“eno_roger_and”
Roger Eno and Lol Hammond
Damage
All Saints/Thirsty Ear
What is this? It’s not new age – it’s too unique. It’s kind of spacey – but the groove isn’t too thick. Relaxation set in motion. At times it gets fairly innocuous, rarely generic as if some trance tracks were completely pasteurized and homogenized. Some very energizing soundscapes here, we’re not just afloat in a sea of digital backwash. It’s gentle but surreal, softly disquieting and fairly somber so bring the night vision goggles.
The synths, rhythm loops, and treated pianos are familiar, but with new blends. Oops, occasionally we revert to the highly treated, meandering piano backed with electronic gushes, drips and whooshes. But the “Blue Kind Of Drug” picks itself up eventually, shakes it’s chakras and walks off.
Around the midpoint, we’re offered minimalist digiscapes; the tinkle and boom, the grooves getting farther and fewer between. Suddenly “Hip Hop Flipperty Flop” lightly injects some more beats to get us over that crest of ease.
Damage is great for musical purges. And it leaves you with plenty of space.
Thirsty Ear Recordings, 274 Madison Ave., Suite 804, New York, NY 10016; http://www.thirstyear.com
