Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)

Description

Standard 1LP editions of the early Eno catalogue, cut at Abbey Road Studios at 33RPM & all pressed to 180-gram black heavyweight vinyl + download card.

With experimentalism, conceptual art theory and use of the accidental as a foundation, these albums broke through the boundaries of popular music at the time. Elements of prog/psych/art rock, avant garde and 50s rock n roll were combined with an array of cultural and philosophical ideas to create fresh sounding music, that was both visionary and captivating. Alongside George Martin and The Beatles work on Sgt. Peppers, Eno is arguably the other most pre-eminent practitioner of studio as instrument ever. His unconventional recording techniques have resulted in a canon of work that places him alongside other iconic producers like Brian Wilson, Lee Scratch Perry and Phil Spector. As these albums progress chronologically, a nascent form of music begins to emerge. The ideas we hear in this early work continue to reveal themselves in Enos later ambient and electronic experiments.

1974s Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) is a loose concept album with topics ranging from espionage to the Chinese Communist revolution. To help guide production of the album, Eno and the albums cover artist Peter Schmidt developed the highly influential Oblique Strategies cards which proffered instructions intended to aid creativity. They were also used on subsequent albums and are still consulted by Eno and many others to this day. Unlike Here Come the Warm Jets Eno used fewer guest musicians, instead opting for a core band consisting of Phil Manzanera, Andy Mackey, Brian Turrington and Freddie Smith of The Winkies, Robert Wyatt, Phil Collins of Genesis and Brand X, members of Randi & The Pyramids, The Simplistics and Portsmouth Sinfonia (an orchestra in which Eno had once played clarinet.)