When Above...

Enuma Elish | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 13, 2001)
• Original Release Date: August 13, 2001
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Lithiq, Inc.
• ASIN: B00005OSWD
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #712,689 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Insurgent Procession

2. Cairo Cab Ride

3. Tiamat's Resurrection

4. Hanging Garden

5. Universal Dave

6. Dalit Cry

7. Pharaoh's March

8. Mammalapuram

9. Compression

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars "Somewhere Between Trance and Transcendent", November 25, 2009

By 

Neil Kambeaze (Eugene, OR) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: When Above... (Audio CD)

"This month's press clipping superstar is Enuma Elish, a two-man jazz and synth group from Boston who mix live music with prerecorded samples of Middle Eastern instruments and sounds. The result is surprisingly intoxicating, somewhere between trance and transcendent. Warren Jones, who handles the woodwinds, and Yuri Zbitnoff, who covers the electronica and percussion (which are often the same thing), are classically trained, which translates to "they understand song structure and could probably make a blender sound melodic." These skills serve them well on When Above..., recorded live and brimming with subtle originality.

Nine tracks, all of them markedly different and alive with personality, manage to create a fairly stimulating portrait of life in Egypt, Morocco, India and beyond -- all places where native sounds were captured for use back home in Boston. "Insurgent Procession" and "Mammalapuram" dig their grooves slowly, layering instruments and samples until each track reaches a boiling point. "Cairo Cab Ride" loops street sounds with a ferocious underbeat, simulating a frenzied traffic attack that could either cure or inspire road rage, depending upon your day. "Tiamat's Resurrection" is an aural epic, nearly falling into three-act dramatic structure. Tiamat is also the name of the Sumerian goddess slain by her lover in one myth, and from her belly poured the contents of the universe. Enuma Elish are nothing if not world scholars, in both the cultural and musical senses."
-Justin Kownacki
Reprinted from Splendid Magazine

I thought this was a great review. I own the album and agree wholeheartedly. The group's most impressive project, however, is when they did a travelling show performing their music to classic silent films. I saw their version of "Metropolis", and I am hoping and praying they somehow get the rights to make a DVD release of their version!