Brian Eno - The Drop [Expanded Edition] (2014)

Brian Eno stretches out on The Drop, his 1997 collection of jazz-influenced experiments, available once again courtesy of All Saints Records. While Eno is hardly ever short of a concept, there doesn’t seem to be one here, though there is an aural motif of sorts. The sketches here, most less than three minutes and lacking any traditional song structure, are mainly built from piano and live sounding electronic drums, especially heavy on ride cymbal. The cheese factor may be a bit high, but the atmosphere is thick on moody pieces like ‘Swanky’, ‘Boomcubist’ and ‘Rayonism’. Fans of revisionist composers like Angelo Badalamenti will know the score.

CD edition includes 9 rarely-heard bonus tracks from the same period as The Drop, previously only available as limited edition of 1,000 sold at an exhibition of Brian Eno’s 77 Million Paintings at La Floret in Japan in 2006, the original issue of which has since become a collector’s item amongst Eno fans.

Tracklist:

CD1:

01. Slip, Dip
02. But If
03. Belgian Drop
04. Cornered
05. Block Drop
06. Out/out
07. Swanky
08. Coasters
09. Blissed
10. M.C. Organ
11. Boomcubist
12. Hazard
13. Rayonism
14. Dutch Blur
15. Back Clack
16. Dear World
17. Iced World

CD2:

01. Never Stomp
02. System Piano
03. Bonk 12
04. Luxor Night Car
05. Targa Summer
06. Cold
07. Little Slicer
08. Surf Birds
09. Targa