoto's album of that name."

What say ILM of this "new kind of music"? Have you listened enough to rise to its defense?

Oh, piss: even the LINKS to this album suck;

http://img.maniadb.com/images/album/171/171805_1_f.jpg

I like Neo Geo, maybe I should try this.

listening to a few clips on youtube and i'm feeling this. last eno record i heard was Nerve Net and i dug that one also

I need to hear this... most of the stuff Eno has done in the last decade that I have liked has been live collaborations (the ones w/Peter Schwalm and Czukey) that haven't seen official release.

Nerve Net is great, way better than the Another Day On Earth album from a few years back (which I still kinda like).

Some great tracks on Another Day on Earth - Bonebomb in particular.

Oh man, I thought hard about whether there was anything to defend about this record (apart from the cover, which I really like). I can’t honestly say anything positive about it.

Hearing The Drop was when I realised that even though Eno is a great thinker and communicator of musical ideas and concepts, he doesn’t (or maybe didn't at the time to be fair) put enough effort into observing what is around him.

Any person who releases music with a developed musical radar wouldn’t have made the same production decisions he did on that record or some of his others too, like Nerve Net for instance.

Even though I enjoy reading his diaries/articles and hearing documentaries it’s always at the back of my mind that he’s just not able to walk it like he talks it.

i do like the really long track (can't remember the name). the length dissipates the annoyance factor.

Maybe it's just that the bitter cold has made all his post-Thursday Afternoon ambient records sound a touch more weather-appropriate, but I find it's prickliness ("sourness" as Eno calls it) sort of an engaging challenge right now.

I need to hear this... most of the stuff Eno has done in the last decade that I have liked has been live collaborations (the ones w/Peter Schwalm and Czukey) that haven't seen official release.

Schwalm has these up on his Vimeo account. They're interesting – you get an eyeful of Eno gear (Prophet VS, Eventide H3000). Czukay is totally immersed in what seems to be his dictaphone stuff. Schwalm is talking to a bunch of people while the show is going on. Bits from part 2 have a big Miles in the 70s feel to them.

Anyway, came here to post that "Unwelcome Jazz" is a brave if not always very musically appealing proposition. He really spent a lot of the 90s revving it -- Nerve Net, The Drop but also Outside in places—tho I'm not sure it ever amount to a whole lot more than proving jazz is about more than smokey texture.

First listen to this today and I really enjoyed the suspenseful nature of it, it's like if the Necks made hold music for a psychic detective agency. Kind of Lynchian too, it's got that same twilight nightmare vibe that the Residents cabaret stuff (Freak Show?) had.

Two discs of this stuff available on the expanded edition! Who could say no?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00O71R4ZW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_2IxlzbFMZTRHF

this album is fine, what do you want.