Musikexpress review of Enclosure
Wonderful rock songs that, as if self-evident, dock to asteroids with names such as Prog, Electronica, HipHop and Drum’n’Bass.
Every now and then, us musical critics like to proclaim an artist’s shooting his songs into the orbit. This usually serves to tell the reader that in the respective case, ‘sound’ and ‘space’ are of major importance.
John Frusciante’s nine new songs have in fact been shot into the orbit of earth at the end of March, aboard a satellite. Via a free app (available, as it should be, for iOS and Android) fans were able to connect to the satellite and stream the album before its release. An advertising gimmick, the intention of which comes across quite pathetic in corporate-CEO-German: the campaign is “revealing a new chapter in the attempt to explore the cosmic relationship between art and science“ – oh yes, no less than that.
The new songs of the former Red-Hot-Chili-Peppers guitarist do not need to undergo a scientific examination, they have a natural futuristic appeal which could already be admired on his preceding records. After his quitting the Chili Peppers, Frusciante was under suspicion of being artistically unchallenged. Indeed, he cannot only write great rock songs; he knows how to bring great liveliness to his songs on manipulated electronic and percussion sound tracks. This can be heard in the song “Sleep†which fluctuates between a HipHop ballad and a Drum’n’Bass track, or in the progressive-rock chamber music “Shining Desert†at the start. On the first sparsely droning song “Zoneâ€, strings suddenly raise/lift/uplift (?) the lamenting vocals until the song exhaustively fades out. During all of this, the instrument which made Frusciante famous often plays the most insignificant part. It is due to this guitarist’s grandeur that he is able to soft-pedal when it comes to demonstrating guitar skills.
4/5 out of 5 stars
– Frank Sawatzki
