The second collaboration between Eno and the guys from Cluster (originally released in 1978) fails to captivate in the same way as Cluster & Eno from the previous year did. Disparate in its approach to style, it feels like it is going to collapse at any moment and at times it falls flat. However, some genuinely superb moments bring After the Heat back from the brink and save it from being a poor cousin to the other work these artists have done together.
After the Heat never quite gets going like the previous album that the trio put out. The innocuous—and frankly boring—piano piece “Luftschloss” sits in the middle of some good but not exactly stellar electronic pieces. Granted this could be ambient fatigue from someone experiencing this album 30 years after it was first released but it sounds like they are phoning it in for the first half of the album. The lacklustre pieces have little life to them and feel like unfinished sketches. It is not until “Old Land” that the album begins to work but, as far as what any of these artists are capable of, this piece remains average at best.
Despite this poor start, there are some stunning moments later on in the album such as “Base & Apex,” which, although a little dated sounding, still enthrals. The forward momentum is kept up with “Broken Head” which sees the trio pre-empt industrial and post-punk; a clanking rhythm and vocals that sound like a broken machine that has just become self-aware. “The Belldog,” echoing the style employed on Eno’s album Here Come the Warm Jets with its catchy pop hook sounds more like an Eno solo effort rather than a full collaboration between the himself and Cluster. However, it is still a great track and fits in well here after “Broken Head.”
Overall, After the Heat lacks the magic expected from Eno, Cluster or any combination of the above. Yet taken in part, it is some of the better work done between them. It is possible to hear how in the '80s other artists would take what the larger Krautrock scene and Eno did in the '70s and make it into post punk and as such, After the Heat, represents a moment in time where evolution was occurring at a rapid rate. Yet, like most fossils, it is too two-dimensional to be of any real importance.
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