Brian Eno with Jon Hopkins & Leo Abrahams: Small Craft on a Milk Sea

Label: Warp

It's been years since Brian Eno should've retired to a cozy life of well-paid lecturing on his enormously important career. Well, he kind of has done that, but he also continues to make new music as vital as any of his latter-day contemporaries -- two of whom accompany him on this vibrant and vital new album. Over its 15 tracks you'll get prime '70s-era Eno-ambience ("Complex Heaven," the title track, "Slow Ice, Old Moon") as well as bustling, galloping pieces such as the prickly "Flint March" and "2 Forms of Anger," which starts in a tense simmer and then erupts into what can only be called rock music! Throughout, the master -- who plays only computers on Small Craft on a Milk Sea -- is aided and abetted by Sound Fix fave Jon Hopkins (keyboards and electronics) and Leo Abrahams (guitar and laptop), who add key elements to each piece that are easy to spot. Sheer brilliance, and the packaging is lovely and Eno-esque as well. (M.L. Thrope)