High Life
30 June 2014
Warp
4 stars out of 5
Coming less than two months after their previous LP, Someday World, Brian Eno and Karl Hyde
present us with their second full-length LP, High Life. Contrary to what you might expect, the latest LP isn’t
comprised of outtakes from the sessions of the first; in fact, it was conceived
and executed in its entirety after the earlier record had been completed. At
this rate we should have another three or four LPs by the duo by the year’s
end, right?
The album gets of on the right foot with “Return,” a two
chord dirge that packs so many tiny sonic details into its nine minutes that it
never fails to fascinate. It’s not quite E2-E4,
but its exploration of the possibilities of an incredibly simple progression still thrills and
fascinates. The vaguely Afrobeat “DBF” recalls Eno’s association circa 1980
with Talking Heads. “Lilac” juxtaposes a kind of pastoral folk hymn overtop a
busy guitar-centered base of polyrhythms. “Moulded Life” is a neo-industrial
piece that actually invokes industry: there’s a vast, toxin-filled, concrete
urbanscape within the track, at once oppressively and excitingly modern. The
almost free-form “Cells & Bells” ends things on a note that is both
angst-filled and optimistic—our technology has brought us to this place, and
only our technology can bring us out of it.
Far more interesting and compelling than the somewhat
stale-sounding Someday World, the
longer pieces on High Life give the
impression that Eno and Hyde are hitting their stride in their work together. Given
Eno’s tendency to flit from flower to flower in his collaborative work, it’s
not a sure thing that he will continue to work with Hyde in the near future,
but if the duo continue to produce fruit like High Life, let’s hope that he does.
reviewed by Richard Krueger
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