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Track Listings
| 1. Ringing Beat |
| 2. Gasp |
| 3. Sneering Loop |
| 4. Tripoli 2020 |
| 5. Behold The Child |
| 6. Timean Sparkles |
| 7. Dirt Loop |
| 8. The Idea Of Decline |
| 9. Deep Indian Long |
| 10. Hopeful Timean |
| 11. Glass Structure |
| 12. Voices |
| 13. Cross Crisis In Lust Storm |
Product Description
Review
Actually to describe this collection of sketches and works-in-progress as 'ambient' would be a total misnomer. Yes, parts (especially those which obviously came from the same semi-somnambulant sessions that produced !Stars) are as floaty and bath-time friendly as you'd expect, but there are also (as you'd expect with anything touched by the hand of Fripp) a fair few unsettling moments too. This makes the non-sequenced version of the album a little easier to take, as the stylistic jumps can be, well!startling.
Eno's instrumental work has tended more towards a beat-driven axis in recent years and this is reflected in the dubwise fog of 'Ringing Beat' or the more Crimson-esque 'Tripoli 2020', 'The Idea Of Decline' or 'Cross Crisis In A Lust Storm', where Fripp gets to spray that burning guitar all over the loops as in days of yore.
The other downside is that Fripp's midi tones in places have strangely dated: an occupational hazard with anything that was once so cutting edge. The funky xylophone/singing bowl and breathy ethereal choir tones in particular. Often you long for the simpler Frippertronic days of fuzz pedal and Revox that graced No Pussyfooting and Evening Star, but this is still an album filled with shimmering beauty and spooked wonderment. Eno's production adds just the right quantity of warp and grit, like filtering spring water through a rusty can. It's 90 percent serendipitous. His soundbeds always inspire Fripp to give his best. It was ever thus on Eno's own early albums and now, thirty years later, this still sounds like the work of people born to collaborate. Kindred souls indeed!. --Chris Jones
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Customer Reviews
Stylistically Beyond Even is difficult to classify. There are the to be expected ambient pieces - probably those that came from the same sessions as the Equatorial Stars material . But there are also startling sonic interludes , moments of queasy dissonance and totally unexpected traipses into new areas. It's especially unsettling on the mix CD, where the music tones often sound at odds with each other. It means both albums are less than coherent but also means it's never dull or predictable.
There are the sombre ambient tones of "Glass Structure , the juddering disordered beats of "Cross Crisis In A Lust Storm" or the spine-chilling insidiousness of the wonderfully titled "Sneering Loop" . There is the more recognisable Fripp/Eno "Timean Sparkles" where the midi-tones of Fripps guitar are sprayed over curricles of dissipating keyboard. Most startlingly there are the almost dub/techno pulsations of Cross Crisis In Lust Storm ". The serene undulations of "Deep Indian Long" , the hollow dubbish "Ringing Beat " or the more King Crimson timbre of "The Idea Of Decline" are more identifiable with what we have heard before from this pair .
It,s never as seminal as " No Pussyfooting" but this album shows two artists -one a hugely talented guitar player , one a bona fide genius ( I am certain you can work out which is which) who are never prepared to rest on any laurels that may be lying around. Beyond Even showcases musicians unafraid to embrace changes in popular music or perhaps even more impressively try to re-invent old ones. And I doing so they sound ,its fair to say I think like no one else but themselves.
Now, don't get me wrong; I don't pretend to understand the whole process but there is often a game to be had in music. Did this sound influence that change? Did that rhythm make them take this route? Did they think of repeating that section just one more time?
This album has little of that. All too often there is a feeling of 'copy, paste, plonk that on top'. Even when this is obvioulsy NOT the case, this is the feel. And, coming from one man for whom I have the utmost respect and one for whom I hold a grudging admiration, this is a disappointment.
Fripp and Eno are often greater than the sum of their parts but, on this work, they partially cancel each other out.
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