Brian Eno - C or D?

Of course, the man and the vast majority of his music, and his influence, is classic. Couldn't live without "Taking tiger mountain" or "Music for airports" amongst others. Those two boxed sets are two of the best investments I've ever made.

Plus the Obscure Music series, which has some good titles.

Its just so coool. Weird pop and ambienty bits floated against each other in the nicest way, and my four year old loves to sing "I'll come running" which has got to get him some points somewhere.

then, suddenly, like a switch being thrown...

when 'wrong way up' came out an interview disc was distributed to radio, where he's sounding and dull, then at the end he begins talking about the recent birth of his daughter and how unimportant the theoretical side of music had become to him, and how now he just wanted to relax and play tunes. which makes me happy for eno the man, but keeping up with the last decade of releases has been a punishing experience.

'spinning away' from 'wrong way up', still excellent though

"Uh-oh!"

"Ding ding!"

*I can't remember if I bought a copy or received it as a gift, but probably the latter. I used to get my older brother to buy me "weird"** records for my birthday and Christmas.

**I think he thought it was weird anyway (judging by his response to what I listened to on the radio), but I think he was a little amused to watch me growing up and getting into punk and new wave, and new bands he hadn't heard of, or other stuff that seemed esoteric to him. I think he may have bought me this album, the first Psychedelic Furs album, and Fripp's Let the Power Fall, and some a John Coltrane collection, all at my request. Now I'm getting all sentimental about my older brother. I miss being close to my family, and it's all Brian Eno's fault--well, not exactly.

Possibly the fact that I often couldn't make out the lyrics or didn't know what he was talking about contributed to my liking the songs. "With Burgundy, Tizer and Rye/Twelve sheets of foolscap: don't ask me why." I'm still largely in the dark about these lines, for example. I think I only found out what foolscap is in the last few years and I've already forgotten the details.

I kind of like the lyrics to "True Wheel." I am looking at a lyrics page now, and I find myself saying, oh, is that how it goes? I really am not even hearing what he's saying a lot of the time.

music for airports = nice but forgettable, put aside after a couple of listens.

apollo = stunningly beautiful, one of my most played albums in recent times.

with this in mind, what next?

try no pussyfooting, with fripp.

http://www.furious.com/perfect/bangseno.html

a musical genius, the godfather of Ambient, the mastermind of warm synthesis, although the cause of a lot of shit (ie damp snares in 80s music from Low) still one of the true heads!

A let me emphasize his Ambient series - i don't understand why anyone hasn't yet. On Land, man! and lets not mention the second side of Day of Radiance with Laraaji (the first side i admit being...well). Most of my feelings on Before and After Science, Another Green World have meen mentioned.

And on a last note, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts is fucking ingenius record :)

seriously, listen to the title track from Taking Tiger Mountain or the first track on Warm Jets and get back to me, you will be a convert y0.

My neighbors must wonder what's up when they walk by my apartment door and hear me playing music with English lyrics.

It is the only 70's eno record I do not care for. I just felt the production was not quite up to snuff, he polished it too much. Everything Eno did no that record he did better on previous albums. I found it funny that I did not care for the record, and unbeknownst to me Eno actually echoed my complaints when he discussed that record in interviews in the late 70's.

It isn't a horrible record, it is just that he has a lot of material from that period of time and your money is better spent elsewhere in the back catalogue. And while I am thinking about it, you should probably pick up Cluster and Eno because that it good stuff.

Also, has anyone ever heard that the live The 801 bootleg from 76?

"I'm terribly attracted to women with ocular damage."

Classic.

that's an official live album, is it not? i bought it a few months ago, it's great! the sound of the live recording is amazing. some terrific renditions of songs from another green world and taking tiger mountain (by strategy).

I didn't know he did either of those (ring of fire/white light), off to slsk.

Yeah ring of fire is on wrong way up reissue, it’s sort of in the style of the river from that album

I think that VU cover may have been recorded for charity, with one copy made. Eno said whoever bought it can release it, but so far nada.

yeah i can't find it online anywhere

I only got the Wrong Way Up reissue on vinyl so this was a nice surprise.

I was delighted when a local dealer/friend bpught a collection including a pristine "Seven Deadly Finns" single, no pic sleeve but he sold it to me for like ten bucks. the b-side "Later On" is an edit of "No Pussyfooting" that afaik has never been reissued.

