Brian Eno Brian Eno Oblique Music EDITED BY SEAN ALBIEZ AND DAVID PATTIE Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc LONDON • OXFORD • NEW YORK • NEW DELHI • SYDNEY Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square 1385 Broadway London New York WC1B 3DP NY 10018 UK USA www.bloomsbury.com BLOOMSBURY and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published 2016 © Sean Albiez, David Pattie and contributors, 2016 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author. British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: HB: 978- 1- 4411- 1745- 8 PB: 978- 1- 4411- 2912- 3 ePDF: 978- 1- 4411- 5534- 4 ePub: 978- 1- 4411- 4806- 3 Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Names: Albiez, Sean, editor. | Pattie, David, 1963– editor. Title: Brian Eno : oblique music / edited by Sean Albiez and David Pattie. Description: New York : Bloomsbury Academic, 2016. | Includes index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016003576 (print) | LCCN 2016006402 (ebook) | ISBN 9781441117458 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781441148063 (ePub) | ISBN 9781441155344 (ePDF) Subjects: LCSH: Eno, Brian, 1948—Criticism and interpretation. | Electronica (Music)–History and criticism. | Ambient music–History and criticism. | Glam rock music–History and criticism. Classification: LCC ML410.E58 B75 2016 (print) | LCC ML410.E58 (ebook) | DDC 780.92–dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016003576 Cover design: Clareturner.co.uk Cover image © Henk Badenhorst/Getty Typeset by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India For Jacqui, Cameron, Celie, Joe and Ben O’Rian CONTENTS Contributors ix Introduction: Brian Eno: A problem of organization 1 David Pattie and Sean Albiez PART ONE Eno: Composer, musician and theorist 9 1 The Bogus Men: Eno, Ferry and Roxy Music 11 David Pattie 2 B rian Eno, non- musicianship and the experimental tradition 29 Cecilia Sun 3 Taking the studio by strategy 49 David Pattie 4 B etween the avant- garde and the popular: The discursive economy of Brian Eno’s musical practices 69 Chris Atton 5 Y es, but is it music? Brian Eno and the definition of ambient music 85 Mark Edward Achtermann 6 The lovely bones: Music from beyond 105 Hillegonda C. Rietveld 7 The voice and/ of Brian Eno 119 Sean Albiez viii CONTENTS PART TWO The University of Eno: Production and collaborations 137 8 Before and after Eno: Situating ‘The Recording Studio as Compositional Tool’ 139 Sean Albiez and Ruth Dockwray 9 Control and surrender: Eno remixed – collaboration and Oblique Strategies 175 Kingsley Marshall and Rupert Loydell 10 A vant- gardism, ‘Africa’ and appropriation in My Life in the Bush of Ghosts 193 Elizabeth Ann Lindau 11 Eno and Devo 211 Jonathan Stewart 12 Another Green World? Eno, Ireland and U2 235 Noel McLaughlin 13 Documenting no wave: Brian Eno as urban ethnographer 257 Martin James Select Discography 269 Index 275 CONTRIBUTORS Mark Edward Achtermann is a historian and erstwhile college liberal arts instructor. He studied guitar method under Robert Fripp and musical composition under Crawford Gates. He is currently (2016) editing the papers of social advocate F. Nelsen Schlegel (1901– 1987). Sean Albiez is senior lecturer in popular music at Southampton Solent University. He co- edited Kraftwerk: Music Non- Stop (2011) with David Pattie, and has published studies on electronic and popular music. Subjects have included Krautrock; John Lydon and PiL; French electronic music; Madonna; punk and post- punk; Techno and Detroit; and the infamous Sex Pistols 4 June 1976 gig at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester. He has contributed entries on a number of electronic music genres to the Bloomsbury Encyclopaedia of Popular Music of the World. He was a member of the industrial- electro- EBM band WMTID in the 1980s, and currently produces electronic music as obe:lus. Further information can be found at www.seanalbiez.com. Chris Atton is professor of media and culture in the School of Arts and Creative Industries at Edinburgh Napier University.His books include Alternative Media (2002), An Alternative Internet (2004), Alternative Journalism (2008) and the Routledge Companion to Alternative and Community Media (2015).He is a co- founder of the Journal of Alternative and Community Media. He has made special studies of fanzines and the media of new social movements, as well as the cultural value of avant- garde and other ‘difficult’ forms of popular music. His work on music has appeared in Popular Music, the Journal of Popular Music Studies, Popular Music and Society and the European Journal of Cultural Studies. Ruth Dockwray is senior lecturer in popular music and popular music performance BA programme leader at the University of Chester. Her research and teaching focuses on historical, critical and analytical studies of popular music and the musicology of popular music production. Her current research includes studying the sound and music of racing video games, and sonic spatialization in the music of Queen.