Search - Brian Eno :: Fractal Zoom

Not bad

Sean M. Kelly | Portland, Oregon United States | 09/23/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I was intrigued by the concept of Eno and Moby getting together (and this was in 1992 when they did this..Moby's "Go!" was still a major club hit,and I was spinning it at clubs then, but very few people knew who he was otherwise) to do some work, and in some places ("Fractal Zoom" is the only track, but mixed and whatnot a dozen or so ways, Mody involved on more than 1/2 of them) it works out nicely.Ultimately, the 2 could have spent more time together, perhaps helping Eno get a better basic track made from which to base these remixes.For Eno fans and Moby fans, this cd is certainly a curio, but not as groundbreaking as it could have been..I would love to see them try to do this project again, now that Moby is supersaturating the AOM charts- maybe it will help Eno gain a new fan base who can respect his music."

Don't be put off by the label "single"

G. Faville | Wisconsin | 04/11/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This CD is made of many different remixes of the song "Fractal Zoom" off of Eno's Nerve Net album, plus the inclusion of the song "The Roil, The Choke" which is a superb construction of electronic melancholia. Even though the disc is labeled as a "CD Single" it contains, if I recall correctly, 65-70 minutes of music.



The song is remixed about every way you could think, from small rearrangements of sounds to complete destruction of the original into slow ambience. So even though the same song is listed, many of them sound nothing alike. For the money of a used CD, which is apparently the only way to get it, it's definitely worth it if you're an Eno fan. I was not aware that Moby had anything to do with this disc, since this came out in 1992 and I wasn't even aware of Moby's existence until his 1995 "Everything is Wrong." I will have to go back and look at my Fractal Zoom case now and listen with a new perspective."

A lesson in theme & variations

Steve Peters | Seattle, WA | 09/02/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Eleven remixes of the same song, four by Eno and Markus Draws/Dravs and seven of them by Moby. It's an upbeat, dance-y, two-chord vamp with a driving beat and a bubbly bass line. As Eno songs go, by far not his most interesting. As Moby stuff goes, fairly unremarkable. So forget about the song. But as a lesson in remixology, it's pretty fascinating to hear all of the ways they transform the same basic materials across so many versions. Some of the mixes are totally unrecognizable as coming from the same source.



This is not a great, essential Eno release by any means (though not nearly as bad as Nerve Net or The Drop), and certainly not at all "radical" compared to what has happened in the remix world since 1992. But it is probably worth checking out for the educational value. Oh, and "The Roil, the Choke" is an extra song included about a third of the way in. It's OK, sounds like an outtake from Another Day on Earth."