High Life

Warp Records

Street: 07.01

Brian Eno / Karl Hyde = My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts + Aphex Twin – Roxy Music

Brian Eno has been hugely influential on several generations of musicians, starting in the ‘70s/’80s with bands as popular as U2 and Talking Heads, but also countless lesser known bands, and his influence was diffused since. Besides his production and recording work, his way of approaching music was a revelation. In a sense the ‘anti-musician,’ he nonetheless invented ambient music, and his theories touch on everything from the way we take in the world perceptually to creating perfume.

In High Life, he pairs for a second time with Karl Hyde of Underworld (May’s Someday World was the first) and arts collective Tomato. It’s an unlikely mix of minimalist repetition and a kind of funkish rhythmic experimentation. Both of those musical schools come out of the ‘70s, and this is slightly reminiscent of Eno’s work with David Byrne on My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, without the reliance on samples. Hyde’s guitar counterpoint enlivens Eno’s sometimes meditative approach. The duo’s ‘interactive augmented reality’ app Eno/Hyde is another way to enjoy this challenging musical collaboration. –Stakerized!