Brian Eno - Small Craft On A Milk Sea

Brian Eno - Small Craft on a Milk Sea (**)
album review for the skinny

Warp’s signing of Brian Eno was a symbolic coup for the label, the spiritual homecoming of a common ancestor to their entire roster’s two-decade output. But Small Craft On A Milk Sea does not indicate a return to the cutting-edge for Eno, who’s been wallowing in abstract ambient sound design for longer than Warp’s lifetime.

When Small Craft summons some energy, as in early tracks Horse and 2 Forms of Anger, racing drums, buzzing insects and squawking mechanical birds form a frightening scene, before the latter track’s guitars explode and enflame for a full minute.

But for the most part, Small Craft drifts aimlessly in featureless ambience. For all that he achieved in his first decade-or-so as a musician and producer – and his legacy of innovation in rock and electronic music is peerless – it’s difficult to detect anything of genius or inspiration in his 2010 output.

Leila - Blood, Looms and Blooms

album review for the skinny

Leila - Blood, Looms and Blooms (**)

Leila’s debut album for Warp unnecessarily revives two mid-90s styles that should’ve been allowed to rest in peace: trip-hop, and Mr Scruff. Portishead changed their game because they realised trip-hop doesn’t need to come back, and the less said about Mr Scruff’s self-satisfied wackiness the better. For several tracks on Blood, Looms and Blooms, only the first 30 seconds or so are important, because the remainder consists of just quieter or louder variations on the loop. It’s a cheap trick, but it works well on Mettle, where fast-dripping water in a cave, straining strings and a battering bassline come in and out powerfully. Deflect uses the same bassline sound to support typically sultry vocals from Martina Topley-Bird, Tricky’s former beau, and a drowsily narcotic cover of Norwegian Wood with an unhinged falsetto is a highlight. But it’s all a bit dated, as you’d expect; if you dig up the dead, expect it to smell a little.