Brian Eno - C or D?

imho Laurie Anderson's "Bright Red" is far from uninspiring, but it was also almost 20 years ago. also, what is up with people ignoring Wrong Way Up in this chronology? that record is great.

(not a dis on you mr. c, just defending some of the 90's work)

yeah wrong way up is pretty classic. haven't really kept up with a lot of the more recent stuff though.

The new record is mostly a bore.

It's possible I don't care much for his ambient, "experimental" works anymore; it's also possible he can't record compelling ones.

I did like Everything That Happens Will Happen Today though.

WWU is marvelous!

It's not a coincidence that so much of his recent output is collaborative/improv based. He's coasting.

also, what is up with people ignoring Wrong Way Up in this chronology? that record is great.

― sleeve, Friday, July 8, 2011 1:52 PM (29 minutes ago) Bookmark

oh shit yeah. one of the best things he's ever done. overlooked it due to persistent brane holes. shoots to shit the argument that he's never returned to avant-pop, but it's also the last outpost (that i know of). cale was on something of a collaborative roll at the time, what with songs for drella.

just noticed that all traces of "the accident" and its influence on the orgins of ambient have been scrubbed from eno's wikipedia page. relevance...

i still like nerve net.

It's not a coincidence that so much of his recent output is collaborative/improv based. He's coasting.

but his music was always collaborative, from the start! look back at those early records: there are long lists of people who played on them, improvised on them, worked on them: he wasn't a lone genius working by himself

it's his collaborators' fault! leo abrahams, you are no, ummm, phil collins!

Weren't there some great mutant pop tracks unique to the Vocal box, recorded in the early 90s?

(And, for me, "Bright Red" was considered a failure for Laurie A - it had neither the pop sense nor the sheer oddness of her previous work)

He's always been collaborative, in the sense that he allowed his contributors great freedom, but he remained the director, as such. Those are Brian Eno solo albums, not Eno/Manzenera/Speeding/Jones/Collins albums or whatever. But begining with that Peter Schwalm album he's been stuck in this rut of credited collaborations (the pretty good recent Byrne aside) that have offered this muddled mix of MIDI jazz and ambient music sort of akin to the less interesting bits of Nerve Net. I've always thought Eno's greatest gift was as a vocalist/vocal arranger, and now that he barely sings his unique take on melody has fallen by the wayside. Another Day on Earth was at least a reminder of what he was capable of. These last two on Warp, on the other hand, I can't imagine are conspicuously different than the stuff he must have sitting around in the vaults (see also: those two volumes of "Curiosities" that Eno couldn't even bother to curate and cull himself).

I feel so differently about the guy. If anything, he's a better example of a recording-artist-aging-gracefully than any other I can think of.
I rate Bowie's "Outside"-- Eno's sole production credit with the man-- above all Bowie's other records. Probably my favourite Eno production next to 78-80 Talking Heads.
Probably alone here, but I love most of James' "Wah Wah".
And "Another Day On Earth" and "Drawn From Life" get as much play round here as any of his 70s records.

I rate Bowie's "Outside"-- Eno's sole production credit with the man-- above all Bowie's other records.

That's feeling pretty differently, alright. I do love "Wah Wah," though. I've noted before that I think the combo of "Achtung Baby/Zooropa" and "Laid/Wah Wah" marked his last real impact as a producer. He's aging gracefully because he hasn't made a musical ass out of himself, but I don't think he's challenging himself or his fans, either. His line is that he spends so much time with the likes of U2 and Coldplay that all his good ideas make it into those albums, but having heard those recent albums, I hope that's not true.

Do those records have ideas?

they seem to have the idea that they're records.

I mean, it took the genius of the Pet Shop Boys to hear the ideas in "Viva la Vida."

I found it curious that "No Line on the Horizon" was the first U2 album to give Eno/Lanois writing credit, and it's also probably the only U2 album I'd rate a total stiff.

they got writing credits cuz they insisted! I think they walked out of the project until they got their own way. They could have rightfully deserved them from The Unforgettable Fire onwards, especially since we know now how much musically they contributed.

The only "Viva La Vida" you need:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7y8JyDbwmRg

prefer the coldplay, tbh

Does anybody know of an Eno track called "Cutting"...it has a line in it something like "The priest he ploughs the furry fields from Cambrigeshire to Ely" I swear no word of a lie...its from the "My Squelchy Life" period... I remember hearing and thinking it was amazing...really really funky...

Anyone know the details about "My Squelchy Life"? There's a number of rips out there in the void but some sound like they're the wrong pitch. Anyone have a source CD or a reliable listing for the track times?

I know a lot of copies out there were ripped from cassette advances, so that would account for different pitches and/or track lengths.

