Thursday 3 August 2017

Cluster & Eno ‎– "Cluster & Eno" (Sky Records ‎– sky 010) 1977


It wasn't until the eighties that I realised that Brian was Eno's christian name and not 'And'......of course I jest hahahaha! But the suffix ...'and Eno' was even popular in Germany it seems. All relevant acts were very keen to get an Eno collaboration going so this association with the former Glam Icon would raise their very very low profile on the world stage somewhat.
'Cluster' were another German act I couldn't find in the Euro Rock section of Revolver Records in Leicester......this was long before Leicester became the Kosmiche,Progressive music, Krautrock mecca of Britain, thanks to the Freeman Brothers now defunct, 'Ultima Thule' shop, and Audion Magazine.....all now decamped to an office somewhere doing mail order only.
If you wondered where Brian got his idea for his 'Ambient' series from, look no further than Cluster, and a bunch of similar Krautrock electronic minimalists from the early seventies.
Fittingly Eno gave their profile a boost by collaborating with them, and that's how I first heard of this very innovative and prolific duo of Moebius and Roedelius......peculiar names aren't they?
ENO's genius was to produce music like this just at the time when the public had a taste for violent and basic rock music.
Always the Oblique Strategist, this all seemed like stubbornly wading against the tide of popularism. However, there are a lot of similarities between this and the 'Punk' manifesto. For a start Eno couldn't really play any instruments, described himself as a 'Non-Musician', and frankly ,anyone could do this. This stuff launched an underground wave of ambient electronicists on the cassette underground, most famously on Colin Potter's ICR label.
Punk without the Funk and, thank your god, without the Punk as well.How more 'Punk' can one get? The answer is 'None....None more Punk.

Tracklist:

Ho Renomo 5:10
Schöne Hände 3:00
Steinsame 4:20
Wehrmut 5:00
Mit Simaen 1:30
Selange 3:30
Die Bunge 3:50
One 6:00
Für Luise 3:50


6 comments:

rev.b said...

As I was leaving a show by someone I can't remember now, someone yelled out "ENO CREATED FREEBASE!" That I remember, so now you know.

Jonny Zchivago said...

Mmmm, interesting if only i could be bothered to google what Freebase was.....i would have thought its some kind of life threatening pastime for young men on top of tall structures, but i'm sure ENO wouldn't be doing that for fun.

Henk Madrotter said...

Free basing is smoking cocaine purified :)

Never done that myself and not planning to either....

Might be there's another kind of free base that I don't know about though.....

Certifiablockhead said...

as an Eno fan from the Roxy era, i got this one and everything coming out with his name on it by this time...and enjoying it, i must add...thank you...

rev.b said...

Hank has it right, sort of a precursor to crack, tho' crack is smoking polluted cocaine. Neither practice seems to do the user much good. My reaction to each is generally 'Great! Just what I need; a drug that makes one an even bigger asshole!' Why Brian would create that is beyond me. Back to this music, I was lucky enough to to attend a show by the now 83 year old Roedelius. It wasn't much visually, watching a guy staring at a computer screen, but the music was sound sculpture at it finest. If I were Eno, I'd borrow/steal from that source as well.

xylem777 said...

Ultima Thule web address is now: http://www.ultimathulerecords.com