If Mother Nature made an album, it would probably sound a lot like this.
I can't think of many other things that picked up on the lessons of Miles Davis' electric period as well as this album. The whole thing just evokes those towering sparse moments of melancholy that pop up so often on Agharta and Pangaea. But it doesn't sound derivitive by any means. Instead, the music created here sounds the way it does through the evolution of a collective and the whole album holds together so incredibly well. In shortened terms, this is seriously good stuff. The whole thing has a meditative, relaxed (and relaxing) overtone and on songs like the rolling "Blackwater" and the constant chug of "Pocket Full of Change", Mr. Sylvian sounds the most content he's sounded in some time. There are shades of the borderline new ageiness that Sylvian was flirting with just prior to the group's formation and even though things like the acoustic guitar solo on "Red Earth (as summertime ends)" sound a little forced, the backing band is experimenting with sounds, so it can put the otherwise awkward elements into an interesting setting. There are all kinds of sounds all over this thing: the standard rock band lineup, synths and other keyboards, African choirs, slide guitars, all kinds of brass and woodwinds and all sorts of exotic percussion. While it does sound vaguely similar to Sylvian's solo work of the time, it's a unique affair for everyone involved. A direction unfortunately abandoned, this album stands as one of the most out-of-place records of its time. It stands up against the test of time incredibly well, which also says a lot about its influence.
~Austin
