Welcome back, music lovers. This is diary 101 in the series. Last week I focused my attention on the career of Brian Eno, an individual who did a great deal to popularize ambient music, and prior to his decades-long stint recording ambient tracks (some intended for visual art installations), he was a progressive rocker in his own right. Eno is also known for his numerous collaborations over the years, starting very early on in his solo career following his split with Roxy Music. Those projects run the gamut from prog rock one-offs to more experimental offerings. Some of those collaborations were part of or the aftermath of some work he’s done as a producer. I stumbled on to his rather unusual musical world as a teen when I bought my first Bowie album. Anyone whose credits include playing instruments with names like cricket menace is bound to get my attention. Just the way my mind works.
In digging through the record bins and so on in my teens, I continued to find various gems that included Eno as a collaborator. I’d bring back whatever I could afford at any one time. Usually I was lucky to walk away with a single record at any given time, and then had to save up to get the next one. In the process, I learned of work he did with members of Cluster. Honestly, I had no idea who Cluster were until I picked up an album that had Eno on the credits. The songs ranged from electronic instrumentals to tunes almost akin to death disco. An example:
I always loved this track. It is dark, and in some sense its content seems fitting even four decades hence. Really I could listen to the work he did with members of Cluster endlessly. And learning about Cluster opened up a whole musical world to me at a very early age. But that’s another story for another time.
I will post a bit more as time permits, just like last week. If you enjoy this series, please rec, and make sure to tip the posts. There are facets of what we call popular music for which I have a nearly encyclopedic knowledge, or at least that is what I get told by family members who probably find the amount of trivia I can recall boring or exasperating. So it goes. Still, it did come in handy when curating sets for a radio show (back when I did college radio) or even just finding something fitting for a party that would be just a bit off the usual beaten path. And you never know what questions might be asked at a trivia night. Enjoy!
Between the song title “After the Heat” and the polar vortex bringing near-record cold temperatures to most of the eastern half of the country, the drink that strikes my fancy today is The Elsa Cocktail (from Frozen) – Tipsy Bartender.
I promise to have something warmer tomorrow. In the meantime, the bartender is taking requests.
Here is the “something warmer” I promised for today. It’s Nutty Irish Coffee, which I was orginally planning on posting as the fourth drink last week.
Tomorrow is Bubble Gum Day, so I plan on having a drink that matches the theme.
Bubble Gum Day. Too bad this week was not devoted to bubble gum pop.
Happy Bubble Gum Day! As I promised above, I am serving a drink that matches the holiday, The Bubble Gum Colada.
Happy Groundhog Day! For today’s drink, I’m being a good environmentalist and recycling the video from Drink to an early spring on Groundhog Day 2019 at my personal blog: Groundhog Day Cocktail from How to Drink.*
May the groundhogs be right, even if there is scant scientific evidence in their favor.
If this diary is still on the rec list tomorrow, I’ll post a video for Super Bowl Sunday.
*Tipsy Bartender doesn’t have a Groundhog Day cocktail, so I had to go elsewhere.
Yo! Frog Pond crew. You know what to do.
And for those who tip, rec, and very occasionally comment: thanks.
Not sure yet if I’ll keep with an Eno theme or not. I could easily delve into some of his work as a producer.
Another track from around 1978, with members of Cluster. There was a lot of great music coming out of West Germany at the time.
Here are the first two tracks from Eno and David Byrne’s 1981 release, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. The whole album is far more experimental than anything the Talking Heads would have dared to release at the time, which is saying something given this album was released shortly after Remain in Light, which itself was quite outre as pop albums go. These two tracks are fun for me simply because they touch on the state of American politics, which seems not to have changed too much in the last nearly four decades. The whole album is worth repeated listens. Sampling was still relatively uncharted territory at the time.
Spinner was a one-off collaboration with Jah Wobble (already a well-established dub-style bassist) released in 1996. This particular track was the one that resonated with me. Wobble is much more subdued on this track than he would be in just about any other context. It works, and I find in the right context evokes rather strong emotions. The entire album seemed to get mixed reviews. Personally I thought it worked pretty well, but I do have a favorable bias toward both musicians.
Jon Hassell was merely someone who appeared on Remain in Light when I first picked up that album. A little later, I’d get a good sense of just what he was capable of. This track comes from an album he did with Eno, Fourth World Vol 1: Possible Musics. It’s a track I enjoy, but as with many albums, it’s probably best enjoyed within the context of the other pieces in the collection. There are spots on this track where he is reminiscent of Miles Davis. That comparison is much more pronounced in other works of Hassell’s. Still this is not a bad place to start delving into another significant recording artist who has been active during the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Here’s a track from a collaboration with Karl Hyde of Underworld fame. I like how this track sounds – somewhat reminiscent of early 1980s Talking Heads, with a bit more of a 21st century edge.
This is just one of a number of recordings Eno’s been involved in since signing with Warp Records – a label that was largely brought to life thanks to his efforts early on to popularize and develop ambient music (and other dangers).
801 was a supergroup that had a small handful of live performances in 1976 and released one album the following year. The live album from 1976 included a number of originals by Eno, Manzanera and others. I always enjoy this particular cover of an old Beatles tune, “Tomorrow Never Knows.”
Just a taste of what Eno and Robert Fripp could accomplish together. These tracks are from their second album together, Evening Star:
Note that the latter video is an excerpt of the title track. I just love the combo of the visual and the music.
Eno & Harmonia ’76. These weren’t released here until the late 1990s.
Listen carefully midway through the second track and you’ll hear some possible inspiration for Robert Fripp’s song “Exposure.”
Here’s one of the tracks that appeared on Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirrors – a joint effort with pianist Harold Budd. I think I have probably put on a video by Harold Budd at some point in the past – probably something where Pharoah Sanders played sax. Anyway, this was a piece from fairly early on in Eno’s career, and very early on as an ambient composer and performer.
Eno with Laraaji. This was from Ambient 3: Day of Radiance. There was some breathtakingly wonderful and almost impossible to really categorize music from around the late 1970s and start of the 1980s. This would likely end up either in a New Age bin or maybe a World Music bin at a record store at the time.
Here’s one you won’t hear every day. This is the b-side to the “King’s Lead Hat” single. Counts as a collaboration since Eno worked with members of punk combo Snatch (Judy Nylon & Patti Palladin) to create this track. Not the usual subject matter for a song, of course. Certainly the topic of songs by plenty of other recording artists around that time (Cabaret Voltaire and Bauhaus come to mind immediately, and I know I am missing a few others).
That wasn’t the first time Judy Nylon and Eno had worked together in any capacity. She appeared on Eno’s second solo album, and participated in a very early promo video for one of its songs:
So that was in 1974. MTV wouldn’t air until about seven years or so later. Videos were very much a novelty.