Brian Eno: Where to start?

[\/\/illy]

I don't have anything of his. I've had stuff played for me and enjoyed it. I'd like to begin exploring his music. Where do I start? Ideas?

[phorbesie]

i don't know much, but i love the stuff he does with j peter schwalm. seeing them remains one of my top 5 shows ever!

[hamilton]

Ambient One: Music For Airports.

[\/\/illy]

Ambient One: Music For Airports.

Okay, I'll start there.

[Tungsten Gruvsten]

I always liked 'here come the warm jets' but 'Ambient One' is the goods here too.

And there are lots of collaborations that come off better than his solo work...My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts with David Byrne is amazing, His two albums with Robert Fripp are excellent(Evening Star is a gorgeous song rife with waves of loops and delays) and for flair there is still Roxy Music and 801:live....

[Tenenbaum]

if u dig 70's Bowie, definitely start with his debut "Here Come the Warm Jets", followed by "ANother Green World" where his ambient sound starts to creep in a bit.

If you dig the ambient/instrumentals, you'll feel content with "After the Heat" on repeat.

[hamilton]

And there are lots of collaborations that come off better than his solo work...My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts with David Byrne is amazing....

Oooooooh, yeah! That one is completely amazing. There was a new remaster that came out last year that sounds like GOLD! And there's an online site to go with it where you can do your own remixes, too. Pretty neat shit.

[Rob Not Bob]

For more "songs" based Eno, Nerve Net is very good. For ambient, also try Plateau Of Mirror, Apollo and Spinner, the one he did with Jah Wobble.

[phishtaper]

Ive always loved Discreet Music - perhaps because its the biggest mind-fuck Ive ever heard.

It's Pachelbel's Canon in D Major (you'd certainly recognize it) wherein he varies the tempo of each instrument by its pitch. Bass slows down, violins speed up. Your mind can compensate for the first minute or so, then it breaks down and becomes dissonant but comes back together at the end.

Eno is one strange genius. Don't expect to actually "enjoy" any of his music, though. It's beautiful because its challenging, but very ambient (if that makes sense).

edit to add: fwiw, the rumour I heard (and helped along) was that Eno was underneath the stage during U2's Zooropa tour twisting knobs and hitting buttons. personally, ive always thought he's a better producer than a performer.

Edited March 11, 2008 by Guest

[MarcO]

Discreet Music, Before & After Science, Another Green World, Music For Airports, Music For Films, Apollo, Thursday Afternoon, On Land = all of these are AWESOME!

On Land is particularly creepy. Apollo has some cool pedal steel courtesy of Daniel Lanois.

Brian Eno is awesome. He's incredibly important.

[Freak By Night]

I recommend Brian Eno's "Neroli", released in 1993.

This album contains one 58-minute song.

[backbacon]

if u dig 70's Bowie, definitely start with his debut "Here Come the Warm Jets", followed by "ANother Green World" where his ambient sound starts to creep in a bit.

Also Bowie's 'Low' album... second half is ambient Eno.