written by Chris Familton

Brian Eno surprised many when it was announced that this album would be coming out on the Warp label with its focus on forward thinking electronica. Hearing it makes the move the perfect fit as this is an album of stern electronica with flashes of dissonance and a certain sci-fi film quality to many of the tracks.

Eno, with collaborators Jon Hopkins and Leo Abrahams, took inspiration from soundtracks and as a result many of the pieces do have a strong cinematic feel. Often the tracks only last a few minutes leaving the feeling that Eno was content to find his compositional point via improvisation and then move on quickly to the next idea. From ambient beginnings the album quickens considerably with the anxious rush of Horse – all chattering synths and galloping percussion that departs as soon as its establishes momentum.

The two tracks that standout as the album highlights are The Sonic Youth meets Can krautrock of 2 Forms of Anger and the closing track Late Anthropocene with its pretty and subtle fluttering notes that weave a totally immersive soundscape over seven minutes. They work because they feel like focused pieces of music that have been labored over versus the half-thoughts of some of the other tracks.

Eno does explore other styles on the album like the jazz/hip hop Bone Jump with its fragmented glitches, Emerald & Stone’s elegiac and emotive piano playing from Hopkins and the synth washes and 70s kosmiche explorations of Lesser Heaven.

Small Craft on a Milk Sea is certainly an interesting collection of musical ideas but as an album it lacks resonance and cohesive flow. You sense that Eno and co are dabbling and improvising and that perhaps the process is more exciting to them than the results.

this review first appeared in Drum Media