Music Arcades: Fripp and Eno: The Equatorial Stars

The last fortnight has already seen Fripp and Eno feature twice each, separately, on Music Arcades. Here they are together, to round out this mini-festival. Last time boys featured here together, I had one of my many is-it-me-or-is-this-a-bit-crap tussles with myself, tending toward the a-bit-crap, but holding back, "let's postpone further discussion until the next and final (so far) Fripp & Eno item in my collection." Here it is.

Maybe it's just me, but I like this one. Nothing to blow anyone's socks off, perhaps, but if either gent has released anything better in the 21st century, then I have yet to be awakened to it. You might think that, over 30 years after they started working together, their respective habits would have ossified into something dry and predictable. I don't hear either of them repeating themselves or stamping their personality over the music. At the same time, the music holds true to the ethos and ethics of "ambient" that they first sketched all that time ago. Just one thing — and maybe this diverges slightly from the original ethos — I found it was necessary to play on a decent system, and to pay attention to get the most out of it.

In the case of Beyond Even, my opinion firmed up when I found the Allmusic critic agreed with me. I just checked their review of The Equatorial Stars, and was heartened to read, "There seems to be a genuine synergy when these two work together, and [this album] is a worthy successor to their earlier brilliant albums together."