Anyone know the details about "My Squelchy Life"? There's a number of rips out there in the void but some sound like they're the wrong pitch. Anyone have a source CD or a reliable listing for the track times?

The six "My Squelchy Life" tracks were released on the last CD of the Eno Vocal box set: http://www.discogs.com/Brian-Eno-II-Vocal/release/691819 . It seems like he started the album still in full "Wrong Way Up" mode, but eventually found the non-songlike space jazz instrumental pieces more interesting and went that way for "Nerve Net", and those six songs wouldn't have fit as well on that record (which is a shame, they're great)

There are two or three "Squelchy" tracks that are not on "Nerve Net" or the boxed set.

One from the boxed set is on Another Day on Earth...

That song, "Under," was actually from the "Cool World" soundtrack!

http://unheard78.blogspot.com/2010/10/brian-eno-my-squelchy-life.html

There are two or three "Squelchy" tracks that are not on "Nerve Net" or the boxed set.

Thanks for the link! Kind of looking forward to this. when 'vocal II' came out I borrowed it from a friend -- the rare stuff on disc 3 was the sole reason to invest in the whole box, and I passed on it. but I downloaded the tracks a few years ago and in an iTunes context I have really grown to enjoy them.

I think "Under" is one of the most lovely songs he has written.

yeah me too

just discovered The Demon of the Mines j-bonus track for "Another Day On Earth" and it is perfectly lovely

Just in case someone has never heard it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aU6xiTLLWY&feature=related

Incidentally, like Lanois' "The Maker," a song built around Willie Green drums leftover from the Neville Brothers sessions.

thx for the squelchy life link, josh! never heard this stuff...

I haven't heard "Under" in years. Cheers.

yesss thank u, haven't heard all of the squelchy stuff either.

Just in case someone has never heard it:

Agreed, this is great.

ok, I can see why he nixed "Squelchy" and developed it into "Nerve Net", some of these songs are going out of their way to stay casual, not as much of the sonic detail you expect from this guy. and it doesn't feel like a unified album the way "Another Day On Earth" did, but I definitely like these songs better than most of "Nerve Net"

I mean as a song "The Harness" could have been on "Taking Tiger Mountain", especially the vocals, I will only say thank you whenever he does a song like this

Thanks ILM for the excellent and immediate response, woohoo!

just discovered The Demon of the Mines j-bonus track for "Another Day On Earth" and it is perfectly lovely

Totally agree. Other than YouTube, this song is unfindable online, legit or otherwise. I gather a mix of it was in the Adrian Brody/Keira Knightly flick, The Jacket.

ok, I can see why he nixed "Squelchy" and developed it into "Nerve Net", some of these songs are going out of their way to stay casual, not as much of the sonic detail you expect from this guy. and it doesn't feel like a unified album the way "Another Day On Earth" did, but I definitely like these songs better than most of "Nerve Net"

Agreed. Squelchy Life/Nerve Net represent sort of an interesting era for him sonically (if less so artistically). The sound palette he used around that time was almost exclusively DX-7 (all those fuzzy, almost analog sounds, actually) (gulp) ROMpler (the dinky saxophone noodling on "Pierre in Mist" on NN) and live drumming.

I mean as a song "The Harness" could have been on "Taking Tiger Mountain", especially the vocals, I will only say thank you whenever he does a song like this

I'm a fan of Another Day on Earth's failed dreams. But "The Harness" is the most energized thing he's done in 20 years (ok, it was done 20 years ago, but still). Can't believe I didn't notice it when I heard Squelchy Life a few years ago. It's a great song.

all this talk of the Nerve net era makes me want to give a shout out to the song "The Roil, The Choke", which was on the maxi single of "Fractal Zoom" and is a beautiful tune with vocals.

I owned the "Ali Click" single almost twenty years ago. Is Nerve Net worth owning?

Maybe, if u can find it for under $5 which you probably can. I prefer the Squelchy Life tracks for the most part. There are some cool remixes on that Ali Click single.

I think this new album is a little too new age for my liking, the spoken word bits are a huge turn-off.... But no shots if its your thing!!! http://i.imgur.com/zi7hd.gif

Is Nerve Net worth owning?

Nerve Net is...ok. Some days I think I like it -- other days, I think it's where things started to go horribly, horribly wrong for Eno.

Agreed about "The Roil, The Choke" (which is on the record proper, not just the maxi single) -- that's a really nice song.

I still think one of his big problems is wrestling with modern technology.

taking modern culture (by strategy) -- by mark s of ILX fame:

http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/interviews/wire92.html

gotta stay away from this thread or i'll miss my flight -- i'm in line at the gate, we are boarding this plane to california

got an email today from someone who was actually at that derby/eno/winkies gig we posted. he says someone he went with has a better recording of it! but also that he's lost touch with him...but who knows, maybe it'll pop up one of these days.