Eno: is it a yes? Kinda
Granted it has been a long time since MV was anything approaching 15, but it’s a fair bet that when we were as the 1980s became the 1990s, we were listening to Poison, Skid Row, and Guns n Roses and getting annoyed as our football team get relegated. We’ve not moved on very far to be honest.
What we weren’t doing is getting together our mates and forming a prog rock band. But we aren’t Second Relation.
Such an endeavour is exactly how the Austrian five piece spent their mid-teenage years, so much so that even now, some nine years later and on album number three, they are still young enough to not know better.
Which brings us to “Eno” and that third record is their last in a trio of records that involved girls names. It is also easily their most accomplished in terms of songwriting lyrics. Heavy enough in their early days to share stages with the likes of Funeral For A Friend and Sepultura, for “Eno” they disappeared, holing themselves up in a Stockholm studio with David Castillo – a producer famed for his work with Opeth and Katatonia – and the result is something that is interesting, compelling and extremely ambitious.
A concept piece which sees a lost young woman on a journey of self-discovery into darkness and back out the other side, whereas usually we’d say in our review that whether you buy into the story or not is your choice, here you don’t get the option. Here the narrative is all-pervasive, even the lyrics themselves are written as poetry rather in a conventional sense.
There are some fine songs here, though. “Labyrinth” – which notes “we are but a tiny little speck of dust” as if reminding itself of the struggles ahead – doesn’t so much have echoes of Riverside, as desperately want to one of the Polish band’s tunes. Even allowing for that, though, it does the job extremely well.
“White Mirror” is better still, and comes along with a real funky strut. Like many of the 10 songs here, this scores heavily because the rhythms of these things never do what you’d expect them to and the timings should be off-kilter, but work. They are also heavy on the keyboards too, as “The Essence Of The City” proves, and for all the bluster that “Canvas Colour Comfort” ushers itself in with, it relies on the texture of the synth riff to really make its point, and as things get really bleak for Eno herself, then “Rebirth” pulses in with a real stark electro feel.
Actually better when they rely on their own vocal harmonies to hit home, as on the Pink Floyd-ish “Countless Damage”, it is the longest song on here, “Familiar Surroundings” that is perhaps the best thing on offer, seeming to tie up all their ideas in a neater package than some of its brethren.
As things improve for our heroine, then the mood lightens, the lush tones of “Any Direction” reminds of the recent Steven Wilson work, while “Second Hand Life” which completes the story, chucks a bit of everything in – almost as a reprisal – and is a timely reminder of the sheer scope of what is being attempted here.
“Eno” is a varied work, one which Second Relation will rightly be proud of. Such are its many layers it may be a while before its fully appreciated, but it is a mature and classy work from a band who might well one day write their masterpiece.
Rating 7/10
