Slowly at first, and then with a tornadic gush, Brian Eno and Karl Hyde begin this collaborative journey. “The Satellites” kicks off with an almost imperceptible pulse, then synth and sax tangle and untangle — creating an undulating dissonance, before there emerges from these whispers a canny amalgam of Eno’s ambient ruminations and Hyde’s Underworld electronica.
Suddenly, “The Satellites” (a lead track from Someday World, due May 6, 2014 via Warp, the label that has issued Eno’s previous four recordings) has become this doomy dance track, if only for a moment. A black moment of reminiscence, ticking with portent but as mysterious as the previous verse had been propulsive, cleaves the song in two — and then Hyde is back at it again, hurtling us toward an uncertain fate after a sweaty night at the disco.
The duo is joined here by multiinstrumentalist producer Fred Gibson, drummer John Reynolds, saxists Georgia Gibson and Andy Mackay — the latter of whom, like Eno, served as a founding member of Roxy Music. Someday World also includes contributions from Will Champion of Coldplay, among others.
This isn’t the busy Eno’s only recent collaboration, either. You’ll also found him on the album-closing track from Everyday Robots, the solo debut of Damon Albar, of Blur and Gorillaz fame. Eno also produced a song from James Blake’s 2013 disc Overgrown. Eno has worked with Coldplay off and on over the years, most recently producing 2011’s Mylo Xyloto. Both Drums Between the Bells and Panic of Looking, released in 2011, found Eno working with poet Rick Holland.
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