Brian Eno is the god of ambient and electronic music. The man actually created the whole 'ambient' music genre while lying in a hospital bed so I suppose it's safe to say that this guy knows his stuff. Eno is extremely well known for making classic electronica albums such as
Another Green World,
Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) and do I even have to mention the whole Ambient series? Let's face it boys and girls, Eno gets a cookie for being one of the greatest electronica song writers of all time.
So what was this cool cat up to before he was lying in a hospital bed pondering what to do next? Believe it or not he was actually creating some gleeful pop/punk songs that had little electronic influences, if any. I know it may be stunning at first but if you enjoyed any of Eno's other albums but have yet to here
Here Comes the Warm Jets chances are you may hate the music featured on here.
Here Come the Warm Jets is a post-punk album but Eno adds a little bit of his own spunk to make things even more interesting. The music is a mess of upbeat guitar jingles, strange piano mingling, and it seems like someone is always fiddling with a violin, keyboard, or brass instrument to create a dense, textured sound. While Eno may seem like a quiet and gentle person his voice indicates that he is a paranoid and crazy disaster. His shrill shrieking and high pitched wails are found often throughout the album adding onto the playfulness of the music. Mixing in with the strange array of upbeat instruments used on the album Brians voice meshes in with the textured sound of the album extremely well.
The most impressive thing about all of this is that
Here Comes the Warm Jets is an extremely diverse album. No two songs sound alike and while most of them posses a wild and out of control nature Eno throws in just enough hooks and textures of instruments to keep you engaged with the album. The albums opener,
Needles in the Camels Eye is a wild riff based song featuring Eno wailing out undecipherable words over a strong drum beat and shiny guitar chords. It kind of makes you want to get up and dance, its groovy yet noisy feel just forces you to shuffle your feet and move around. The next song,
The Paw Paw Negro Blowtorch has the same feel but you can obviously see a change in the music. Eno keeps his paranoid sounding voice but this time he slows things down and the song turns out to consist of jingly guitar riffs over some chiming noises. While the atmosphere is still playful the music is much slower and easy to sing a long to. There is no doubt about it that the first two songs are the most basic and pop influenced songs off the album.
The rest of the album is much more erratic and spontaneous then the two opening tracks.
Black Frank sounds like circus music with its sloppy guitar solo and strange maraca jingles in the background. Eno's noisy and psychotic voice plays a huge role in the song and it sounds like demented 80's new-wave. The next song,
Driving Me Backwards is a groovy piano ballad with not much instrumentation. It focuses on Brian's strange and slurred voice and he doesn't blend in to well with the simple piano part.
Dead Finks Don't Talk is another gentle song driven by an easy going drum beat and some poppy guitar riffs. It has a nice upbeat and carefree atmosphere, sounding like a pre-Sergeant Peppers Beatles song.
Cindy Tells Me is an overly joyful rock tune about love. It's comprised of some odd guitar chords and various electronic effects float wildly in the background without having much of an effect. For a love song it is actually quite noisy and although Eno tries to slow things down it just winds up being a sloppy and whimsical pop tune. The album finally comes to a close with the title track. The song actually has some airplane sounding noises but it's actually just some strange guitar distortion. Towards the end of the song some strange violin sounding arrangements play in the background and this is the only track hinting towards actual electronica music. This is the mellowest track off of the album and
Here Come the Warm Jets goes out in style.
Well my fellow Eno fans you would not expect this piece of work from your ambient master, would you? Instead of playing soothing electronic songs
Here Comes the Warm Jets is a rowdy, piercing, and an occasionally soothing album. Most of these songs are upbeat and quizzical but once in a while Eno throws in some softer ballad type pieces and that just adds to the casualness of the album. Other then Eno's boisterous voice the music's main focus is on the guitars, keyboards and percussion. Unpredictable instruments pop up in songs taking you by surprise such as violins, trumpets, and maracas. While you may not respect it as much as other Eno albums
Here Come the Warm Jets is a bizarre, quirky, sloppy, post-punk mess but it sure is fun while it lasts.
