Brian Eno has a new album out - Drums Between The Bells.
It's good but I'm still of the opinion that Eno music works best when recorded on analogue equipment. The shiny pristine sound of digital doesn't really suit Eno's style. There are a few valiant attempts to approach the dirtier analogue sound on this new album, but in almost every case the precision of digital kind of gets in the way, meaning there are no mistakes, no human error, none of 'planned accidents' so beloved of Brian Eno back in the 1970s.
In many ways Eno's music lost some of its warmth when he moved to digital recording in the late 1980s. Even though Wrong Way Up, the 1990 song based record with John Cale, contains some of his best ever songs (the gorgeous "Spinning Away" being only one of half a dozen classic tracks) there's still the feeling that its all a little too machine tooled, and that, vocals aside, the human touch is slightly lacking.
Going back to the beginning of Eno's recorded career and we find a wealth of human touches, and a huge number of happy mistakes, synchronicity and idiot glee.
Here Come The Warm Jets 1973 - recorded soon after his departure from Roxy Music with all of Roxy guesting on various tracks (except for a certain coal miners son and now undisputed leader of Roxy...). Other musicians include Robert Fripp and various members of Hawkwind and the Pink Fairies. The songs are mainly spikey angular pop, full of wordplay and unusual vocal lines, underpinned with a muscular rhythm section and interlaced with some naive keyboards and violent guitar work. "Baby's On Fire" contains one of Fripp's best ever solos, "Driving Me Backwards" is a nightmarish melange of wonky choral backing and off kilter lurching piano overlaid with lyrics inspired by a particularly bizarre dream. On the other hand "On Some Faraway Beach" is a piano-led lullaby which gradually builds into a Phil Spectoresque climax with some more words from another dream, though this time they are wonderfully soothing. It's one of the most impressive tracks on the album. Other highlights - the odd "Dead Finks Don't Walk" which contains a wicked and spot on Bryan Ferry impression at one point, and the title track which is another accumulating masterpiece of fuzzed guitars and stunning drumming. The lyrics are entirely lost in the mix, with only snatches of words being understandable, which only adds to the mystery.
Another Green World 1975 - Eno apparently produced 22 versions of this album before he was happy with it. Even the gaps between songs are carefully timed. Predominantly Eno alone on various instruments (which are descriptively titled on the sleeve - choppy organ, desert guitar, snake guitar etc) assisted on a few tracks by Fripp, Phil Collins, John Cale and others. Only five of the 14 tracks have vocals, the rest are tone poems and darkly moody pieces of music. As with the instruments the titles are hugely descriptive too - "In Dark Trees", "Becalmed", "Spirits Drifting". "The Big Ship" is especially impressive - it fades in slowly as the, er, big ship glides majestically past and fades out again a few minutes later. In fact, many of the tracks fade in and out as Eno wanted to give the impression that we were only hearing a small part of a much bigger picture. With the exception of the discordant opening "Sky Saw", the songs are calmer than before. "Golden Hours" and "St Elmo's Fire" contain beautifully deft guitar from Robert Fripp, playing some of the lightest and most playful guitar of his career. All the tracks are short, none outstay their welcome, and all leave you wanting more. A hugely influential album - the title track is of course familiar as the title music for the BBC arts show Arena.
Discreet Music 1975 - the first ambient album. One side (31 mins) of tape loops of the same decaying notes run at overlapping, but different speeds creating a hypnotic soothing effect, and one side of Pachelbel's famous Canon, split into three parts played very slowly, even slower and slower still - it actually works remarkably well!
Before And After Science 1977 - side one is five songs of 'idiot glee', side two is five longer ambient songs. This is one of my all time favourite albums and side two's "Julie With..." is still my all time favourite song. You have to describe it terms of two sides as they are so different. It's always a bit weird though playing the whole cd - the contrast between sides one and two is so huge. The Before and After I guess... It worked fine when you had to turn the record over, but the delicate intro to "Here He Comes" is a bit of a shock after the full on percussive nightmare of "King's Lead Hat", especially after that bizarre outro - is that really Fripp's guitar? What is he doing to it?
The opening "No-One Receiving" is percussive funk and is such a fabulous song. The closing track on side one is the brilliantly bonkers "Kings Lead Hat" (an anagram of Talking Heads). In between you get the left field pop and tongue twisting lyrics of "Backwaters", the decidedly odd "Kurt's Rejoinder" containing a nonsense poem from 1920s dada artist Kurt Schwitters, and a gentle vaguely jazzy instrumental.
