Enon

Rarely does a release appear that is this stunningly fresh. Enon has captured the five decades of modern music and released it on one CD, without imitating and without saluting. Bursting out smartly and sounding twistedly familiar, the songs on High Society are all big-beat movers with earthshaking guitars and synthesizers. Enon breaks so many musical rules that High Society would get the death penalty if tried in a music composition court of law. [What about rock-crit cliché court?—Ed.] Gutsier than Stereolab in its wildest dreams, with demented son of Fripp guitar leads, bonging and bending synthesizers, crispy bass vocoders, train-wreck guitars and snaky bass lines all layered, arranged and adjusted in a loud Beatle-ish, melodic, hard-rocking and neatly presented package. The worst songs on High Society are better than the best songs on all of the CDs that I’ve heard this year.