Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)
| Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) | ||||
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| Brian Eno's studio album | ||||
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Publication |
1974 |
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| Label (s) | Island Records | |||
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Format (s) |
CD, LP |
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Title (number) |
10 |
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running time |
48 min 14 s |
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| occupation |
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Brian Eno |
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Studio (s) |
Island Studios, London |
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Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) (dt. Conquer the Tiger Mountain With tactical skill ) is the second solo album by Brian Eno , that of Iceland Records was published in November 1974. In contrast to his previous album Here Come the Warm Jets , Eno used a core band with five regular musicians and fewer guest musicians. During the same period, Eno produced Robert Calvert's album Lucky Leif and the Longships . Most of the musicians played on both albums, including guitarist and co-lyricist Phil Manzanera , who played with Eno at Roxy Music . For the creative process of the production of the album developed Eno along with Peter Schmidt a set of cards with instructions, so-called Oblique Strategies (Eng. Slope strategies ).
Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) is a loose concept album with themes ranging from espionage to the Chinese communist revolution. The music on the album is upbeat with a fluctuating sound and dark lyrics. The album was not in the United States or England , but it attracted a lot of interest in the rock press.
production
The album was inspired by a series of postcards about the Chinese model looper entitled Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy . Eno described his understanding of the title as referring to
the dichotomy between the archaic and the progressive. Half Taking Tiger Mountain - that Middle Ages physical feel of storming a military position - and half (By Strategy) - that very, very 20th-century mental concept of a tactical interaction of systems
“The contrast between the archaic and the progressive. Half "conquering the Tigerberg", the medieval, physical feeling of storming a military position - and half "through strategy", the very, very twentieth-century mental concept of a tactical interaction of systems. "
Eno and his friend Peter Schmidt developed so-called Oblique Strategies , a deck of cards, for the recordings , whereby each card contains an aphorism or strategy, which should help artists to remove creative blockages by stimulating lateral thinking. With these cards the next action was triggered during the recording of the album (for example "be dirty" or "let your neck be massaged").
Eno and Schmidt, who described the words on the album as an expression of "idiotic feeling of happiness," the Oblique Strategies eventually expanded to over 100 "worthwhile dilemas" (dt. Desirable dilemma ) that were almost applied in all future recordings and productions. Schmidt also designed the album cover, which comes from four prints of his edition of over fifteen hundred unique lithographs , as well as from Eno Polaroid photographs that are ascribed to Lorenz Zatecky on the liner notes .
Phil Manzanera , who had already played with Eno at Roxy Music, said he was positive about the experience during the recording.
“... just doing anything we felt like doing at the time. The engineer we used, Rhett Davies, also did Diamond Head and 801 Live and Quiet Sun, so it was like family. There was a lot of experimenting and a lot of hours spent with Brian Eno, me, and Rhett in the control room doing all the things that eventually evolved into those cards, the Oblique Strategies, and it was just a lot of fun. "
"... we were only doing what we wanted to do at the time. The engineer we used, Rhett Davies, has also recorded Diamond Head and 801 Live and Quiet Sun, it was like family. There was a lot of experimentation, and Brian Eno, I, and Rhett spent hours in the studio doing all the things that eventually became these cards, the oblique strategies, and it was a lot of fun. "
Unlike the previous album, Here Come the Warm Jets , Eno worked with a core group of musicians. The group consisted of Manzanera of Roxy Music, Brian Turrington and Freddie Smith of The Winkies and the former singer of Soft Machine , Robert Wyatt . Various guest musicians played on selected pieces from the album, including Andy Mackay from Roxy Music, and the Portsmouth Sinfonia , an orchestra in which Eno had once played the clarinet. The orchestra's philosophy was that anyone could join the orchestra as long as they had no experience with the instrument they wanted to play in the orchestra. With the appearance of Phil Collins , Genesis returned the favor for Eno's help with the recording of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway .
style
The sound of the album was described as livelier and more cheerful than the previous album, while the lyrics had rather dark themes. The lyrics were remarkably educated and humorous with quick, fiery, sometimes eccentric rhymes and pitiless statements. Eno created the lyrics by playing the instrumental tracks, singing nonsense syllables and transforming them into correct words and expressions with meaning. The reference to China appears in the pieces "Burning Airlines Give You So Much More", "China My China" and "Taking Tiger Mountain". Steve Huey at Allmusic described the album through these themes summarized as
"It's a loose concept album - often inscrutable, but still playful - about espionage, the Chinese Communist revolution, and dream associations ..."
"It's a loose concept album, often puzzling but playable, about espionage, the Chinese communist revolution and dream associations ..."
When asked about the political issues in the lyrics and album title, Eno declared he was
"not Maoist or anything like that; if anything I'm anti-Maoist".
“Not a Maoist or anything like that; if anything, I am an anti-Maoist. "
The album deals with various esoteric topics. Burning Airlines Give You So Much More is based on the accident on Turkish Airlines flight 981 , one of the most serious accidents in history to date. The Fat Lady of Limbourg , Eno called the piece a Burroughs -type song , is a piece about a mental institution in Limbourg, Belgium . The Great Pretender describes the rape of a suburban housewife by a spinning machine. The piece Third Uncle is as an early precursor to the punk rock viewed.
reception
The album received mostly positive reviews from the critics. Robert Christgau from Village Voice gave the album an A- rating. He wrote about the album
“Every cut on this clear, consistent, elusive album affords distinct present pleasure. Admittedly, when they're over they're over— you don't flash on them the way you do on Cindy Tells Me and Baby's on Fire . But that's just his way of being modest. "
“Every track on this clear, consistent, elusive album offers a distinct pleasure. Granted, when they're over, they're over - you don't like them like Cindy Tells Me and Baby's on Fire. But that's just his way of being humble. "
Critic Ed Naha gave the album a negative rating in Crawdaddy.
"Much of the Wonderlandish magic found on Eno's first LP is lost on this rocky terrain, being replaced by a dull, repetitive aura that is annoying as all hell."
"Much of the wonderland magic that was found on Eno's first LP was lost on this rocky terrain, replaced by a dull, repetitive aura that sucks to death."
Track list
All titles by Brian Eno unless otherwise noted.
- Burning Airlines Give You So Much More - 3:17
- Back in Judy's Jungle - 5:15
- The Fat Lady of Limbourg - 5:05
- Mother Whale Eyeless - 5:45
- The Great Pretender - 5:11
- Third Uncle (Brian Eno, Brian Turrington) - 4:47
- Put a Straw Under Baby - 3:25
- The True Wheel (Eno, Phil Manzanera) - 5:11
- China My China - 4:44
- Taking Tiger Mountain - 5:32
Individual evidence
- ^ Oblique Strategies. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on December 27, 2012 ; Retrieved January 18, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Review at Allmusic. Retrieved January 19, 2013 .
- ↑ a b Eric Tamm: Brian Eno: His Music and the Vertical Color of Sound , Da Capo Press, ISBN 0-306-80649-5
- ^ A b Jim DeRogatis: Turn on Your Mind: Four Decades of Great Psychedelic Rock , Hal Leonard Corporation, ISBN 0-634-05548-8
- ↑ Eno: Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy, Island, 1975). Retrieved January 19, 2013 .
