Fripp & Eno – (No Pussyfooting)

Consider the period in which No Pussyfooting arrived and just who the two main players were at the time: synth twiddler and platform-heeled aesthete Brian Eno had been dispatched/resigned from Roxy Music while guitarist Robert Fripp had enjoyed a meteoric rise to big venues and critical acclaim with King Crimson.

With Eno stateless and Fripp already weary of road-life they were men in search of a purpose. Curiously enough they found it in each others company, and within the constraints of a recording studio which in those days was much more primitive then we might imagine.

Essentially No Pussyfooting is a tape recording album. That is, Eno taped Fripp's sonic experiments on guitar then manipulated the sounds by means of delays, looping and multi-tracking. Of itself this wasn't entirely new (a decade before Steve Reich had used synchronised tapes) but the sounds achieved were very different.

This was music which owed nothing to rock culture and not even much to so-called avant-garde electronic music coming out of Germany from groups such as Can, Neu!, Popul Vuh and other sonic pioneers.

No Pussyfooting - which consisted of two side-long tracks - The Heavenly Music Corporation and Swastika Girls - was out there on its own: this was beatless instrumental music; had nothing approaching recognisable elements such as verses or a chorus; was all of a sustained mood; and relied on repetition for its effect. It was pure sound. This was music which referred to nothing outside of itself.

Critics didn't quite know what to think of it - there were no real reference points after all, certainly not in the pages of Melody Maker or NME - and when John Peel was provided with a tape he accidentally played it on his programme backwards. (www.elsewhere.co.nz)

Vinyl, LP, Reissue, Gatefold, 200 Gram

Tracklist:
A The Heavenly Music Corporation
B Swastika Girls