ENID

"Tears Of The Sun"
 (CD)

1.Then There Were None [4:18],
2.The Demon King [4:16],
3.Elegy For Piano [3:17],
4.Sundialer [4:55],
5.Jessica's Song [4:13],
6.Spring [6:50],
7.Song For Europe [4:18],
8.Tears Of The Sun [9:27],
9.Sanctus [6:17],
10.Evensong (Sax Arrangement) [4:26],
11.Gigue [6:53],
12.In The Region Of The Summer Stars [8:49]:
I.The Flood, II.Under The Summer Stars, III.Adieu, IV.Land Of The Glory [4:36]

I saw them by accident. Some friends told me that they were interesting, bit of an understatement as it happens. Childe Rolande opened the show, and flattened me to the back wall. how little i knew, I thought Black Sabbath were heavy-but compared to this. And not just noise or volume, the Enid have an intensity, an emotional weight that I'd never heard before, at least not in rock music.This really was classical music but with guitars and keyboards-Stravinsky with attitude. For a time the Enid were the only thing on my turntable, the only thing that mattered. I saw them 5 times on that tour each was a totally honest exchange of emotion. I watched, expectantly for a sign of "going through the motions". nothing. they were as committed to giving their all as I was expecting to receive it.and every time they delivered. I kind of lost touch with their music after a year or two, my fault not theirs. the music doesn't work well as background, it demands attention, not that it's difficult, it just, needs your focus to appreciate the breadth of vision that it offers up.This is big music, wide screen music. If you allow it to, it will connect with you on a level you may never have experienced before. for me, it goes in the ears and runs wildly up and down my spine, tingling like a bolt of energy- it howls in my bones like the ghost of electricity, to quote Mr Dylan. Childe Rolande isn't on this fine collection, a shame, but with so much to choose from, compiling this must have been like a musical Sophie's choice.
All the good ones are here; the nursery rhyme strangeness of "and then there were none", the last night of the proms pageantry of "land of hope and glory" and the sheer unbridled exuberance of song for Europe and the epic in the region of the summer stars.
In todays pre-packaged, pop-idols music industry, it seems that the Enid are an anachronism, emotionally charged, intense and above all, imaginative music is out of fashion Tough, I like 'em, many people of taste and discretion, people of my acquaintance like 'em as well. Give it a listen, and then let Mr Godfrey know how you feel. That was the other thing about the Enid, John Lennon sang about being a working class hero, the Enid though, they are the epitome of a peoples band. They are your band. You should enjoy them, give them a chance, give yourself a chance. Who knows, you might enjoy it.

(c) Robert Carr / UK