I was into Brian Eno with my teenage pal Campbell. We were like a secret club listening to Another Green World, Before and After Science, Taking Tiger Mountain By Surprise. Eno was an underground artist then not well known, then the ambient series emerged and it disappointed me, I found them only fit as a soundtracks for a documentary on torture.
CUT TO 1994 and I’m living in the country driving home down long country roads in the dark listening to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and they announce they are about to premiere music produced by Brian Eno of a band from the Soviet Union blah blah blah, it’s a big deal, he found them so unique, behind the Iron Curtain is still a fresh thing more or less – then they start the music and it sounds like all the Eno albums from the 70s, the ones I liked but strangely missing was whatever suppose to be “unique” about these Rooskis.
Realized then to be wary of things I produce sounding like me. My contribution should be realizing the artist’s work before doing anything that exposes my own musical habits even if they ask me to play. Maybe Eno knows that too (?) but he sure coloured the whole thing like his other records. What a surprise when I realized George Martin was the producer on Blow By Blow by Jeff Beck. The only clue that the same person produced that and the Beatles catalogue is intense creativity, stimulating design, and talent out the wazoo. What a cool thing to be known for.
