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.