Release Date: July 5, 2011
It’s been 40 years since Brian Eno first started releasing music with the glam rock outfit Roxy Music. Since then, Eno has been constantly exploring and experimenting with new approaches to his ambient style. On his latest, Drums Between The Bells, Eno couples his signature work with spoken word poetry courtesy of Rick Holland.
Eno’s never been one to repeat himself, and Drums Between The Bells is further proof of that. The combination of Eno’s ambience with Holland’s poems sounds interesting in theory, but in practice the album proves to be unintentionally hilarious.
Consider this: Eno has been known for his progressive work in both music and the visual arts. He’s created 41 albums of music, and is responsible for the film Mistaken Memories of Mediaeval Manhattan, a film that requires viewers to turn their televisions onto its side in order to be properly viewed. When analyzing Eno’s career, it becomes obvious that he’s got his head pretty far up his own ass, which is why Drums Between the Bells doesn’t sound as much like a Brian Eno record as it does an album created by someone to make fun of Brian Eno.
The instrumental tracks that Eno creates are full of electronic ambience, and overall, they do work fairly well. However, the inclusion of Holland’s poetry atop makes the entire album feel like an unintentional pseudo-commentary about high art. Drums Between the Bells does not acquire this feeling because Holland’s words come from a place of criticism, but they feel almost too satirical to be real.
A prime example of Holland’s pedantic poems ruining Eno’s ambience is “Dow.” Eno gives the track an almost primal groove, and it does progress naturally. Unfortunately, Holland finds a way to derail this momentum within its first 30 seconds. When the speaker, in his robotic tone, states, “Frequency steel/Adrenaline/Shift like a lizard’s skin/And the didgeridoo,” it is beyond pretentious and impossible to take seriously.
Perhaps Holland is being abstract with his words to prove a point. It is possible that Holland’s creation is serving to compliment Eno’s sparse movements, but whether or not that was the intent, it completely misses that mark.
It is worth noting that there is an edition of Drums Between the Bells that features both the proper album as well as just Eno’s instrumental tracks. These instrumental versions show how great Eno can be when he is the one accountable for creating the mood. Holland’s additions to Drums Between The Bells only derail Eno’s vision, leaving the listener wondering why Eno allowed such a thing to happen.
Brian Eno is certainly prolific, but Drums Between the Bells functions more like a self-parody than a genuine offering. After 40 years of work, not every album can be a winner, but they should at least have some level of care put into their creation.
Brian Eno – Drums Between The Bells Tracklist:
- “Bless This Space”
- “Glitch”
- “Dreambirds”
- “Pour It Out”
- “Seedpods”
- “The Real”
- “The Airman”
- “Fierce Aisles of Light”
- “As If Your Eyes Were Partly Closed As If You Honed The Swirl Within Them And Offered Me … The World”
- “A Title”
- “Sounds Alien”
- “Dow”
- “Multimedia”
- “Cloud 4″
- “Silence”
- “Breath of Crows”
