This week we’ll be spotlighting legendary musician/producer extraordinaire, the brilliant Brian Eno. Truly an artist in every sense of the word, Eno has been in the news a lot lately thanks to Gary Hustwit’s fantastic new documentary of the same name (Eno), which randomly selects elements from 30 hours of interviews and 500 hours of archival footage to deliver a unique viewing experience each time you watch it. It’s a fittingly innovative documentary for a truly groundbreaking artist, who’s been boldly pushing the boundaries of what music can sound and feel like since his pioneering ambient records from the mid/late 70s (i.e. Another Green World and Music for Airports).
But truth be told, Eno was always pushing boundaries even before his forays into the ambient realm, not only during his Roxy Music days, but also on his first two solo records (Here Come the Warm Jets and Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)), which in many ways are just as weird or weirder than his ambient records due to their distinctly diverse, rock-centric sound. And while those records were definitely more art-rock than anything, they also featured a fair amount of “manic” moments as well. Case in point is the somewhat frantic “Third Uncle”, captured in this killer video below. It’s not quite “heavy” per se (this is Brian Eno we’re talking about after all), but the notably fast-paced/busy nature of the track, coupled with the steadily building, noisy intensity, makes this one of Eno’s more maniacal compositions. Check it out:
