For the record, Nerve Net was not Brian Eno‘s first attempt at rock & roll. Not counting his time with Roxy Music, he also made several solo albums in the 1970s that were clearly intended as approaches to pop music — they were sideways approaches, of course, shaped by the intellectual distance he has always kept between himself and the music that arises from the forces that he puts into motion, and they were far from unqualified successes. But this is his most rocking solo album in years, and also his funkiest. That’s not say it’s either funky or rock & roll, but it does manage to be lots of fun in a slightly inhuman, claustrophobically funky sort of way. The list of participants includes several of the usual suspects (Robert Fripp, Robert Quine, Roger Eno), as well as a few surprises…
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…(Benmont Tench, John Paul Jones) and a raft of unknowns. The sound, which doesn’t vary much from track to track, is compressed and dense, with lots of heavily treated and synthesized percussion. On “What Actually Happened,” for example, drummer Richard Bailey plays a distinctly organic funk part through what sounds like a battery of effects, while a bassist and guitarist do indistinguishable things and Eno messes around with everything and throws in samples. “Juju Space Jazz” features both Quine and Fripp (the latter credited with “early ’50s club guitar”) as well as Eno playing such instruments as “African organ” and “tenor fax.”
The album was reissued in 2014 with a bonus disc that features the elusive My Squelchy Life album. Originally scheduled for release in 1991, the album was shelved when scheduling issues led to Eno feeling that the finished tracks were behind the cutting edge. He decided he would rather start over with new songs rather than release something he didn’t feel 100% good about. Despite rumors over the years that it would soon surface, this is the first official release of the album.
Disc 1: Nerve Net
01. Fractal Zoom
02. Wire Shock
03. What Actually Happened?
04. Pierre in Mist
05. My Squelchy Life
06. Juju Space Jazz
07. The Roil, the Choke
08. Ali Click
09. Distributed Being
10. Web
11. Web (Lascaux Mix)
12. Decentre
Disc 2: My Squelchy Life
01. I Fall Up
02. The Harness
03. My Squelchy Life
04. Tutti Forgetti
05. Stiff
06. Some Words
07. Juju Space Jazz
08. Under
09. Everybody’s Mother
10. Little Apricot
11. Over