Brian Eno - C or D?

Love that this is happening. They’ve done less work together than you’d think but the work they have done is quite good. In addition to Apollo, the concluding track on Roger’s Voices is just magic. Roger’s second record, Between Tides (produced by Michael Brook and w no Brian involvement) is a total masterpiece.

I believe they were somewhat estranged until recently.

three very moving comments on a YouTube upload of a Brian Eno ambient album pic.twitter.com/PZOwpbYXsW

— Eric Allen Hatch (@ericallenhatch) February 13, 2020

Two of my students’ reactions to Music for Airports:
“This sounds like waiting in line”
“Music for those fancy bathrooms”
I reminded them that what they described is basically an airport experience and they loled and agreed 😀✈️

lol at those youtube comments, a+

ll you should ask your students to imagine what airports and fancy toilets sounded like before brian eno

fancy toilets sounded like before brian eno

They probably sounded pretty shitty.

“This sounds like waiting in line”
“Music for those fancy bathrooms”

OTM.

and xpost I could have sworn that Music for Airports was ironically most often used in hospitals, for women giving birth. Unless that was Discreet Music ...

ll you should ask your students to imagine what airports and fancy toilets sounded like before brian eno
i basically did -- we talked about what ambient music is and why anyone would want it, music for specific purposes etc. we were working on listening and describing. they did really well!

i am all for more eno in schools, so thank u for yr service

i work at a college, but Eno in school beats what i had to deal with in hs. they used to play a top 40/pop r&b station between classes and one day it changed format to "alternative". on that day, they played "it's the end of the world as we know it" continuously for 24 hours. that was a very weird day at school.

pardon this off-topic aside but i was wondering what my high school experience would/could have been like if eno had been playing between classes.

blissful, serene, boundlessly creative

heh, I can only imagine what it would be like if they played, like, his first album.

lol yes I was imagining trotting out of class to BLANK FRANK IS THE MESSENGER OF YOUR DOOM AND YOUR DESTRUCTIOOOOOOOON

Although Here Come the Warm Jets (the song) would have been totally perfect

i was wondering what my high school experience would/could have been like if eno had been playing between classes

My HS never played Eno on the PA but once played Roxy Music's "Whirlwind". An unusual choice, even for Roxy fans, but still made me feel like there was a crack in the clouds that day.

A friend in HS used to wear a Taking Tiger Mountain t-shirt, which would inevitably lead to some asshat referencing the antacid product.

my HS never played anything on the PA, ever. jealous of yr educations!

xp What antacid product?

https://www.enoantacid.ca/about-eno.html

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61hQuYzc1bL._AC_SY879_.jpg

That’s funny. Eno does give me heartburn (and, why not, gas).

and xpost I could have sworn that Music for Airports was ironically most often used in hospitals, for women giving birth. Unless that was Discreet Music ...

That was "Neroli", I believe. Personally I've never managed to get to the end of that piece but then I've never given birth.

that’s one of his best imo (neroli)

I don’t really like music for airports 😬

“This sounds like waiting in line”
“Music for those fancy bathrooms”

I feel like this chimes with Enos original theory of ambient, and the more prescient he becomes the harder it is to hear the music as revolutionary. Probably the same goes for Satie and Stravinsky.

The sound of waiting in line is, like, hoobastank, Ed Sheehan

how had I never heard Eno's mix of Massive Attack's "Protection"? it fucking rules

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b97pwVKWuo4

I like all of Eno's unexpected remixes of that era. Massive Attack, Suede, Depeche Mode ... even EMF!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfa7Y0oEkl0

Love that this is happening. They’ve done less work together than you’d think but the work they have done is quite good. In addition to /Apollo/, the concluding track on Roger’s /Voices/ is just magic. Roger’s second record, /Between Tides/ (produced by Michael Brook and w no Brian involvement) is a total masterpiece.

I believe they were somewhat estranged until recently.

