#429 Brian Eno - Another Green World (1975)

MUSIC HISTORY WRITTEN BY HEAD WRITER DJ MORTY COYLE:

Released on Island Records in September of 1975 this is the third studio album by British multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, songwriter, and conceptual art pioneer Brian Eno, who also co-produced with Rhett Davies.

Eno had been a founding member of Glam, Art-Rock, Experimental band Roxy Music in the early ’70s but left due to disagreements in musical directions, a distaste for the decadent “rockstar lifestyle”, and to pursue more esoteric explorations.

A self-described “non-musician”, Eno had always been fascinated with and influenced by unconventional, avant-garde, and experimental composers like John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Steve Reich.

So after several sonic studio experiments and two interesting and critically-well-received rock-based albums he designed a deliberate departure on this album that would transition his sound into the minimalist ambient music he would release through much of the ‘70s.

All but 5 of the 14 songs are instrumentals and Eno played everything on half of the album.
For the others, he assembled a small crew of musicians which included Percy Jones from Jazz/Fusion band Brand X, Paul Rudolph, and Brian Turrington on basses and other instruments, Rod Melvin on Rhodes piano, the Velvet Underground’s John Cale on viola, frequent collaborator Robert Fripp from King Crimson on guitar, and Phil Collins from Genesis and also from Brand X on drums and percussion.

And even though this record now sounds cohesive, delicate, and at times even meditative it was created in something of a panic.

Unlike his previous albums, Eno entered the studio without much written and it took three frustrating, fruitless, and expensive weeks before he and the musicians finally creatively coalesced.

Now while the album utilized many sonically experimental and unique studio techniques one of the most notable contributions was from a deck of cards Eno had created by hand with his art school friend, painter Peter Schmidt to use on his previous album, “Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)”.

Titled, “Oblique Strategies” these were about a hundred cards that had unique and often perplexing instructions to spark creativity. When Eno and his musicians found themselves looking for a direction or at a dead-end they would randomly pull out a card that would dictate their next move.

Eno and Schmidt considered them “Worthwhile Dilemmas” and had released the first official set of them to the public in 1974.

Eno would go on to use these on nearly all future recordings and they became so popular and respected that they have been used by artists such as Phoenix, Coldplay, R.E.M., and on the trio of ‘70s albums David Bowie made in Berlin, “Low”, “Heroes”, and “Lodger” on which Eno collaborated.

Although “Another Green World” didn’t chart in the U.K. or America it’s obviously important and influential enough for inclusion on The 500.