Brian Eno: Taking Tiger Mountain - By Strategy [ASTRALWERKS]

Why you'll love it

This remastered gatefold pressing keeps a neat detail of the original vinyl: Side A ends in a locked groove. The album is where Eno and Peter Schmidt first put their Oblique Strategies cards to work.

This edition

• Remastered
• Gatefold jacket
• Locked groove at end of Side A

About the album

The title came from a set of postcards of a Chinese revolutionary opera, and Eno liked the clash in it: a medieval storming of a mountain, plus a very modern idea of strategy. Instead of the crowd of sixteen players on his debut, he kept a tight five-piece with Phil Manzanera on guitar, Brian Turrington on bass, Freddie Smith on drums and Robert Wyatt on percussion.

To keep things surprising, Eno and painter Peter Schmidt drew up instruction cards, the Oblique Strategies, and let them steer the sessions. "Third Uncle" is a racing, nervy proto-punk riff, "Burning Airlines Give You So Much More" floats on a melody worth whistling, "The True Wheel" chugs along with a sing-along chorus, and "China My China" features typewriters played as percussion. The title track closes on a slow, glowing haze. Schmidt's lithographs make up the cover.

Critics have warmed to it more with every passing decade, and "Third Uncle" has been covered by Bauhaus among others. The Oblique Strategies are still in print; we've tried them on the shop rota and they mostly say to honour thy error as a hidden intention.

Also at Kops: more Brian Eno on vinyl · browse Electronic

Tracklist

Listen

On Astralwerks (cat# 2557951691), a reissue of the 1974 album.