Side two opens with Phil Manzanera's gorgeous chiming guitars on "Here He Comes" - a gentle pop song that drifts along happily for 5 minutes. With it’s calming vocals and delicately spangly guitar flourishes it’s a delightful opening to one of the most perfect sequences of music I’ve ever heard. It's a beautiful selection of songs, and the order of the tunes works superbly. The second track is "Julie With..." which very gradually fades in to the sound of tinkling bells and vague ship noises. It's a glorious mood piece about drifting on a boat, though some have read a darker meaning into the lyrics. I find it serene and restful, as the floating guitar and deep bass quite literally flow out of the speakers. The rest of side two continues the watery theme and gentle mood.
"By This River" is next – a gorgeous plaintive and fragile piano, and some beautifully judged vocals create a wistful and hugely evocative mood. The instrumental "Through Hollow Lands" has an overwhelming sense of calm and the side ends with "Spider And I" - the stately and magnificent keyboards building to a climax, though one which is both triumphant and extremely low-key.
These five tracks can be played over and over and over. I never get tired of hearing them and I would go so far as to say they are five of the most impressive and incredible tracks I’ve ever heard.
Music For Films 1977 - 19 tracks created for films, some real, some imaginary. Mainly drifting synth and piano pieces, but there are some more rhythmic tracks. It sounds marvellous on headphones. There's such a warmth to the analogue synths used. You can hear the real instruments used too - lots of Percy Jones' bass, little bits of genuine percussion, that sort of thing. The use of real people, and real instruments prevents this sort of music sounding sterile, which is partly where recent Eno ambient music falls down slightly. In MFF you can hear the uncertainty of some of the playing, the “planned accidents” that Eno is so fond of. Electronic buzzes and slightly wonky keyboards give the whole album an amazing atmosphere. The evocative titles help too - "Strange Light", "Slow Water", "Events In Dense Fog". It's clear that most of the instrumental half of David Sylvian's Gone To Earth was hugely influenced by MFF. And why not?
I've had this album for more nearly 30 years (I know every note, all the seemingly improvised guitar flourishes, the random piano notes, I remember it all). I hope I'm wrong, but I can't imagine many 15 year olds listening to this sort of music these days... Pity.
Cluster & Eno 1977 and After The Heat 1978 - both recorded with Hans Joachim Roedelius and Mobi Moebius of Cluster. Amongst the simple Germanic ambient tracks can be found three superb Eno songs. "Tzima N'Arki" fuses a bouncing bassline from Holger Czukay with the vocal line from "Kings Lead Hat" played backwards. The result is a very African sounding tribal chant. "Broken Head" is dark and mysterious, full of sharply buzzing synths but it is "The Belldog" that is the clear winner here. One of Eno's most carefully constructed songs.
All those lovely spiraling piano notes from Roedelius, the faintly worrying burbling bassy stuff, the swirls of spacey sounds, the extremely mysterious lyrics (some of Eno's best I think) and especially the ghostly chorus vocals after the first chant of "the Belldog" - that faint, eerie "Where Are you?” The song has a hugely cinematic feel, conjuring up visions of vast open starlit skies, lights twinkling in the distance as Eno busies himself with levers and radios in the ramshackle old barns that Cluster used as a studio. It is quite simply a masterpiece. What a shame it's only to be found on a rather obscure German record.
There's an interesting story about how Brian got the idea for "The Belldog".
'I was walking through Washington Square Park
"The belldog, where are you?"
I have no idea what he meant by the belldog. For me it was (and is) an unidentified mythical character from some unfamiliar mythology...So the vague feeling I have about the belldog is that he is a herald; of what is not clear. Whatever it is, in the song he has either not yet appeared or has gone away...'
Brian Eno quoted in More Dark Than Shark
I wonder however if the story is all true - it's almost too convenient in it's mysteriosity - I wonder if it's actually from a dream... I have the More Dark Than Shark book and as I remember it's one of Russell Mills' favourite Eno songs too. Apparently the lyrics, unusually for Eno, underwent several extensive revisions before the finished one was settled on.
However it came about, it's a brilliant song.
Music For Airports 1978 - 4 long environmental tracks, with a sense of calm and peace throughout. Oddly when an Italian airport actually used this album instead it's usual muzak, they got a lot of complaints that the passengers were made to feel edgy and unrelaxed... can't really see why myself. "1/1" is beautiful, with its looped slowed down piano based on just half a dozen notes played by Robert Wyatt. The treated wordless vocals are gorgeous too.
