dynamo london

MusicWeb 2.0 anyone?

I wish I'd done this because:

• I admire Eno's inventive mind and his open-ended attitude to creativity
• I am particularly fond of this album he made with David Byrne
• I am impressed that musicians of this calibre have made their original multi-tracks available for anyone to remix
• I like the way the site has been designed to accommodate the results with a visual grading system for uploads

Launched almost a year ago the site has attracted well over 250 remixes so far, and I still wish I'd done it.

Although not a musician myself, I have been listening to (and learning from) Brian Eno since the very first Roxy Music album. His methodologies have always found a way of influencing the way I work in other media. This is a logical yet quite simple step for him to embrace Web 2.0 ideology in a beautifully direct and personal manner.

Only the bravest musicians would allow their finely-honed works to be modified and restructured in this way. And perhaps only the bravest musicians would attempt to redefine works by someone as creatively unimpeachable as Brian Eno.

I am reminded of the the way in which the German band Can allowed access to all of their works to be reconstructed for the 'Sacrilege' album, and that some well-respected musicians simply refused to attempt this "impossible" task. I am also reminded of course that Can member Holger Czukay made a remarkable album called 'Movies' at the end of the 70s, which in turn inspired Eno to make 'My Life in the Bush of Ghosts'. This album was recently re-appraised by Ultravox founder member John Foxx in the current (February 2007) issue of Mojo magazine.