New Eno!

I've been listening to Brian Eno for years, so I'd pretty much figured he'd exhausted his bag of tricks; he's released so many ground-breaking and influential albums, he was bound to repeat himself. But lo and behold, here comes "High Life", the second album Eno's recorded with Underworld's Karl Hyde. This one's from April 2014, and while it's not a total departure for Eno, it's certainly different enough to be very entertaining -- and welcome. There are still jagged bits of melody that repeat over and over through a song, but many times they morph into something else by the end of the piece. Take the first song "Return": the repeated guitar phrase acts like a loop throughout the song, but by the end of its 9 minutes, it slowly has retreated to the background and sounds more like the German space guitar pieces of Manuel Gottsching. 

There are several vocals, but they don't always occupy center stage, and without a lyric sheet, well, good luck figuring out what they're supposed to be about. There is an identifiable African influence -- the second song "DBF" sounds like Conky the Robot from "Pee Wee's Playhouse" has been downloading some Fela Kuti albums. All in all, a very enjoyable release, even, dare I say it, FUN!