VARIOUS – another another green
world
(CD, narrominded)
Some years back Narrominded
released a CD filled with underground (ie. unknown but great) bands from
around their home turf, which is upper middle Europe, which all centered
around Sonic Youth’s
great “Evol” album. They called that a Retro Retry. Now, this is the
second entry in this series of reworkings or analogies or inspirations by
some of the world’s best and most influential albums. This time around all
there is circles around Brian Eno’s ambient masterpiece “another green
world”. Actually, what it sets out to be is a cover of the whole album
with all songs in correct order and so on, yet the different participants go
so different ways, that the feeling of a compilation remains very strongly.
Because no matter what, the acts introduced on this record all either seem
to fall into the electronic / dance section or the ambient to pop / indie
section.
The most well known names of
bands on “another another green world” are Spoelstra and Hydrus, to me anyway. So, what is outstanding
amongst these mainly instrumental pieces: the Eighties, Giorgio Moroder
influenced disco stomper “St. Elmo’s Fire” by Rude 66 with full force
synth chorus and female choir in the back. Conan Oscar Polack reinvents
beautifully harmonic layers of either keyboards imitating horn sections or
horn section imitating keyboards. But then “the big ship” is a
beautiful, moving piece in slow motion, which has put the idea of chord
change on a level where it should better be called a chord exchange. And
then especially the great late night driving pop song of “everything
merges with the night” here played by the Hunter Complex. Actually, almost
all of the tracks could be mentioned or singled out for one reason or the
other, but where is the sense in that?
The overall package finally
secures the deal. I mean, a lot of great music is on here, but the definite
winner is the fact how all these very diverse bands and projects breathed in
the time and age (and probably state of mind) that Eno made this record in.
Of course, the original album is very diverse in its own right – it stands
out there as a masterpiece in some ways – so the variety of music
presented should have to reflect that. In another way this is also a kind of
lifestyle rather than an artistic choice. Either you live eclectic or you
don’t. But then, there is so little room at the fringe that you have to
expand in some ways to be able to maintain. If the result is some more or
less awful disco / techno here and there, then so be it. If this is the only
way to get to the real gems full of soul, thoughts and energy, here I come.