The Plateaux Of Mirror - with Harold Budd, 1980. Budd on piano and Eno on atmospheres. Arguably the best Harold Budd album, and certainly one of the best Ambient records ever made(see also The Pearl
On Land 1982 - no obvious tunes, just pure atmospheres and ambience over 8 wonderful tracks. Very evocative of the Suffolk
It is fantastic on headphones, as the washes of sound and the atmospherics swirl all around you. There's a slightly uneasy quality to many of the tracks and lots of faint sounds that are only partially audible.... In the sleeve notes Eno describes his composition process as composting - not wasting anything. On Land apparently includes every sound recorded at the sessions - nothing was wasted and even though many of the recordings were recorded over with further tracks, elements of the originals are all still there, faintly. A good example of the distant sounds that can be made out are the ghostly bells and ship sounds (well I think they sound like chains and rigging) on "Dunwich Beach Autumn 1960" - I also love the fact this track is dated - it somehow confers a reality on it, as if it really is piece of music / sound from that very place, at that very time.
Apollo 1983 - created with Daniel Lanois and Roger Eno for a documentary film about the moon landings that wasn't finished till 1990. Contains some of the best 'space' music I've ever heard, and in "Always Returning" Eno creates one of his most brilliant moods. Sylvian's Gone To Earth was clearly influenced by this and Music For Films. "An Ending" has been used in countless adverts but even that doesn't cheapen this beautiful quasi-religious hymn; it simply soars.
Thursday Afternoon 1985 - just over an hour of ambience. One track, great for falling asleep to, though there’s enough going on to warrant active listening too. Gentle washes of cascading piano and synths, it's never the same, always subtly shifting.
Wrong Way Up 1990 - a collaboration with John Cale and Eno's first songs for years. Brilliantly catchy, lots of jumpy rhythmic hooks. "Spinning Away" and "One Word" are two of Eno’s best ever songs. Despite my view that modern digital synths can sound over-sterile, Eno is still able to coax some remarkably soulful music from his studio. It's such an enjoyable, enthusiastic album from start to finish. The sort of record that fits any mood, any time, and one I never get bored of.
My Squelchy Life 1991 - never released. Which is a shame as it's fabulous. Some superb songs ("Some Words" is gorgeous, a beautiful accumulation of keyboard sounds layering more and more as the song progresses, and "The Harness" is fabulous too, with it's harsh synth sounds) which deserve a wider audience. Some of the tracks were reused on -
Nerve Net 1992 - a mixture of instrumentals and songs. Any album that opens with "Fractal Zoom", one of Eno's greatest songs for sure, has got to be good. I have 11 different mixes of this track and they are all fantastic. A really funky, dancey tune, with some ethereal moody vocals and a genuinely uplifting feel. How this wasn’t a massive hit or a club anthem is genuinely baffling. Nerve Net has a few tracks which are a bit darker and more worrying and a couple of slightly duller moments, but when it's good – eg: "Fractal Zoom", "Wire Shock", "Ali Click", and the astonishingly mad jazz of "Distributed Being" with Fripp's scary guitar - it's quite amazing.
The Shutov Assembly 1993 - a collection of music from installations from the previous few years. Quite effective, sometimes its delightful and delicate, sometimes it's a teeny bit dull.
Spinner 1994 - a collection of tracks originally from a Derek Jarman film reworked by Jah Wobble. So it's lots of eerie ambience and some cool wonky bass over the top. I love it. You can almost dance to some of these tracks.
The Drop 1996 - sadly this is a dull collection of computer generated tunes, created through some new programs Eno had. It's far too rigid and with too little harmonic variation. One of my least played Eno albums.
1997 - 2000 - various discs of ambience from audio/visual installations. Superb background moods.
Drawn From Life 2001 - with J Peter Schwalm. Gently funky tunes, some with words. Great moods and a real organic sense of musicians creating these tunes. BE and JPS actually played some concerts during 2001 with a band and played some fabulous songs that are still unreleased. The wonderfully funky "Warnography" is one of my favourites.
Another Day On Earth 2004 - trumpeted as an album of new songs this record is more a selection of ambient tunes with some singing, or vocalising over the top. There are some conventional songs "This" or the title track could have come from earlier Eno records (and in fact "Under" DID come from an earlier record - it's straight from the unreleased My Squelchy Life) but there's something rather unengaging about ADoE. Until we get to the final track "Bone Bomb", an edgy dark piece with truly scary narration about a suicide bomber. Eno obviously liked this piece as many of the tracks on his latest Drums Between The Bells are like "Bone Bomb".
Small Craft On A MIlk Sea 2010 - is a collection of tracks recorded with Jon Hopkins and long time Eno guitarist Leo Abrahams. But it's all a bit dull. I can't quite work out why.
Anyway, Brian Eno at his best, is virtually unbeatable. There's the sheer inventiveness of his 1970s vocal albums and the pioneering ambient work of the 1980s, the audio visual installations of recent years and his always inspiring production work for a huge list of collaborators.
And most of the time he's still ahead of the pack.