Any one know the story on how he came to produce this, a 2017 album by Spanish band The Gift? Don't remember hearing anything about it.

!

I've never heard of that! Portuguese band. Apparently he not only produced it but co-wrote a lot of it. Also, made a rare live performance with them! And not just Eno, but Eno *and* Flood!

Gonçalves met Eno at a gallery in Brazil in 2011 – according to him Eno “fell in love with the band, we fell in love with him, Sonia asked him if he wanted to join us, and we spent the last four years working on this”.

Here’s the story I found online:

Gonçalves met Eno at a gallery in Brazil in 2011 – according to him Eno “fell in love with the band, we fell in love with him, Sonia asked him if he wanted to join us, and we spent the last four years working on this”.

“We’re very proud of it, and we know he (Eno) is as well, which is important,” he says. “For us it was a pleasure to work with him, we had a lot of fun, it changed the way we looked at songs completely, and it was a very good journey – a hard job but now the job is done.”

Flood was brought in on Eno’s suggestion, and the band are thrilled with what the legendary producer has done for the record.

“You can’t get any better than that,” Tavares beams. “It was funny because they got together for the first time in years, and it was like ‘oh! Here we are again’. And Flood is such an amazing person, an amazing artist. And more than just the technical side of things, we had a fantastic experience with these people.

“I think we speak the same language. Every time we weren’t comfortable with something we discussed it and came up with a solution that worked for both sides. And one of the things that I felt was that Brian and Flood had this confidence in us. They wanted to know what we cared about, what we know as well.”

Had the Eno/Eno album playing in the background, and what turned out to be "Obsidian" definitely the first to really catch my attention.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRC208um6wo

It's all pretty ... pretty. Kind of church music as audio screen saver.

It is. But it also rewards closer listening.

Nice insight into the brother’s working methods here. https://www.npr.org/2020/03/23/820192284/roger-and-brian-eno-reveal-how-they-made-their-tranquil-new-album-together

I listed to a bit of that album by The Gift. Not bad! Very '90s Eno, in a good way, a la James.

new Roger & Brian is exactly the sequel to 'Voices'. pretty reassuring to have this here this week.

As a big fan of "Voices" ... I don't like this as much as "Voices." But I do like this.

It'd be a difficult record to top, but it's so obviously the same team & it's a grower

/ new one is a grower

Nice insight into the brother’s working methods here. https://www.npr.org/2020/03/23/820192284/roger-and-brian-eno-reveal-how-they-made-their-tranquil-new-album-together

Was pulling this up just as I saw this post. Agreed, it's very good.

Worth noting: starting around 9'00" the interviewer plays four short MIDI files of the same piece Brian emailed him that show how the track went from a melodic piano piece Roger sent him to a typically textured (treated) and layered piece with multiple parts and a slowed tempo yet ... still very much the piece Roger sent him.

There are so few examples of Brian sharing his actual working methods that this is pretty good stuff (hereis another he did a few years ago, demonstrating how he makes generative music -- the drum stuff a few minutes in shows how good he's gotten at this).

I really like this record.

Alright NIT, list your favorite Eno works from the last 30 years. I've got some listening time on my hands and I want to revisit some things I've skipped or didn't give enough attention.

You sure you want 30 years? I'd suggest going back 20 at most, to get past his really busy '90s.

(getting older thoughts)

when i hear "30 years" i still automatically think of 1980. oof

Anyway, I'd say, of the last 20 years:

Someday World/High Life (both with Karl Hyde)
The Ship (solo, more or less ambient_
Reflection (solo, more or less ambient)
Another Day On Earth (vocal)
Everything That Happens Will Happen Today (with David Byrne)

If you're bored, Curiosities Vol. 1 and 2 has some neat stuff in it.

The Hyde stuff is great.

Was not a fan of the Byrne collab, except the single.

