Post #138243 by Tiki-bot on Sat, Jan 29, 2005 9:28 PM

Eno is the one musician/composer who has had the most profound effect on my life and artwork. I think the guy is absolutely brilliant, even if I'm not a big a fan of his later work, which to me has more of a distant, cold quality that borders on almost unpleasant. For warmth, humor and charm, you can't beat his "first four".

As for your question, the closest I can think of are these few songs:

"Over Fire Island" from the absolutely essential "Another Green World" has an exotica kinda rhythm, as well as my favorite Fripp (or any) guitar solo. If you like the first two albums, ANG and the next one, Before and After Science, are more sophisticated-sounding, but equally as brilliant. They are both must-owns.

Actually, now that I am listening to AGW (for the 8,043rd time), there are several exotica-influenced songs. "Sombre Reptiles" is a bossa-nova-ish slice of coolness, with wood block percussion and some Fripperness on top like a fresh mint garnish on the perfect mai tai.

The song "Zawinul/Lava" has a laid back piano riff with bird calls and strange percussion on it. It sounds very "future-primitive" to me.

"Silver Morning" from Apollo Atmospheres & Soundtracks has a country-ish (Hawaiian?) pedal steel. Eno's reasoning for why he used pedal-steel: NASA was based in Houston and most of the astronauts were from the south and all of them were into country music, so he thought it appropriate.

More into the ambient vein, Eno's "On Land" (Ambient 4) is a dark and moody collage of found nature sounds and electronic processing that has a mysterious exotic quality to it, but is far from "upbeat". Another phenomenal musician plays on it, Michael Brook. I cannot recommend any of his work highly enough. He actually has an ambient album with many exotic, percussive pieces called "Hybrid" that I listen to more often than any Eno ambient album. It even has a song called "Distant Village"! I gained HUGE respect for him when I saw him open for King Crimson around '96 and he blew them away. He was solo and did many of the songs on his albums live, with only the use of a guitar and simple loop/delay box the size of a lunchbox. It was one of the most amazing performances I've ever seen. And he actually crafts songs, not just moody drones that have no form or structure.

But back to Eno: One of his most exotic-sounding songs (though not "Exotica, per se) is the song "Evening Star" from the album of the same name. He did two collaborations with Robert Fripp at the same time as his first two solo albums. It's moody and droney and even cheery sounding without being maudlin, and wouldn't sound out of place late at night when the tiki bar is closing.