(No Pussyfooting)
Encyclopedia
is a 1973
ambient music
album by the British musicians Robert Fripp
and Brian Eno
. (No Pussyfooting) was the first of three major collaborations between the musicians, growing out of Eno's early tape recording
loop experiments and Fripp's electric guitar
playing.
(No Pussyfooting) was recorded in three days over the course of a year. Its release was close to that of Eno's own debut solo album Here Come the Warm Jets
(1974), and it is considered to be one of his early experiments in ambient music
.
. This technique later came to be known as "Frippertronics
".
(No Pussyfooting) 's first track, which fills one side, is a near 21-minute piece titled "The Heavenly Music Corporation". Fripp originally wanted the track titled "The Transcendental Music Corporation", which Eno didn't allow as he feared it would make people "think [they were] serious". Recorded in two takes — first the background looping track, then adding an extended guitar solo over the backing track — the track features the sole sound source as Fripp's electric guitar, played through a tape loop system devised by Eno determining the amount of the time in which each piece of audio would be layered.
The second track "Swastika Girls", which fills the other side, was recorded almost a year after "The Heavenly Music Corporation" in August 1973 at Command Studios in London. The track employed the same technique as "The Heavenly Music Corporation". Fripp and Eno took the tapes of "Swastika Girls" to British record producer George Martin
's Air Studios at Oxford Circus
to continue mixing and assembling the track there. The track's title refers to an image of nude women doing a nazi salute
that was ripped out of a pornographic film
magazine that Eno found left in Air studios. Eno stuck the image on the recording console while recording the track with Fripp and it became the title of the track.
, who were actively opposed to it. The album was released in the same year as Eno's more rock
-based solo album Here Come the Warm Jets
. Eno was attempting to launch a solo career, having just left Roxy Music
, and his management bemoaned the confusion caused by the release of two albums with such different styles. Robert Fripp's bandmates in King Crimson
also disliked the album. The mainstream rock press also did not pay the album much attention compared to Fripp's work with King Crimson and to Eno's solo album. In the UK, the album was released at a large discount compared to normal album prices and was regarded as something of a musical novelty. In 1975, Robert Christgau
the music critic for The Village Voice
gave the album a B+ rating calling the album "the most enjoyable pop electronics since Terry Riley
's A Rainbow in Curved Air
" and that it was "...more visionary and more romantic than James Taylor
could dream of being."
In 1982 the album was re-released on vinyl, and in 1987 on compact disc
by EG Records. Modern reception has been mostly positive. Ted Mills of the music database Allmusic gave the album four and a half stars out of five, praising the track "Heavenly Music Corporation," noting "the beauty" of their tape deck setup, yet giving a negative view of "Swastika Girls" suggesting that the loop system was abused with "too many disconnected sounds sharing the space, some discordant, some melodic... the resulting work lacks form and structure". Eric Tamm, the author of the Eno biography Brian Eno: His Music and the Vertical Color of Sound (1995) reacted similarly to Mills, stating that "The Heavenly Music Corporation" "anticipated Eno's own ambient style." About "Swastika Girls" Tamm said, "if it is less successful than the earlier piece, it is because of the much greater overall saturation of the acoustical space. There seems to be a perceptual rule that possibilities for appreciation
of timbral subtleties decrease in proportion to the rate of actual notes being played. 'Swastika Girls' shows that Eno and Fripp had not
yet understood the full weight of this principle".
In modern reviews of Fripp & Eno's album The Equatorial Stars
(2004), (No Pussyfooting) has been seen in a positive light. Peter Marsh for the BBC
's experimental music review referred to the album as "now one of those albums that's spoken about in hushed, reverential tones as a proto-ambient classic". Dominique Leone of the music webzine Pitchfork Media
noted that "to [Fripp's] and Eno's credit, it didn't really sound like anything that had come before it".
24 bit remaster
by Simon Heyworth and Robert Fripp.
Technical personnel
1973 in music
-January–April:*January 9 – Mick Jagger's request for a Japanese visa is rejected on account of a 1969 drug conviction, putting an abrupt end to The Rolling Stones' plans to perform in Japan during their forthcoming tour.*January 14...
ambient music
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
album by the British musicians Robert Fripp
Robert Fripp
Robert Fripp is an English guitarist, composer and record producer. He was ranked 42nd on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and #47 on Gibson.com’s "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time". Among rock guitarists, Fripp is a master of crosspicking, a technique...
and Brian Eno
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
. (No Pussyfooting) was the first of three major collaborations between the musicians, growing out of Eno's early tape recording
Magnetic tape
Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic recording, made of a thin magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic. It was developed in Germany, based on magnetic wire recording. Devices that record and play back audio and video using magnetic tape are tape recorders and video tape recorders...
loop experiments and Fripp's electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
playing.
