Brian Eno 1974-1977

Freebird

Four phenomenal albums full of sonic exploration that hardly bothered the charts. There were some great musicians on board too.

Here Come The Warm Jets - (Jan 1974)
Taking Tiger Mountain - (Nov 1974)
Another Green World - (Sept 1975)
Before and After Science - (Dec 1977)

He even managed to sneak in Discreet Music in Nov 1975!

So where did it all go wrong? 

Fretwired

Freebird said:

Four phenomenal albums full of sonic exploration that hardly bothered the charts. There were some great musicians on board too.

Here Come The Warm Jets - (Jan 1974)
Taking Tiger Mountain - (Nov 1974)
Another Green World - (Sept 1975)
Before and After Science - (Dec 1977)

He even managed to sneak in Discreet Music in Nov 1975!

So where did it all go wrong? 

It didn't .. it got better.

Freebird

Fretwired said:

It didn't .. it got better.

I'm still listening to his early stuff now, I think it's great. I find it very inspirational before a writing session. I'm just a bit bemused by the lack of commercial success, considering Roxy Music and David Bowie were quite big at the time.

slacker

This has passed me by completely. LIstening to Here Come The Warm Jets as we type. Thanks. 

Gassage

You can add the Berlin Trilogy-  Low, Heroes and Lodger to that list too. (ok lodger a year out of your list)

Freebird

slacker said:

This has passed me by completely. LIstening to Here Come The Warm Jets as we type. Thanks. 

See if you can find Robert Fripp's guitar solo on St Elmo's Fire 

JezWynd

slacker said:

This has passed me by completely. LIstening to Here Come The Warm Jets as we type. Thanks. 

You're in for a treat.

Fretwired

Check out the Fripp/Eno album Evening star ....

ICBM

I've really tried to like Here Come The Warm Jets, but although I can see why it's good, I just can't listen to it - I find it massively irritating. I have tried any of the other three but I'm not in a great hurry now.

On the other hand I love Apollo Atmospheres & Soundtracks, early Roxy Music, and I like most of his work as a producer.

AlexC

Check out 801 - a short lived band Eno formed with Phil Manzanera. The Live album is fantastic. Would appeal to any Roxy/Eno fans.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/801_(band)

Freebird

ICBM said:

I've really tried to like Here Come The Warm Jets, but although I can see why it's good, I just can't listen to it - I find it massively irritating. I have tried any of the other three but I'm not in a great hurry now.

On the other hand I love Apollo Atmospheres & Soundtracks, early Roxy Music, and I like most of his work as a producer.

That's a fair opinion, but there is a huge chunk of music that has it's roots in the Velvet Underground/Bowie/Roxy Music/Eno branch of music evolution, so it's worth a listen purely from a historical perspective. As an ideas oriented person, I spend a fair proportion of my listening time in the distant past, as I try to skip a few generations in order to avoid current trends.

I'm not sure how accurate this website is, but it gives some idea of the music development path - http://inflooenz.com/?artist=Velvet+underground

I had a similar experience to you regarding Joy Division. I just didn't get them the first time around, and I couldn't get into them during subsequent listens. But one day they suddenly became one of my favourite bands, along with the Cure, the Clash, Husker Du and the Pixies. Even studying the musical output from this quintet should result in the formation of another 100 top bands, and it probably has.

PS I also like ABBA and the Carpenters, so I try to keep an open musical mind 

Strangefan

Flip! I saw the title as an obituary for some reason! 

Philly_Q

Strangefan said:

Flip! I saw the title as an obituary for some reason! 

He really did go much too young.

boogieman

Fretwired said:

Check out the Fripp/Eno album Evening star ....

No Pussyfooting is good as well. 

Hootsmon

Christ he was old lookin' for his age

boogieman

hootsmon said:

Christ he was old lookin' for his age

Only because he lost his hair at a young age. He came into a shop where I worked a couple of times, he was a nice guy, very self effacing and surprised that anybody recognised him. One of the staff was a massive Roxy fan and tried to get his autograph but he refused, saying he "wasn't famous enough". 

Jez6345789

Very much at the fringes but formed a big part of my youth and interest in ambient music back then. 
I was far more into electronica in those day than guitar music.

As for what happend I think Eno remained a key influencer rather than chasing the fickle light of flame. 

His work in production is much admired in rock/pop circles these days and he is the master of bringing the tinkerings of the Avant garde to the main stream.

JezWynd

ICBM said:

I've really tried to like Here Come The Warm Jets, but although I can see why it's good, I just can't listen to it - I find it massively irritating. I have tried any of the other three but I'm not in a great hurry now.

I don't know if I've just had bad copies but the overall sound of Warm Jets does seem a bit muffled for want of a better word. Bit odd when you consider he's made his name as a producer. The content more than compensates imo.

His main talent is as a creative spark, his Oblique Strategies cards can be useful tools. There used to be a simple app (hypercard stack?) but I've not found it when I did a search recently.

Freebird

JezWynd said:
I don't know if I've just had bad copies but the overall sound of Warm Jets does seem a bit muffled for want of a better word. Bit odd when you consider he's made his name as a producer. The content more than compensates imo.

His main talent is as a creative spark, his Oblique Strategies cards can be useful tools. There used to be a simple app (hypercard stack?) but I've not found it when I did a search recently.

It was remastered for CD in 2004, along with the other albums mentioned in this post.

steamabacus

JezWynd said:

His main talent is as a creative spark, his Oblique Strategies cards can be useful tools. There used to be a simple app (hypercard stack?) but I've not found it when I did a search recently.

I don't have a link to hand but if you search for the 'Oblique Strategies' Fretboard Composition Challenge thread in the Making Music section of this forum there is a link to an online version of the deck.

lasermonkey

I got into Eno via his work with Bowie. After reading about him, I bought the (then) newly-released Working Backwards 1983-1973 box set, rather than f**k about!

 While I'm not so keen on the earlier, more whimsical stuff, there's gold to be found on Another Green World, and Discreet Music sees his early dabblings with systems music. 

I love the two Music For Films albums (MFF2 was only released with the box set or given to a few TV producers), the four Ambient series albums and Apollo.

 My favourite Eno albums are Ambient 4: On Land (which has an eerie, unsettling feel to it) and the two albums he did with pianist Harold Budd, namely Ambient 2: The Plateaux Of Mirror and The Pearl, which wasn't included in the box set.

 The latter two albums are mainly comprised of "treated piano" and are utterly exquisite. I've listened to those two albums literally thousands of times!

 A word of warning about the earliest CD releases: the mastering, if you can call it that, it atrocious. On Music For Films, not only is the track order wrong, they missed off the first part of the first song and there's a horrible, digital distortion all the way through it. Ambient 2 is a bit better, though some distortion is evident, particularly on the title track.