Week 3, Day 5 Mix-a-day: Eno

The man today

If I had eight seconds to name my three favorite non-friend people in the world, the first bloke off my tongue would absolutely be Brian Eno. I exaggerate not one iota when I say that I unequivocally love--no, love the shit--out of this man. I would marry him if he'd take me. Brian, you listening? I'm available with a capital J.

Yes, I love this strange bald man more than anyone in the world not named Hot Doorknobs, Lil' Beaumont, or My Mom. Through his initial work with Roxy Music, to his solo pop efforts, his late 70s Davids Bowie and Byrne collaborations, his explorations into and development of "ambient music," and, above all, his constant and nearly unwavering good taste--including producing seminal recordings by Talking Heads, Devo, U2, Television, and of course the No New York compilation--Brian Eno is a man in music like almost no other. Others like John Cale and David Bowie have had widespread impact in their trifectas of music, production, and tastemaking, but no has done in it in such an egoless fashion. This isn't to say that Eno Has No Ego, as I'm sure he does, but that he's managed to create and nurture powerful music without having an over-the-top stamp of "I Am Eno, Hear Me Roar!" Subtlety and dynamics have always been his domain and they have allowed to him to stay in the background while his 70s peers picked up the acclaim and accolades. He also created the opening theme for Microsoft Windows 95 (!!).

Because the immense diversity of his "footprint on music", it's pretty hard to pin everything down to one mix (and so I didn't). The music he has been involved with can be split into four groups: pop, ambient, collaborations, and production. The mix I am presenting today is of the first group, his poptunes. Soon (though likely not this week) I will follow-through with an ambient mix and then, for fun, a mix combing through his collaborations and production work. For now though, please enjoy the mix below.

For more reading on Eno (highly recommended) please check out the following:

- A shockingly comprenhensive Eno discography
- AWESOME AWESOME article on Eno by Lester Bangs, originally intended for a book that was never published. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
- Article on his creation of Microsoft Windows 95 theme
- Eno interview from Arthur magazine

Also, as a cute anecdote, Brian Eno is also responsible for the famous sentiment that "Only about 1,000 people ever bought a Velvet Underground album, but every one of them formed a rock 'n' roll band."

And so finally, here's the mix. I took Spiffae's suggestion and wrapped in an M3U playlist file to make life easier, but again, consult the playlist below so i don't have to toss in my sleep anxiously wondering whether or not these tunes are being "digested properly" (do the same for the other mixes if you didn't already).

EnoMix1: Pop
Click here to download: DOWNLOAD!






The man in full