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THE KITCHEN SINK NEVER SOUNDED SO GOOD: TAKING TIGER MOUNTAIN (BY STRATEGY)

This is the first of a series of reviews that will eventually cover all of Eno's solo recordings as well as a number of his productions and collaborations. To start off, I've decided to take a look at what, after thirty years, remains my favourite of many favourite Eno albums: 1974's Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy).

Having become aware of Brian Eno primarily through the writings of the brilliant Lester Bangs - in the '70s music magazine, Creem and elsewhere - my first encounter with his music was his 1973 collaboration with King Crimson guitar maestro, Robert Fripp: No Pussyfooting.

By the time of my second encounter, 1977's Before And After Science (I managed to borrow an at-the-time rare-as-hen's teeth copy from a local musician), Eno's otherworldly sounds and textures had succeeded in rearranging my musical attention permanently.

And so after I placed my order, I was left in anticipation of receiving the news that my shiny new copy of Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) had arrived at the local import store (this was back during 1979, in the days of vinyl and no internet, when getting my hands on a precious disc from a far-off land could mean waiting for months).

Finally, one day I walked in (to the much-lamented Happy Trails) and there it was - waiting, wrapped in bright, clear plastic - the ultimate object of my desire! Rushing back to a friend's home to take part in what became - for a year or so - our regular Friday night "Enothon", I proudly displayed my latest "catch". Unwrapping the packaging, I carefully slid the coveted piece of plastic from its protective cover and placed it on the platter, aligning and lowering the record-player's arm with the care of a brain-surgeon performing an emergency procedure... Then - finally - came the listening... And thereby was my worship born...

To say that I was overwhelmed would be a gross understatement. At one stage, after about the third listening in-a-row of the entire album, I was becoming worried that my jaw would be left permanently hanging, chin touching the ground, frozen in dumbfounded amazement at the cornucopia of exquiste bleeps and buzzes disguising a core of rip-snorting melodies and superb, mangled lyrics at the heart of this amazing masterpiece.

Too many superlatives? Think again! Even now, years and hundreds of listenings after first hearing this album, it still manages to occassionally astound me all over again. And that impression is only reinforced by the superb remastered rerelease of 2004.

Eno threw everything into this album and then some! Stunning pop melodies couched in lush surroundings (Burning Airlines Give You So Much More, The True Wheel), a carnivalesque waltz (Back In Judy's Jungle), heavy metal riffing fit to tear your spinal column apart (courtesy of Phil Manzanera on Third Uncle), a lullaby that should be in every nursery's song-book (Put A Straw Under Baby), a typewriter solo (China My China), a sinister dirge complete with a choir of crickets (The Great Pretender) and much, much more. All over a bed of whirring clicks, swooping whooshes, blurred bells, howls and other smeared sounds rendering the whole as a parallel universe of endless exotica.

Eno went on to other creative peaks with albums such as Another Green World (1975) and Ambient 4: On Land (1982), but in Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) he created his ultimate kaleidoscopic aural candy-store, a place you can vist again and again, where a thousand rabbit-holes dot the soundscape and everything is just-so (or so it seems). Watch your step: the next adventure is only a moment away...

Track Listing: Burning Airlines Give You So Much More / Back In Judy's Jungle / The Fat Lady Of Limbourgh / Mother Whale Eyeless / The Great Pretender / Third Uncle (Eno, arrangement by Brian Turrington) / Put A Straw Under Baby / The True Wheel (Eno/Phil Manzanera) / China My China / Taking Tiger Mountain

All songs written by Eno unless noted / Arranged by Phil Manzanera and Eno

Produced by Eno / Assistant producer: Phil Manzanera

Personnel: Eno - vocals, electronics, snake guitar, keyboards / Phil Manzanera - guitars / Brian Turrington - bass guitar / Freddie Smith - drums / Robert Wyatt - percussion, backing vocals / The Portsmouth Sinfonia - strings (7) / Randi + The Pyramids - chorus (8) / The Simplistics - chorus (2, 10) / Andy Mackay - brass (3) / Phil Collins - extra drums (4) / Polly Eltes - vocals (4)

Selected Reviews: ENO: ON TOP OF TIGER MOUNTAIN by Allan Jones / Melody Maker OCTOBER 1974 - TAKING TIGER MOUNTAIN BY STRATEGY by Martin Aston / Q JULY 1991 - BRIAN ENO: TAKING TIGER MOUNTAIN (BY STRATEGY) by Richard T. Williams / PopMatters JULY 2004