When I first conceived of the idea to write a blog, the whole concept of "blogging" had only just begun to emerge as the mainstream phenomenon that it is today. For an impressionable young teenager, such as myself as I was at that time, the very notion of being able to occupy one's own space within the vast ecosystem of the internet was incredibly alluring. But alas, for better or worse, I never did start my own blog all those years ago; mainly because I didn't know what to write about, which, as you might imagine, was a major obstacle. Nevertheless, around the same time I did begin to post a number of very amateur music reviews on the wonderful RYM. Although this was a fairly short-lived hobby, sadly of which no evidence remains, it has since become a source of great nostalgia. So it is with some excitement that I look forward to writing about music once again and what better to begin with than the album from which this blog earns its namesake; Brian Eno's Another Green World (1975).
My introduction to the music of Brian Eno was something of a happy accident. At the time, my listening habits were firmly rooted in the progressive folk of the late sixties and early seventies, so the completely random decision to listen to Eno's Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks (1983) was to mark a huge departure from what I had been accustomed to. What I discovered was a form of music that didn't rely so much on the conventions of song writing as it did on the texture of sound itself. As a result, it didn't demand my attention; rather, it seemed content to settle in the background as I continued about my day. And yet after what seemed like an incredibly short 49 minutes, I found myself compelled to play it again. It was this curious ability to remain discreet but somehow invigorating at the same time that I loved about Apollo; a trait that is quite simply missing from my next foray into Eno's discography, his unashamedly brash solo debut. Although I continued to listen to Apollo with frequent regularity, it took another few years before I came to appreciate the wide-eyed eccentricity of Here Come The Warm Jets (1973). And this brings me to Another Green World, which is often considered as the transitional album between Eno's early experimental pop and his later ambient music.
Having since listened to more Eno-affiliated recordings than I care to admit, I feel that whilst the idea of a single transitional album may be true of many artists, the entire concept is somewhat misleading in this particular case. After all, Eno had been experimenting with what we now recognize as ambient music much earlier than the recording of Another Green World; perhaps the most obvious example of which is documented on his first collaborative album with Robert Fripp, No Pussyfooting (1973). It must also be said that Eno continued to remain fascinated by rhythmic pop after Another Green World, as is evidenced by both his own album, Before and After Science (1977) and his work on David Bowie's Berlin trilogy, not to mention the numerous artists he has produced music for since. Therefore, I prefer to think of Another Green World not merely as a transitional album but rather as one experiment in a much larger study. And what makes this particular experiment so successful, at least to this mind, is precisely the fact that it isn't the perfect synthesis of early and late era Eno that it is often credited as. For instance, within the first three songs alone, the listener is greeted by a wealth of wholly disparate sounds and styles; the abrasive synth of "Sky Saw", the meandering jazz-inspired bass workout on "Over Fire Island", the playful melodicism of "St. Elmo's Fire". Elsewhere, "The Big Ship" works towards pulling the listener into a spiraling crescendo of layered noise before seemingly fading out before it has reached the climax, which in turn leads to the decidedly anticlimactic, child-like pop of "I'll Come Running". In essence, Another Green World is an almost haphazard collage of contrasting and, to some extent, competing sounds. And yet, despite this nonuniformity, each and every song contributes to the emotional undertone that holds the album together as a whole. As such, listening to Another Green World becomes an exciting, uncertain and occasionally dark experience that is wholly befitting of the sense of wonderment and intrigue contained within its title.
Having since listened to more Eno-affiliated recordings than I care to admit, I feel that whilst the idea of a single transitional album may be true of many artists, the entire concept is somewhat misleading in this particular case. After all, Eno had been experimenting with what we now recognize as ambient music much earlier than the recording of Another Green World; perhaps the most obvious example of which is documented on his first collaborative album with Robert Fripp, No Pussyfooting (1973). It must also be said that Eno continued to remain fascinated by rhythmic pop after Another Green World, as is evidenced by both his own album, Before and After Science (1977) and his work on David Bowie's Berlin trilogy, not to mention the numerous artists he has produced music for since. Therefore, I prefer to think of Another Green World not merely as a transitional album but rather as one experiment in a much larger study. And what makes this particular experiment so successful, at least to this mind, is precisely the fact that it isn't the perfect synthesis of early and late era Eno that it is often credited as. For instance, within the first three songs alone, the listener is greeted by a wealth of wholly disparate sounds and styles; the abrasive synth of "Sky Saw", the meandering jazz-inspired bass workout on "Over Fire Island", the playful melodicism of "St. Elmo's Fire". Elsewhere, "The Big Ship" works towards pulling the listener into a spiraling crescendo of layered noise before seemingly fading out before it has reached the climax, which in turn leads to the decidedly anticlimactic, child-like pop of "I'll Come Running". In essence, Another Green World is an almost haphazard collage of contrasting and, to some extent, competing sounds. And yet, despite this nonuniformity, each and every song contributes to the emotional undertone that holds the album together as a whole. As such, listening to Another Green World becomes an exciting, uncertain and occasionally dark experience that is wholly befitting of the sense of wonderment and intrigue contained within its title.
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