Bang On A Can - Music for Airports (Point Music)

It's about time something like this happened. In the absence of any reissues or reassessments of past glories from the man himself, Bang On A Can have taken it upon themselves to produce an entirely new interpretation/homage of Brian Eno's Music For Airports. If you haven't heard of Music For Airports, it's hardly surprising. This gem of an LP basically kicked off the entire ambient music genre but has been laid to rest in dusty seventies progressive rock sections of second hand record shops for almost twenty years.

But BOAC have brought things right up to date with a complete re-recording of the original album with just one major change. All the synthesiser loops and effects have been sidelined in favour of cover versions using only acoustic instruments! That's cello, bass, piano, percussion, guitar and clarinet, fact fans, which brings to mind the other ambient masters of the acoustic stream, Channel Light Vessel.

To tackle covering an LP like Music For Airports, with all it's intricacies, atmosphere's and themes isn't daring, it's bordering on madness. But the results are staggeringly true to the original, so full marks to the four arrangers who all transcribed every movement of the original, each adding their own particular mood. And the beauty of a reinterpretation using 'real' instruments is that this LP can now be performed live - like at the recent premier staged at - where else? - Stansted Airport. 7/10


This review also published in: DJ magazine