Brian Eno stretches out on The Drop, his 1997 collection of jazz-influenced experiments, available once again courtesy of All Saints Records. While Eno is hardly ever short of a concept, there doesn’t seem to be one here, though there is an aural motif of sorts. The sketches here, most less than three minutes and lacking any traditional song structure, are mainly built from piano and live sounding electronic drums, especially heavy on ride cymbal. The cheese factor may be a bit high, but the atmosphere is thick on moody pieces like ‘Swanky’, ‘Boomcubist’ and ‘Rayonism’. Fans of revisionist composers like Angelo Badalamenti will know the score.

CD edition includes 9 rarely-heard bonus tracks from the same period as The Drop, previously only available as limited edition of 1,000 sold at an exhibition of Brian Eno’s 77 Million Paintings at La Floret in Japan in 2006, the original issue of which has since become a collector’s item amongst Eno fans.

Side A

A1. Slip, Dip
A2. But If
A3. Belgian Drop
A4. Cornered
A5. Block Drop
A6. Out/Out
A7. Swanky
Side B
B1. Coasters
B2. Blissed
B3. M.C. Organ
B4. Boomcubist
B5. Hazard
Side C
C1. Rayonism
C2. Dutch Blur
C3. Back Clack
C4. Dear World
C5. Slicing System
C6. Sharply Cornered
Side D
D1. Iced World