The Equatorial Stars

by

Fripp & Eno

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In many ways, this album is everything one would have expected-- somehow the natural successor to "No Pussyfooting" and "Evening Star". In other ways, its nothing like I would have expected-- the usual stamps of Fripp and Eno's recent work seems to be missing.

Its really quite hard to largely identify the identity of the musician generating the sound on much of this material, there's obvious stuff (we'll come to that in a minute), but as a rule, the backgrounds could be either of them. Sonically, it moves through a number of backdrops, with delicate, percussive, synthish loops dominating the early part of the record ("Meissa", "Lyra", "Tarazed"), wheras the middle of the record feels more like their old collaborations updated, the sort of modern Fripp soundscapes being more apparent ("Lupus", "Ankaa"). The remainder of the album features on track that is totally unexpected, the downright funky "Altair", with its train shuffling rhythms, drum loops, and funky guitar (in ways similar to material from the Eno/Schwaum "Drawn from Life" record), and the closer, "Terebellum", is an aggressive, haunting, and almost angry sounding piece almost reminiscent of "Radiophonics" or the other more aggressive soundscapes.

Over this material, Fripp largely solos using a variant of his legendary fuzz tone-- its a bit mellower, and rounder though, similar to his leads on "Starless" and "The Power to Believe Part II" but in a more hushed feel.

So that tells not much, the real question is, what's it like? Largely an ambient affair, the collaboration is what you'd expect-- there's no real incindiery moments here-- don't look for a "Baby's On Fire", but it is comparable to their previous collaborations in quality, and it certainly sounds nothing like Crimson. Some of it is full of delicate beauty ("Lyra"), some of its just a blast ("Altair"), some of its actually quite hard to listen to at all ("Terebellum").

For fans of ambient music, especially the work of these two gentelemen, this one will be quite rewarding. It falls short somehow of being a masterpiece, but it is really a great record. Recommended.

Track five of this album consists of some muted bell-tones over a vague, rumbling bottom. It sounds for all the world like the soundtrack to "Blade Runner" during Decker's exploration of the Bradbury Hotel.

Which kinda explains a lot. The Bradbury, once a grand hotel, has fallen into disrepair and is now inhabited by various low-life squatters. This is exactly the situation of Fripp & Eno's groundbreaking loop-based ambient music from the seminal "No Pussyfooting" and "Evening Star" albums -- once stunning and innovative, now a little shabby and disreputable.

Oh, Bob & Brian give it a go and almost make the paradigm modern again with some digital treatments and sounds, but I couldn't help that shuddery feeling that it was only new wallpaper over a crumbled edifice.