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Brian Eno

Seth

06:38 / 09.06.05

I did a quick search on here for old threads on Eno and came up with nowt. Which hella surprised me...

First up, has anyone heard the new album yet? It's his first song-based record since the Seventies. I've caught the first song courtesy of Fluxblog, and it seems quite substantially influenced by his love of Sketch Show (although I'm sure that influence flows both ways).

The album's on download at the moment, so I'll post more fully in the week.

All Acting Regiment

09:14 / 09.06.05

He was being interviewed by Alan Moore on Radio 4 once, he said that his relationship with Bowie was like Moore to Cooke. I respected him immediately.

Darumesten's second variety

09:17 / 09.06.05

Eno is one of my favourite artists, and a big influence. I think the album I'm most fond of is Apollo Atmospheres & Soundtracks. Looking forward to listen the new album, but searching at soulseek didn't gave any results yet ..

rizla mission

09:24 / 09.06.05

I've been listening to a lot of Eno recently. He's an interesting dude and no mistake.

I was tempted to rot this thread by going off on a tangent about how 'Taking Tiger Mountain (by Strategy)' is by far my favourite Eno album, but then thought better of it.

I find his ambient albums a bit of a mixed bag to be honest. Obviously I'm familiar with the logic behind the concept, and sometimes it works beautifully. But other times I can't help feeling he kind of misses the wood for the trees and ends up making music that's just bloody-mindedly bland and one-dimensional.

I absolutely love his collaborations with Robert Fripp too - 'No Pussyfooting' is just a mind-blowing hunk of sound..

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

11:51 / 09.06.05

...and of course, anyone who doesn't own a copy of "My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts" should be ashamed of themselves.

ONLY NICE THINGS

12:05 / 09.06.05

He was being interviewed by Alan Moore on Radio 4 once, he said that his relationship with Bowie was like Moore to Cooke.

Did he? What he said, I think, was that he and Bowie now communicate almost exclusively in the voices of Pete and Dud.

It's the way the ambience follows you around the room...

I don't think raving about "Taking Tiger Mountain" is at all threadrotty, especially as his new album is song-based. I think my favourite albums of his are the ones where he lets his pop sensibility, which is very well-developed indeed, mess around with his musical scientism, for want of a better term. TTM, Before and After Science and Here Come the Warm Jets all do that, and are very memorable for it.

Spaniel

13:33 / 09.06.05

I agree although I love his ambient work - especially the collaborations with Fripp and Harold Budd.

I'm surprised Another Green World hasn't been mentioned. It elegantly straddles the line between pop and ambient, and it's my spesh fave.

Haus of Mystery

15:47 / 09.06.05

I'm a huge fan of his 'song' albums - 'Here come the warm jets', aforementioned 'TTMbS' and 'AGW' and 'Before and after science'.
I do like the ambient stuff, but am simply more drawn to his off-kilter approach to song-writing and hhis knack for creating winning melodies from strange places. I'm torn as to which I rate highest. 'Tiger Mountain' prolly clinches it, but 'Warm Jets' has some superb songs on it, especially the awesome final eponymous track. It always makes me well up, but I'm not sure why.
'Before and After Science' however boasts two of my favourite Eno tracks, namely 'Back Water' with it's childish rhyme scheme and nagging, insistent pace, and 'King's Lead hat', a jangly, fractured thing, with a killer riff that quite simply rocks.

missnoise

02:25 / 18.06.05

amazing book called the ambient century by mark prendergast!!!
eno is major innovator in electronic music - props
those alph beta and theta waves send me into space land, but here check this guy out to give you some brain spasms

or blah

missnoise

02:27 / 18.06.05

oui haven't figured out this link stuff yet
http://www.rothkamm.com or
http://www.oddmusic.com

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

16:53 / 18.06.05

So anyone heard the new one yet? Seth?

Darumesten's second variety

15:18 / 20.06.05

Finally heard the album .. great music as usual, atmospheres & textures with interesting vocals ( sometimes remind me of david bowie ) passed through vocoders/flangers etc. Need to listen to it more times but right now my personal favorites are Bonebomb, And then so clear & Passing over.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

20:36 / 20.06.05

Cheers, Darumesten. Buying it next week.
I've always admired Eno, not so much as a producer (although he's a fucking wicked one), but as a quality control guy. Bowie (and, later, the Aphex Twin) have a horrible tendency to release EVERYTHING. What Bowie needs (and has had, recently, with Eno, and Visconti again) is someone to say "look, David, this is shit. Let's keep trying until we get something good, shall we?".

Eno seems good at that. Personally, I class U2's Zooropa (which I like a lot) and Bowie's 1:Outside (which is one of my favourite albums ever) as Eno albums where he got U2 and Bowie respectively to play all the instruments, sing and write all the words.

Anyone else like Nervenet? That was ace.

And I know I've mentioned this in the covers thread, but anyone who likes Eno's vocal stuff really needs to check out Shivaree's Fat Lady Of Limbourg. It's ace.

Seth

23:40 / 20.06.05

My first few listens to the album are that it starts out fantastic and then tails off a fair bit. But I've not got enough insight to offer a better critique than that yet.

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