…the collective urge to turn these reflective, carefully constructed instrumentals and slices of ambient avant garde pop into something more hedonistic, urban, chippy and “in yer face” is fairly overwhelming.
…the collective urge to turn these reflective, carefully constructed instrumentals and slices of ambient avant garde pop into something more hedonistic, urban, chippy and “in yer face” is fairly overwhelming.
http://www.narrominded.com/catalogue/nm041-retro-retry-2-another-another-green-world/ (go and have a listen)
A tremendous record, we missed it, (how?, how??) when it was released despite it being on one of our favourite labels and a cover LP of one of our favourite artists by some of our favourite artists… Time and happenstance. But still, the more I review records, the more that I believe that the beautiful accidents are the most rewarding, the things that turn up unseen to shake you out of any linear motion or thought. And that’s true of this wonderful LP.
We should all know the plot with Eno and his most famous early work: there’s no point going on about stuff that you can find out by checking Wikipedia or some such, but one thing I will say is that it’s interesting to hear how these current artists approach Eno’s slightly refined, “just so” muse. Inevitably you have to get the original out and give it a spin: and the most noticeable thing is that, however reverently some moments are treated by the artists, (and there are some bits that are starry eyed like Hunter Complex’s take on Everything Merges with the Night) the collective urge to turn these reflective, carefully constructed instrumentals and slices of ambient avant garde pop into something more hedonistic, urban, chippy and “in yer face” is fairly overwhelming.
The fact that a lot of artists won’t have used a major studio, let alone explored it in the way Brian Eno did in the 1970s gives the Another Another Green World an interesting edge, too. The assumption that a sort of perfection was seen to be reached with the original, and consequently that there’s no real point in trying to live up to it in any manner, has seemingly liberated the contributors in terms of doing what they wanted. FFF’s take on Sky Saw is a supremely powerful mood piece that pretty much transcends the original, and Over Fire Island is given glitch sheen by Polycorn, who also seem to want to drag the track into some kind of Coldcut/Scubadevils territory. Rude 66 sneers through a tessellate lofi Gabba version of St Elmo’s Fire and I’m sure, knowing Jeroen Warntjes, (the genius otherwise known as Spoelstra) as I do, that his incredibly bug eyed take on I’ll Come Running was partially composed on his kitchen table. Another highlight has to be the nightmarish take on Golden Hours with Baba Electronica and DJ Lonely driving the track through some Dalían landscape.
It was inevitable that the original would be given a whole new perspective by modern technologies and circumstances anyway. Dissonance, fractionalisation, and a sort of tinny sonic levelling are the main propulsions here: as is a sense that this could be a classic lofi dance LP: the title track gets put through its “rave paces” in a highly entertaining manner, Garçon Taupe’s Sombre Reptiles is the sort of cheesy circuit board mash that is de rigeur these days whereas Legowelt’s In Dark Trees flirts with some sort of Goth stomp.
I could go on, but really, by now you should have got the picture. It’s a great record with not a bad moment on it and well worth your time.