It’s 1978, and loud guitars thrashing out simplistic beats with angry lyrics are all the rage. So what does Brian Eno, erstwhile knob-twiddler with Roxy Music do? Why, he invents a new genre of music with this album.
1977 punk? 1978 ambient!
To be fair, there had been clues on Eno’s earlier collaborations with Robert Fripp, but this was the album that created it all, the minimalism of the music reflected in the naming of the pieces. 1/1 (Side 1, disc 1) is a beautiful repeated piano theme (played by Robert Wyatt) overlaying a typical Eno soundscape. 2/1 is an eerie piece of vocal loops, not nearly as relaxing as the first piece, while 1/2 combines the loops and piano, but without any clear melody, to charming effect. 2/2 is a synthesiser piece, which to me, lacks the calming air of the previous three.
4* - a genre defining album, of which I’ll never tire.
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