The Ship was pretty good, except when he sings.

cool to see that Eno uses Logic! (that second clip that Naive Teen Idol posted)

the guy interviewing him seems absolutely amazed, but it really isn't that complicated (for real), not much more than, say, discreet music

i like your list Josh! my faves of his recent era are similar. ranked:

LUX
The Ship
Reflection
Finding Shore

i really haven't enjoyed his vocal works, during my lifetime (83-), which is odd because i adore his canonic first four vocal albums

just settling in for a listen to the new one. i've appreciated Voices (especially since picking up a cheap LP a while back), so i'm very curious about what their combo sounds like 30 years later

i need to listen to the Karl Hyde collabs more - they came out during a weird time for me and i didn't give them much time

Favorite two post 90’s are ‘New Space Music’ (a title that dares you to take it seriously but the piece is seriously functional) and the Scape app

and probably ‘Mixing Colours’

Lux, Reflection and Lightness good too. Another Day On Earth has moments especially with the Japanese bonus track at the end

Fairly loyal and still listening to everything he does at least once

The Ship was pretty good, except when he sings.

hard disagree

since 2000, my favorite things have been the Eno/Schwalm 2001 shows, Music For Installations, The Ship, bits of Small Craft and Another Day, and probably Lux

I need to make time for the Hyde collabs, have barely skimmed them

At the time the Hyde albums did little for me, too, for some reason. But when I re-listened a couple of years back I couldn't see what I couldn't see in them, they're pretty great.

I love his voice, full stop, so pretty much love everything he sings on. In fact, the only thing of his that I can't recall at all, really, is the Paul Simon album, which is hilarious, because if you look at his wikipedia entry ... no one's bothered to update it in there, either!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Eno_discography#Productions,_mixes,_and_guest_appearances

Speaking of which, I've posted this several times, I'm sure, but this remains my favorite Eno what-the-hell-is-he-doing-there? deep cut:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pr5EHyGBsgg

Forget what the Walkabouts were doing on Sub Pop in 1991, how the heck did Eno come to work with them?

These are good suggestions! I did a Spotify list of late period Eno gems some years back but here are some of the songs that haven’t been mentioned too much elsewhere:

Brian Eno "The Harness" -- from the unreleased My Squelchy Life, this has the instrumentation and production of Nerve Net but the melody could be from 1975.

Eno and Cale "One Word" -- this whole record is great, and "Spinning Away" is the Eno classic here, but this is probably the best fusion of the two's sensibilities -- they harmonize brilliantly together, the lyrics are great, the call and response chorus is killer and the "miles and miles away" climax is a rush. "The Woodbridge Mix" is a great and widens the soundfield a bit.

Bryan Ferry "I Thought" -- this is a gorgeous duet to close a great return to form record for Ferry. They never even sang together in Roxy!

David Byrne "One Fine Day" -- one of Eno's great hymns. Byrne sings the lead and wrote the lyrics but you can really imagine Eno belting this one out (and his harmonies are classic). There are a bunch of fun tunes on this record, but this one is so pure.

Brian Eno "And Then So Clear" -- Another Day on Earth is the first record of his where Eno sounded sad to me. This tune uses a pitch effect on his vocals but it's really gorgeous.

U2 "Moment of Surrender" -- poss. the great lost U2 song. The record it's from, (No Line on the Horizon), completely stiffed but this tune is almost perfect. Bono's vocal is really raw (in a good way) -- and the textures are really engaging and diverse. There's a great story online about how they did this song -- basically it came together almost fully formed in the midst of a really difficult recording process for the band. It pretty much started with Eno kicking around doing weird rhythm stuff.

Eno and Schwalm "More Dust" -- Drawn From Life is sort of a forgotten entry in Eno's canon, a little trip-hop with these quasi-Bollywood string lines playing the melodies. I don't love the whole thing but it all comes together on this track with a great lonesome steel guitar melody doubled by the strings.

I need to check out “New Space Music.”