(No Pussyfooting) was recorded in three days over the course of a year. Its release was close to that of Eno's own debut solo album Here Come the Warm Jets
Here Come the Warm Jets
Here Come the Warm Jets is the debut solo album by Brian Eno. Produced by Eno, it was released on Island Records in 1974. The musical style of Here Come the Warm Jets is a hybrid of glam rock and art rock, similar to Eno's previous album work with Roxy Music but with songs that are more quirky and...
(1974), and it is considered to be one of his early experiments in ambient music
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
.
Production
Brian Eno invited Robert Fripp to his London home studio in September 1972. Eno had developed a tape system using two tape recorders set up so when a sound was played, it would be heard at a lower volume level seconds later, and seconds later again at an even lower level. With this method, new sounds could be laid upon each other without overwriting them. Fripp played further material over the top with Eno selectively enabling or disabling the recording. This allowed Eno to remove portions of the loop, or add further new layers on top of the existing material. The result is a dense, multi-layered piece of ambient musicAmbient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
. This technique later came to be known as "Frippertronics
Frippertronics
Frippertronics was a specific tape looping technique used by Robert Fripp. It evolved from a system of tape looping originally developed in the electronic music studios of the early 1960s that was first used by composers Terry Riley and Pauline Oliveros and made popular through its use in ambient...
".
(No Pussyfooting) 's first track, which fills one side, is a near 21-minute piece titled "The Heavenly Music Corporation". Fripp originally wanted the track titled "The Transcendental Music Corporation", which Eno didn't allow as he feared it would make people "think [they were] serious". Recorded in two takes — first the background looping track, then adding an extended guitar solo over the backing track — the track features the sole sound source as Fripp's electric guitar, played through a tape loop system devised by Eno determining the amount of the time in which each piece of audio would be layered.
The second track "Swastika Girls", which fills the other side, was recorded almost a year after "The Heavenly Music Corporation" in August 1973 at Command Studios in London. The track employed the same technique as "The Heavenly Music Corporation". Fripp and Eno took the tapes of "Swastika Girls" to British record producer George Martin
George Martin
Sir George Henry Martin CBE is an English record producer, arranger, composer and musician. He is sometimes referred to as "the Fifth Beatle"— a title that he often describes as "nonsense," but the fact remains that he served as producer on all but one of The Beatles' original albums...
's Air Studios at Oxford Circus
Oxford Circus
Oxford Circus is the area of London at the busy intersection of Regent Street and Oxford Street, in the West End. It is served by Oxford Circus tube station, which is directly beneath the junction itself.- History :...
to continue mixing and assembling the track there. The track's title refers to an image of nude women doing a nazi salute
Nazi salute
The Nazi salute, or Hitler salute , was a gesture of greeting in Nazi Germany usually accompanied by saying, Heil Hitler! ["Hail Hitler!"], Heil, mein Führer ["Hail, my leader!"], or Sieg Heil! ["Hail victory!"]...
that was ripped out of a pornographic film
Pornography
Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...
magazine that Eno found left in Air studios. Eno stuck the image on the recording console while recording the track with Fripp and it became the title of the track.
Release and reception
(No Pussyfooting) was released in November 1973 and failed to chart on either the American or British charts. It was met with negative reaction from the record label itself, Island RecordsIsland Records
Island Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group...
, who were actively opposed to it. The album was released in the same year as Eno's more rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
-based solo album Here Come the Warm Jets
Here Come the Warm Jets
Here Come the Warm Jets is the debut solo album by Brian Eno. Produced by Eno, it was released on Island Records in 1974. The musical style of Here Come the Warm Jets is a hybrid of glam rock and art rock, similar to Eno's previous album work with Roxy Music but with songs that are more quirky and...
. Eno was attempting to launch a solo career, having just left Roxy Music
Roxy Music
Roxy Music was a British art rock band formed in 1971 by Bryan Ferry, who became the group's lead vocalist and chief songwriter, and bassist Graham Simpson. The other members are Phil Manzanera , Andy Mackay and Paul Thompson . Former members include Brian Eno , and Eddie Jobson...
, and his management bemoaned the confusion caused by the release of two albums with such different styles. Robert Fripp's bandmates in King Crimson
King Crimson
King Crimson are a rock band founded in London, England in 1969. Often categorised as a foundational progressive rock group, the band have incorporated diverse influences and instrumentation during their history...
also disliked the album. The mainstream rock press also did not pay the album much attention compared to Fripp's work with King Crimson and to Eno's solo album. In the UK, the album was released at a large discount compared to normal album prices and was regarded as something of a musical novelty. In 1975, Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
the music critic for The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
gave the album a B+ rating calling the album "the most enjoyable pop electronics since Terry Riley
Terry Riley
Terrence Mitchell Riley, is an American composer intrinsically associated with the minimalist school of Western classical music and was a pioneer of the movement...
