Brian Eno 'Neroli' (1993)

[rotator]

<a href="http://s17.photobucket.com/albums/b54/eternalux8/?action=view¤t=11198.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b54/eternalux8/11198.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

Five or so (synthesized) marimba notes wander around a massive reverb field lost, bumping into each other...for an hour.

that would be the casual onlookers take on this one song album.

...this is my first take also, as I have only listened to the entire album once as of writing. half asleep as it were, it gave me an uncharacteristically (for an [b]Eno[/b] song) bad feeling. Drifting in and out of my nap, I was horrified by the length of this monster as the notes really hug a down sounding minor scale, and it was obvious there would be no additional instruments added, and the general arrangement would never change throughout the excursion.

[b]Eno[/b]'s [b]'No Exit'[/b].

I think I was hoping for another [b]"Thursday Afternoon"[/b] ([b]Eno[/b]'s 1985 epic -Which to this day is still probably one of my favorite [b]Eno[/b] tracks, this too clocking in at about one hour in length). "[b]Thursday Afternoon[/b]" although exactly similar to '[b]Neroli[/b]'s theory (notes meandering around without a tonne of construction - [b]Eno[/b]'s fractal three dimensional system, whereby the listener can listen to any part of a song and it would appear to be the same as any other part.) '[b]Thursday Afternoon[/b]' has the prerequisite [b]Harold Budd[/b] style plinky piano (reverb/echo ad nauseam), but also had that glorious angelic synth babble lightly feathering the background) The result of this, is in a word 'heavenly'.

...and although I understand (and love) the nature of minimal -ahem-'pop music' (as I am also aware there are artists that record the blinking of their eyes for four hours), I suppose I wish '[b]Neroli[/b]' had that one extra 'thing' in it.

All this being said, this is a pretty big slab of near silence to digest. Let me have another go.

(By the way. If you would like to purchase this (the whole 57 minutes), it is a pithy .99c on Amazon.com, whereas it is $9.99 on iTunes)


•••3 stars out of 5

[Clifford Darling]

I should give Neroli another listen. It came out when my musical tastes "evolving." I thought it was dull at the time. Now after 15 years of Terry Riley and Charlemagne Palestine, I might find it more interesting.

I love "Thursday Afternoon" though. Always have.

[rotator]

[quote][i]Originally posted by Clifford Darling[/i]
<br>I should give Neroli another listen. It came out when my musical tastes "evolving." I thought it was dull at the time. Now after 15 years of Terry Riley and Charlemagne Palestine, I might find it more interesting.

I love "Thursday Afternoon" though. Always have.
[/quote]
I've been afraid of Charlemagne Palestine for some time now... I may be ready to step off...
I've listen to it (Neroli) a few more times, it actually works better if you are performing other functions while it is playing (I guess that supports the 'ambient' tag)...but yeah just focusing on the music will get tedious --quick!

[rotator]

A nice alternative to the monstrous 'Neroli' is a song from ENO's 1992 'The Shutov Assembly' called 'Ikebukuro'. 16 minutes of very 'Neroli' sounding marimbas with that little extra that was missing from the hour long 'Neroli'. super duper.

[yipyipcoyote]

I used to have a setup that could play 2 CD's at the same time, and I always played this AND Thursday Afternoon [i]together[/i] and observed the wonderful chance effect created by the overlapping sounds [:I]