Brian Eno & Karl Hyde - Someday World (May 2014)

'High Life' stream:

http://pitchfork.com/advance/479-high-life/

Listened to it this afternoon (hat tip to Ned) while I screamed at ad clients to die in a fire. LOVED it, especially "DBF."

Oddly enough "DBF" is short for "Die Business Fuckfaces." (The 'Die' is German.)

Listened to it this night while zoning out editing stuff in Lightroom, perfectly suited due to its stronger emphasis on repetitive patterns.

yeah I like High Life more than someday world. Although I liked Someday World more when I listened to it this week than I did when it came out.

Can't wait to hear this new one. I've been coming back to Someday World a lot, as mentioned upthread it really is oddly lovable. The bouncier bits on here like "Who Rings the Bell" or "Daddy's Car" are excellent and I dig the way it's produced - I agree that there are weak spots but there are also a lot of bits that sound exactly like what I'd hope an Eno/Hyde collaboration might sound like. I can see a lot of people coming around to this album after getting past A) the horns in track 1 and B) the realization that it's more lightweight than most of us hoped.

high life got bnm! not that that means anything but turns out it's really good!

(i really enjoyed someday world too)

I was a little shocked by that until I saw it was Mark Richardson, as he's one of the few dudes over there who would even accept the possibility that something like this could be great

Ryan said it was the best thing Eno had done in years.

I prefer HL to SW.

so do I, by a fair margin. it sounds more like an Eno album, for one thing.

SFJ kills SW in the New Yorker but had fabulous things to say about HL.

the sfj eno profile is generally really enjoyable even though i want to nitpick it to death

As I wait for HL to make its way to Spotify...

"Witness," from Someday World, is a real corker. It has some of those great Eno ensemble vocal harmonies he's fashioned on U2 and James albums over the years. On this, there's a bit where the vocals resolve themselves at about 4:07 which coming after all that motorik feels like a particularly awesome release.

Listening to this and enjoying it but good grief there is no excuse for resorting to plasticky synth-brass at
all.

Eno's good at that sort of thing though.

Who Rings the Bell is also great on this.

High Life is soooo good.

yeah I finally heard it and its definitely very good, reminds me a lot of My Life in the Bush of Ghosts; the part where Hyde/Eno's vocals come in 2/3rds through "Time To Waste It" is so killer. I still like Someday World a lot but this is a real treasure, maybe even an AOTY candidate

I've been listening to High Life nearly every day now, I know I'm prone to hyperbole but this has got to be Eno's best since Before and After Science right? "Lilac" has such a killer groove to it, "Time it to Waste it" sounds totally alien, "DHF" is nuts, every single track outside of "On a Grey Day" (which is a bonus anyway) is great.

Just occured to me that theres sort of a parallel between these two albums and the two that Eno did with David Byrne; High Life being sort of like My Life in the Bush of Ghosts - listening to them back to back, I found HL more enjoyable overall - fills in the blanks a lot better

yeah high life is killer, a nice surprise. have to check out someday world i guess!

Just heard High Life, this shit slaps
Moulded Life is fuckin great

"Witness" came up on shuffle and absolutely leveled me. The long, long bridge is a bit offputting - very much sounds like Hyde trying to fill in a giant blank - but when the vocal melody comes back it's got to be one of the best moments on any of Eno's vocal albums. "Did you ever take a ride along the road taken all your life, only to find it didn't go to the place you thought it would arrive?" - such a beautiful line. Also just found out there are bonus tracks which are sounding very good right now.

As a lifetime fan of Eno and a longtime fan of Underworld I can't believe I waited until today to give this album the attention it deserves. What a wonder it is.

Someday World or High Life?

Someday World. For some inexplicable reason SW left no immediate impression on me, but High Life did. But listening back to SW, I'm shocked at my lack of a reaction, because it's great.

Both are great! Think I prefer someday world too - initially thought that was the well received one, bought it and loved it immediately

Indeed this is premier cru. For once it is not an ambient snoozefest. In my perception eno - whose 70s music i cherish - hasn't done anything awesome since on land. This grooves! SW I mean.

on land = ambient snoozefest

No way. On Land is full of weird sounds. Totally mesmerizing.

/kidding

ymmv but i have spent many hours entrance by "thursday afternoon". there is a lot going on there.

so apparently Hyde scored a play with Matthew Herbert called Fatherland (lol), here's a track from the soundtrack which is (apparently) out already?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BO3mFk4RBQU

pretty cool, full of found sound and what not, if it sounds like Edgeland I'm in

surprised to find out that fred gibson, who co-produced these records, has since become a very successful producer in uk pop and rap and nigerian afrobeats as well (he's produced for mr. eazi and burna boy)