The Week That Was: The Week That Was

In

April 2007, the end of the "Field Music indie band" (as one member disdainfully

called it) was announced on the BBC. The trio was exhausted by the popularity

song-and-dance routine, and its members announced their intent to "go and do

some real work." While David Brewis' School Of Language—a jerky cut-up

rock project that emerged in January—felt like work still in progress,

his brother Peter's The Week That Was is truly a labor to love. It helps that

the gang is all here (David, Field Music keyboardist Andrew Moore, nine others)

to act out Peter's handsome ambitions as composer/conductor. The Week That

Was

leaves "indie rock" behind, hops right over hip marching-band music, and lands

square between the lofty obelisks of high-art pop and New Music. "It's All Gone

Quiet" deftly channels Another Green World-era Eno over a Reich-like vibes-and-drums

combo. "The Good Life" imagines Peter Gabriel singing for Talking Heads. "Come

Home" is the kind of thing that might emerge from Cornelius producing The

Kinks. Meanwhile, Kate Bush and Brian Wilson just kind of frolic freely

throughout. It's a tough set of legacies to live up to, but the freshly

liberated Field Music crew doesn't seem the least bit intimidated.