When Brian Eno left Roxy Music in July 1973, he claimed to the music press that he was planning to kind a brand new ensemble referred to as Luana And The Lizard Ladies – a provocative enterprise which, as Eno biographer David Sheppard associated, would solely carry out “in improbable venues such as launderettes and massage parlors.“ Luana And The Lizard Girls didn’t happen, but Eno’s stated aim (to “drag together a bunch of bizarre people”) got here to fruition when periods started, two months later, for his first solo album, Right here Come The Heat Jets.
Take heed to Right here Come The Heat Jets on Apple Music and Spotify.
Not that the musicians Eno gathered round him might – or ought to – be described as “bizarre”, precisely: extra that their disparate and contrasting kinds represented a decided (and career-long) want on Eno’s half to encourage recent and intuitive modes of thought, eradicate boundaries, and throw the combination up within the air and assemble enduring artwork from the falling fragments.
Amongst these submitting into London’s Majestic Studios in September 1973 have been guitarists Robert Fripp (King Crimson), Chris Spedding and Paul Rudolph (Pink Fairies), bassists John Wetton, Busta Jones and Invoice MacCormick (Matching Mole), drummer Simon King (Hawkwind), and a clutch of Eno’s former Roxy Music bandmates. An all-star assemblage, however the outcomes have been mercifully freed from the prolonged jamming one may need anticipated, cleaving as a substitute to Eno’s subversive avant-pop tendencies. Right here was a daring sonic assertion which, partially, nearly certified as a glam curtain name, however which additionally hinted at attractive new avenues of expression.
If the Velvet Underground-indebted “Needles In The Camel’s Eye” and the malformed Bo Diddley shudder of “Blank Frank” prompt an aesthete’s fascination with a very raw-boned arm of rock historical past, the suffocating, bedeviled “Driving Me Backwards” trudged stoically into an all-consuming darkness. (It’s tempting additionally to think about that the delirious, atonal synth manipulation of “The Paw Paw Negro Blowtorch” and the arch, decadent tease of “Dead Finks Don’t Talk” referenced Eno’s personal current previous in Roxy Music.)
All through, Eno’s enigmatic lyrics painted playfully surreal phrase footage (“Juanita and Juan, very clever with maracas” in “Baby’s On Fire”), or tapped a vein of waspish venom (“Oh you headless chicken, can those poor teeth take so much kicking?” in “Dead Finks Don’t Talk”).
Launched by Island Information in January 1974, Right here Come The Heat Jets rose to No.26 within the UK. If Eno’s solo albums would by no means once more hassle within the charts in fairly the identical method, it goes with out saying that, with additional releases, plus an epochal Bowie collaboration within the wings, his sphere of affect was poised to undergo the roof.
Right here Come The Heat Jets will be purchased right here.