“Seven Deadly Finns” never fails to crack me up.

I might have misread, but I could have sworn I just saw that the Eno documentary is generative, and shuffles or reorders itself every time you watch it.

which one?

New doc, just premiered at Sundance.

https://variety.com/2024/film/reviews/eno-review-brian-eno-sundance-1235876569/

I had a really tough day, just a fucking flailing everything-is-20x-as-hard-as-it-needs-to-be-because-my-brain-is-wired-wrong day. Eventually I stopped trying to do anything productive because everything I tried to do devolved into fiasco, and sitting with Mrs HD talking after, we listened first to Apollo and then to Discreet Music, and it was just so thoroughly healing, exactly what I needed.

<3

I listen to the 1-hour An ending (ascent) in loop whenever I'm anxious, it helps me so much

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alo3KFRfLvE

best bit from the article: https://www.theringer.com/music/2023/12/26/24014289/brian-eno-tour-career-retrospective

Eno has a cold that won’t quit.

you think he has it bad, you should see frank sinatra!

I just wish there was a Nico version of I’m Set Free.

Was listening to the Kinks this morning, and it suddenly clicked that "Lazy Old Sun" reminded me of something that could have been on "Here Come the Warm Jets"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnXjxtfKFDM

Six-degrees-ing it a little, there are some other Kinks connections. Eno et al. covered "You Really Got Me" with 808:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-S6d_JJOPo

And then, allegedly, Lou Reed once called "Lazy Old Sun" his favorite Kinks song, which is another loose connection to Eno (as VU acolyte).

The song also reminds of stuff like the Tall Dwarfs, too, who themselves sometimes remind me of early Eno.

Lazy Old Sun is seriously druggy. I totally get the Dwarfs/Eno thing. Slippery vocal?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9D2BJ5tv8o

The reminiscing in twilight years reminds me a bit of Bowie's Where Are We Now

Lovely. I wish that nerd would sing more.

love it, I too wish he hadn't taken so much time off from doing vocal records

Eno says he doesn't think he can sing that well but I dunno, he's better than a number of his contemporaries I feel

aaaaaaah how can I get this in FLAC/lossless??

It's included in the doc soundtrack, which is out in April

Eno doing the modest music for a Patriotic Millionaires video with super wealthy people imploring policymakers to tax the super rich: https://x.com/patrioticmills/status/1780717878796292150?s=46&t=4DK5sD-8gsSKFExcsnEJqg

saw the Eno documentary last night in SF, I highly recommend catching it if there are many more of these generative screenings with the director in attendance. There will be non-generative, but different versions, screening later on this summer in SF at the Roxy and I assume elsewhere. Bonus: Daniel Lanois sitting a few rows ahead of me looking like a biker pirate (he's also doing an ambient show tonight at Grace Cathedral)

https://variety.com/2024/film/reviews/eno-review-brian-eno-sundance-1235876569/

was walking down the street yesterday and somebody was jamming to "needles in the camels eye"

people usually listen to hipster shit but that song's catchy enough that i felt compelled to say "eno, cool" to him

Roxy and I assume elsewhere

This is good work.

i try

$31 for that Eno doc in DC tonight. I can't make it anyway

it was $45 in SF so that's a deal. Also, these are special screenings in that they are essentially edited and assembled on the fly (and the director is in attendance). I imagine he may be able to find a streaming partner who can enable this same experience at some point.

Why would they be editing it? Isn't this the generative documentary that's different every time you watch it? Or am I misunderstanding this?

I thought I read that it was "computer" edited each time to be different (and I wonder if that just means that the director actually has access to lots of footage and just shifts it in and out each time)

It is generatively edited on the fly each time it's shown, yes. It runs off some kind of hardware build by teenage engineering that he's named Brain One. The sequences are anywhere from 2-8 minutes long, maybe some are longer.

Haven’t heard it yet but the live record with Holger Czukay and J. Peter Schwalm is out now.

Brain One, that’s the best thing since scalded brie.

the live record is really cool

The Fred Again.. record is growing on me. Enough and Cmon are both pretty captivating and good places to start for the uninitiated.

i like that record, was surprised to hear negative things about it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-dnmHpUdFw