From: owner-avalon-digest@smoe.org (avalon-digest) To: avalon-digest@smoe.org Subject: avalon-digest V15 #805 Reply-To: avalon@smoe.org Sender: owner-avalon-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-avalon-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk avalon-digest Friday, May 16 2014 Volume 15 : Number 805 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [AVALON] This'll make you feel old... [Chris Turner Subject: [AVALON] This'll make you feel old... Eno is 66 today. Sixty-bloody-six! I've generally been bemused by just exactly what his appeal is, in fact at times I'm not even sure what it is he does, other than sprinkling projects with his essential 'Eno-ness', but I did enjoy his performance on Later a couple of days ago with Karl Hyde. I say performance; he wavered his right hand over some digitised theremin in the manner of a one-armed Tommy Cooper while his left hand jabbed at some kind of calculator gizmo, but it was indisputably a good, trashy, thrashy noise - I especially loved the harmonies at the end. Not exactly something the postman can whistle (ironic given BE's Royal Mail heritage) but nonetheless enjoyable. He's sporting a natty beard/specs combo these days, presumably to differentiate himself from doppelganger Uwe Rosler... http://bit.ly/1n1JzNq Jools had a great opportunity to ask him some penetrating questions about his approach and ethos but naturally preferred to fanny about with something more trite. In this case he pulled out a set of Oblique Strategies cards, which would have been a lame joke 20 years ago. I know many people love Holland's laissez-faire presentation style, but for me he's only really eloquent when he's playing the piano. He's had access to so many of the world's greatest musicians and only ever asked them vapid questions about their trousers or haircuts or where they've been on holiday, like some facile boogie-woogie hairdresser. I always felt that Eno's contribution to Roxy was scant and uneven; no songs authored, very little actual playing, ropey sound quality on the first album (I won't level that criticism at the peerless FYP) and this nebulous idea that he could make something sound like the moon, or vapour or despair or something, and I felt that he took more from his tenure than he actually contributed, (although I know one respected member of this fraternity who told me that he thinks Eno was Roxy's one true genius.) It certainly got him laid a lot, but hey, that's why you form a band. I did like his output immediately post-Roxy, and wonder how RM might have developed had he not found its maws so constricting or had he been allowed a more equitable share of the creative duties. I admired the Byrne collaborations, but his ambient stuff leaves me cold (you shouldn't invent something that nobody wanted inventing IMO), and as for his sojourn into U2-land and whatever planet Coldplay come from..pffft. Pays the gas bill I guess. Anyway, The Domed One is one year into his bus pass and, you know what, maybe I'm finally starting to warm to him. Chris PS. If you want to know what despair actually sounds like, just record me listening to Olympia. ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon ------------------------------ End of avalon-digest V15 #805 ***************************** ======================================================================== For further info, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: info avalon-digest