Another Green World

At the time, I taped this from a friend's vinyl but I replaced this copy of Another Green World with the CD a few years ago and listening to it again nearly thirty years after it was recorded the inventiveness and playful approach of Eno and his cohorts still springs out; Phil Collins' splendid drumming provides proof, if it were needed, that the only place I want to hear him is behind the kit. Robert Fripp's "Frippertronics" guitar system involving tape-delay systems and looped feedback is used to ear-bending effect on several tracks. And behind it all, bald on top and long at the sides, Eno's compositional and production genius shines. He credits himself on a fabulous array of made-up instruments ("Snake Guitar", "Unnatural Sounds", "Desert Guitar" and the like) and peppers everything with harmonics, percussive flourishes and twinkling melodic runs. This is an album that manages to combine all kinds of emotions, yet stil sounds coherent.

In the last few years I've listened to a lot of Brian Eno's back catalogue, and other personal favourites include Before And After Science and his Ambient series. But I have a particular fondness for Another Green World, and time has been very kind to it; part of this is probably nostalgia, but I think it's also because it's SUCH a great record.

Eno loves space and here he makes good use of it, keeping the instrumentation to an absolute minimum and putting everything in it's right place at the right time. He has quoted Teo Macero's editing and production of Miles Davis's "He Loves Him Madly" as a big influence on what he was doing and it shows how he was developing as a producer, a role that would eventually make him a household name. There are elements of funk and jazz here, emphasised by Percy Jones unmistakeable fretless bass playing on several tracks. There is even a track named after Weather Report's Joe Zawinul.

Robert Fripp is also an important contributor here. His fuzzy sustained guitar tones shine on tracks such as "St. Elmo's Fire", "I'll Come Running" and "Golden Hours". John Cale adds viola runs to the appropriately named "Sky Saw". Phil Collins, in Brand X mode makes an appearance here, further emphasising the loose, jazzy leanings.

There is a cool, alien austerity about this album, further emphasised by Tom Phillips other worldly cover. This is music from another green world indeed.

A couple of comments about these Original Master re-issues. They are minimally packaged in digipaks which are housed in transparent plastic slip cases. No notes, essays or lyrics, just the original recording credits. These are not remasters as such, but new transfers taken from the original master tapes using the new Direct Stream Digital (DSD) format. This is state of the art as regards mastering onto compact disc. They have been transferred by Simon Heyworth who is one of the best in the business. He has made statements about the remastering of these recordings. Why change something that was done right originally! Eno was happy with the original mastering so what is needed is just the best transfer onto compact disc that is currently feasible. Whereas the original CD's sounded flat and thin, these transfers are much livelier and offer a fuller, more detailed sound.