Brian Eno – Small Craft on a Milk Sea

November 2, 2010 • Warp Records

I've recently become a pretty big fan of Brian Eno, and have been digging his older ambient work (Ambients 1 and 4 and Another Green World especially). Small Craft on a Milk Sea, though, veers off in an entirely different direction (thanks to collaborators Jon Hopkins and Leo Abrahams) that barely even sounds like the Eno we know and love, and it's a weird experience.

I feel like I should start with that warning, because anyone starting to listen to the album for the first time might not have an idea anything's wrong until it's too late. Though the first three tracks are standard ambient fare comparable to Music for Films, after that the album suddenly turns into electronic music, mostly IDM, for its middle third. As Jon Hopkins is an IDM artist (not to mention that this album is on Warp Records) I shouldn't have been surprised to hear it, but it is still weird to hear. Because of this, the album suffers from a total lack of cohesiveness—the tracks don't feel like they belong together at all.

Now I'm not bashing the music; in fact, it's quite good. Eno's ambient compositions have always been strong in being able to express a very affective tone and mood with only minimal instrumentation and composition; this album isn't an exception and I don't think he's lost his touch yet. Though the pieces are mostly pretty short, much like in Music for Films it still feels like they are taking you somewhere. Unfortunately, since they are so short, you never really arrive, and the next track starts too soon to whisk you somewhere else.

This collaboration shows a lot of promise, but Small Craft failed to come through for me. The music is good but the songs are too short to really go anywhere, and all the genre-jumping makes listening to the album like flipping through a "Best of Warp Records" compilation. It's not a good feeling for me. However, even though this review probably sounds pretty harsh, the album is still a good listen. The tracks are very fine ambient and electronic that is definitely worth listening to. I just hope we can see a more matured version of this sound from Brian Eno sometime soon.

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