's A Rainbow in Curved Air
A Rainbow in Curved Air
A Rainbow in Curved Air is the third album by experimental music and classical minimalism pioneer Terry Riley. Through the use of overdubbing, the composer, a keyboard virtuoso, plays all the instruments on the title track: electric organ, electric harpsichord , dumbec , and tambourine...
" and that it was "...more visionary and more romantic than James Taylor
James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000....
could dream of being."
In 1982 the album was re-released on vinyl, and in 1987 on compact disc
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
by EG Records. Modern reception has been mostly positive. Ted Mills of the music database Allmusic gave the album four and a half stars out of five, praising the track "Heavenly Music Corporation," noting "the beauty" of their tape deck setup, yet giving a negative view of "Swastika Girls" suggesting that the loop system was abused with "too many disconnected sounds sharing the space, some discordant, some melodic... the resulting work lacks form and structure". Eric Tamm, the author of the Eno biography Brian Eno: His Music and the Vertical Color of Sound (1995) reacted similarly to Mills, stating that "The Heavenly Music Corporation" "anticipated Eno's own ambient style." About "Swastika Girls" Tamm said, "if it is less successful than the earlier piece, it is because of the much greater overall saturation of the acoustical space. There seems to be a perceptual rule that possibilities for appreciation
of timbral subtleties decrease in proportion to the rate of actual notes being played. 'Swastika Girls' shows that Eno and Fripp had not
yet understood the full weight of this principle".
In modern reviews of Fripp & Eno's album The Equatorial Stars
The Equatorial Stars
The Equatorial Stars is a 2004 album by British ambient musicians Robert Fripp and Brian Eno. The album marked almost 30 years since the two musicians had collaborated on their previous album, Evening Star, in 1975.-Track listing:#"Meissa" – 8:08...
(2004), (No Pussyfooting) has been seen in a positive light. Peter Marsh for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's experimental music review referred to the album as "now one of those albums that's spoken about in hushed, reverential tones as a proto-ambient classic". Dominique Leone of the music webzine Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
noted that "to [Fripp's] and Eno's credit, it didn't really sound like anything that had come before it".
Track listing
Remastered edition (2008)
The double CD remastered edition adds variations to the track list:24 bit remaster
Remaster
Remaster is a word marketed mostly in the digital audio age, although the remastering process has existed since recording began...
by Simon Heyworth and Robert Fripp.
Personnel
- Brian EnoBrian EnoBrian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
– SynthesizerSynthesizerA synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
, keyboardsKeyboard instrumentA keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
, treatments, VCS 3 SynthesizerEMS VCS 3The VCS 3 is a portable analog synthesiser with a flexible semi-modular voice architecture, by Electronic Music Studios Limited in 1969.... - Robert FrippRobert FrippRobert Fripp is an English guitarist, composer and record producer. He was ranked 42nd on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and #47 on Gibson.com’s "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time". Among rock guitarists, Fripp is a master of crosspicking, a technique...
– GuitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, Guitar (Electric)Electric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
Technical personnel
- Tony Arnold – remastering
- Arun Chakraverty – engineer, mastering
- Willie Christie – design, photography, cover design, cover art
- Brian EnoBrian EnoBrian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
– producerRecord producerA record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music... - Robert FrippRobert FrippRobert Fripp is an English guitarist, composer and record producer. He was ranked 42nd on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and #47 on Gibson.com’s "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time". Among rock guitarists, Fripp is a master of crosspicking, a technique...
– producer, remastering - Ray Hendriksen – engineer
Release history
| Region | Date | Label | Format | Catalog |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | November, 1973 | Island Records Island Records Island Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group... |
LP | HELP 16 |
| United States | Antilles Records Antilles Records Antilles Records was an American record label that was a subsidiary of Island Records.Its jazz catalog is now managed by Verve Records.-Discography:*1001 Joanne Brackeen - Special Identity 1981*1002 Biréli Lagrène- Routes To Django 1980... |
7001 | ||
| United Kingdom | 23 February 1987 | EG Records | CD Compact Disc The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,... |
EGCD 2 |
| United States | 31 August 1990 | |||
| United Kingdom | 29 September 2008 | Discipline Global Mobile Discipline Global Mobile If you were looking for the Italian Prog-Power Metal band, see DGM .Discipline Global Mobile, alias DGM, is a small independent record label company started in 1992 by Robert Fripp of King Crimson. In addition to running a mail-order music shop, it has offered Crimson/Fripp and related live... |
2CD | DGM5007 |
External links
- (No Pussyfooting) at DiscogsDiscogsDiscogs, short for discographies, is a website and database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. The Discogs servers, currently hosted under the domain name discogs.com, are owned by Zink Media, Inc., and are...