The Enid - Salome

The Enid can sometimes be accused of always sounding the same, but on this piece they're pretty original even within their style, experimenting with more exotic sounds. It's based on the Salome story, and conveys a hot and sticky, decadent atmosphere, with its gloopy harmonies and percussion-heavy arrangements.

It starts off with a relatively straight song, "O Salome", with some tortured vocals and a jerky 1980's style drum and instrumental backing. However it's a bit repetitive and doesn't really need to go on for 10 minutes. "Sheets of Blue" is a strong, well-produced instrumental tune (with hints of Ryuichi Sakamoto's "Forbidden Colours"). The "Dance Music" is based around another jerky, hypnotic percussion pattern, that gradually increases in speed. Unsubtle sexual imagery is everywhere, but this is interesting and distinctive stuff. After its "climax" it fades away over ten minutes with a more conventional Enid-style keyboard-based Romantic slow movement.

May 25, 2003

7 out of 10

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