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Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy
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Price: $9.98
Price subject to change!
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0724357728829
Format: Original recording remastered
Label: Astralwerks
Manufacturer: Astralwerks
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Astralwerks
Release Date: 2004-06-01
Studio: Astralwerks
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Customer reviews of Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Dreamy Fun With Eno
Comment: Eno added innovative weirdness to Bryan Ferry's pop sensibility in Roxy Music - same as Cale did for Reed, and Lennon did for McCartney. When Eno left the band after their first 2 albums (1972's "Roxy Music" and 1973's "For Your Pleasure"), he broke up one of rock music's most interesting partnerships.
The problem was - it wasn't enough of a partnership for Eno. It was Bryan Ferry's show, and he chafed under Ferry's dominance. Wishing to record his own music, Eno released his first solo album "Here Come The Warm Jets" (1974). He followed it up with "Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)" (1974).
Both are art-rock masterpieces and a must to own. Of the two, I slightly prefer Tiger - but that's only because I like the way it segues and flows. Jets was more jarring in places. Both contain the most fun and engaging songs of his career, wherein Eno's wild keyboards are accompanied by his all-star friends. On Tiger, those friends include Roxy Music's guitarist Phil Manzanera (who also arranged the songs with Eno and was his assistant producer), Brian Turrington on bass guitar, Freddie Smith on drums, and the great Robert Wyatt on percussion and backing vocals. The lyrics are delightful: clever, surreal, and dreamy - as is the music. Mostly the dream is pleasant - occasionally it's a bit more nightmarish. The playing is tight.
Eno would later issue his half-instrumental album "Another Green World" (1975), and "Before And After Science" (1977). I like them, but they aren't as much fun as the earlier two. Together these 4 comprise his vocal "pop" era, which was followed by years of instrumental "ambient" music. He'd go on to produce and play with many artists - most frequently with Bowie, Talking Heads, and U2. And he made some great music with them. It could even be argued that his input with these often imitated high-profile acts makes him the premier sound-shaper and most influential and important musician of the past 30 years.
But for me, nothing matches his exciting work with Roxy Music - and his first 2 solo albums.
Customer Rating:
Summary: brilliant, quirky, innovative, and great music too
Comment: Eno's next album "Another Green World" is most often cited as his best and most influential, and it certainly is a great one, but "Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy" is my personal favorite. The combination of experimentation, humor, and plenty of pop hooks make this a classic, though a decidedly odd one.
Eno handles all the vocals and, while he certainly is no great singer technically (he's refered to himself as a "non-musician), he does have a unique. mannered style that grows on you. I don't know if you can call it a "concept" album, but there are some threads that run through the songs - travel, conspiracy, China. Each song has a unique sound texture to it, resulting from unorthodox instrumentation (one song has a typewriter solo) and Eno's trademark and groundbreaking sound treatments. The album starts of with a very melodic pop ditty called "Burning Airlines Give You So Much More". That incongruity sets the tone for the rest of the album. "Third Uncle"s scratchy, staccato guitars foreshadow Gang of Four and Wire, among others. The most challenging listen on the album is definitely "Put a Straw Under Baby", which is a derranged, deliberately out-of-tune lullaby with surrreal lyrics, and features the Portsmouth Sinfonia. The Sinfonia, of which Eno was a member, has only two requirements - that members honestly try to play well, and that they show up for rehearsals. You need to hear this to believe it! Quite honestly it's a bit of an "Excedrin Moment", but very creative. The closing title track is a pretty, airy, melodic piece that presages the ambient direction that he would take, starting with his next album (A.G.W.).
This album was released in 1974 and was ahead of its time. Eno had a huge influence on all sorts of new wave and post-punk bands that came on the scene some years later, starting with Talking Heads. I first heard the album in the late 70's and even then I remember how odd the album sounded. It's a cliché, but one of Eno's talents is his ability to "think outside the box". In an interview David Bowie, who worked with Eno in the late 70's on some groundbreaking albums, said they deliberately threw away the instruction manuals for the synthesizers, to see what kind of "bleeps and farts" they could come up with. Eno took (and further delveloped) elements from the avant-guarde and applied them to pop music. Many of these innovations have since become part of the mainstream (sampling, incorporation of non-musical elements), and the electronics sounds decidely retro now, bu the creativity and quirkiness still makes it sound like nothing else. Historical significance aside, this is also a very enjoyable album. Highly recommended.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Remastered not always better
Comment: They removed the "noise" at the beginning of Third Uncle.
It was definitely part of the song. I'm very glad I held on to the unremastered version in the cheap plastic case.
I would say this is his best album (including all the ambient records)
Customer Rating:
Summary: Eno's Taking Tiger Mountain
Comment: I stumbled on this album because it bore the same title (in English) as a revolutionary opera from 1960s China. Eno's album might be called a post-modern English pop album because of this. I read someone somewhere describe this music as a little cold. But I don't think that's it. Eno's music and lyrics here are strange and quirky in a wonderful way that people used to attribute to "wit." At turns comical, macabre, sarcastic, and flippant, this album is a very difficult to describe. It certainly doesn't sound like anything else produced in the 1970s (or since).
Customer Rating:
Summary: second greatest album of all time...
Comment: ...right behind robyn hitchcock and the egyptians' "queen elvis". 1974 and you just can't believe it. the new remastered edition is monumental listening. many will say his "here come the warm jets" is the pedistal piece, but i think this is a much more accomplished work. "burning airlines..." could be recorded today, and you can't turn your head without hearing "the fat lady of linbourg" in a movie these days. a must for anyone who cares where good music comes from.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Limited Edition Japanese "Mini Vinyl" CD, faithfully reproduced using original LP artwork including the inner sleeve. Features most recently mastered audio including bonus tracks where applicable.
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