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Week 64/52: (No Pussyfooting)


(NO PUSSYFOOTING) is the debut album of experimental music duo Fripp and Eno, released 1973. Fripp and Eno is an endlessly interesting collaboration to me. Fripp, firstly, refers of course to Robert Fripp of King Crimson fame, and Eno to Brian Eno of (then) Roxy Music fame and (now) as a godfather of electronic and ambient music. So where does this 1973 release stand?


This album is not for the faint of heart. It's about 40 minutes long and there are 2 tracks, and not a single word or lyric- or not any that I could make out. The primary instruments are this weird early form of looping, and Fripp's virtuosic guitar work. And that's basically it- no drums or rhythm of any kind either.


But this album still manages to be more than compelling despite lacking these features. The first track, THE HEAVENLY MUSIC CORPORATION, is this opaque and singular piece of music- Fripp's guitar work is absolutely astonishing, and by the end it's hard to tell where the guitar ends and whatever Eno's doing begins. It's a piece of music I wouldn't hesitate to describe as psychedelic either; and not in the crazy hippie way, more like the song would destroy your brain if you heard it on LSD or something. The track ranges from quiet and reserved menace to defiant stormy anger across it's 20+ minute runtime, while still sounding like a whole and considered piece of music.


SWASTIKA GIRLS makes up the second side of the album and is more liquid and translucent. One of the main building blocks is this strange oscillating spiral sound that plays throughout the track, it feels kind of goofy coming off the first track but as more elements of the song come in, it feels more at home. The track has this gentler guitar loop underneath, but it's not without Fripp's guitar lines from the other track too. There are points where the playing sounds incredibly physical, almost like you can hear the direct contact between string and pick.


It's not hard to see why this became one of those "generally ignored at release, hailed as a masterpiece decades later" type albums, the music presented is incredibly forward thinking and almost sci-fi at points, especially with that album cover. But regardless of it's context, the music presented here is absolutely monolithic, with parts of it reminding me of stuff being released today. Definitely worth checking out for Eno fans, and maybe fans of the more challenging KC stuff a la Lizard.

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