CD Reviews

Brian Eno | Panic of Looking

Warp (2011)

By JONATHAN DONALDSON | November 16, 2011

2.0 Stars

For those who enjoyed Brian Eno's collaboration with English poet Rick Holland from earlier this year, Drums Between the Bells, this follow-up EP may be a nice digestif. For everybody else, don't expect anything too impressive from Panic of Looking, a short collection of afterthoughts from Eno and Holland's exchanges. The centerpiece of the collection is the title track, which features Holland's gloomy, hyper-tactile voice reciting against a gently dissonant, almost organic-industrial backing-track from Eno. Whether the artists have stumbled upon a conceptual breakthrough regarding the push and pull between words and music is within the prerogative of the beholder — to some, the results might just sound like the Fall with a clean shirt and nice haircut. If any real rewards are to be reaped from this collaboration, they would have to come from repeated listens to Holland's words. Though Eno is adequate, moments where he takes over the collaboration (such as on "West Bay" and "Watch a Single Swallow . . . ") are too under-nourished and ponderous to suggest that he's giving us something new.

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