| Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy): Remastered |  | Artist: Brian Eno
Label: Virgin Catalogue
Category: Music
List Price: £11.99
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Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 2,205
Format: Original recording remastered
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 4.9 x 0.4
EAN: 5099968453626
ASIN: B002DKF582
Release Date: August 3, 2009
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Burning Airlines Give You So Much More | | • | Back In Judy's Jungle | | • | Fat Lady Of Limbourg | | • | Mother Whale Eyeless | | • | The Great Pretender | | • | Third Uncle | | • | Put A Straw Under Baby | | • | The True Wheel | | • | China My China | | • | Taking Tiger Mountain |
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 8
The One to take with you December 15, 2009
Moose (Isle of Wight)
If I was sent to the Desert Island with one disc it would be this. I could ramble on for hours about it but it is simply the best record ever made. As Bono said Brian Eno is a national treasure and this is his finest hour.
 Icarus descending November 25, 2009
TJ Newton
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
I first hooked up with Mr.Eno on Low. To say that he changed the way I listened to music would be an understatement. Via Eno, I found Ambient/Krautrock/Harold Budd/Gavin Bryers/Terry Riley/Stockhausen/Fripp and Miles Davis' "In a Quiet Way". With the new re-mastered series upon us, it seemed a good time to revisit those early albums. As such, I'm afraid taking Tiger Mountain does not fare well. It does not have the wit, verve, or magic of it's predecessor, Here Come The Warm Jets. Apart from Third Uncle, the songs seem to be on one level and pace. The guitars are indeed scratchy, as stated in other reviews, but in a kind of sub garage band way. Not like a proto Talking Heads. The only other track that stands out, is The True Wheel. But even this ends with a drawn out plodding/scratchy guitar finish. Jets had songs which had you thinking. How can he top that? But he did with the next one. A truely unique debut album.Clever lyrics alone are not enough to save a poor song and this album simply does not have enough strong ones. Of course history tells us that he went onto bigger and better things and I know that this album is cherished by many people. As I said at the beginning. Eno did indeed change my life and thanks to him my taste in music took a road that has now welcomed glitch,electronica,minimalist and the avant garde. It's just that Taking Tiger doesn't do it for me............sorry.
Another Eno album, another album of oblique pop genius March 18, 2008
russell clarke (halifax, west yorks)
Brian Eno is a genius....discuss. Actually don,t bother. There is no need for discussion here. Brian Eno IS a genius. Take his 1974 album Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy . Following up his debut solo album "Here Comes The Warm Jets" this album bridges the gap between the overt oblique pop of his debut and the ambient trickling of his next album "Another Green World". "Before And After Science" his 1977 masterpiece apart TTMBY is the best of the conventional ( non ambient ) albums.
The album was recorded using a stable set of musicians .Eno on vocals, keyboards, guitar and electronics , Phil Manznera on guitars, Brian Turrington on bass, Freddie Smith on drums and Robert Wyatt on percussion and backing vocals. Various guest artists include Phil Collins ( Drums on "Mother Whale Eyeless")and Andy Mackay (Saxophone on "The Fat Lady Of Limbourg")Strings were provided by Portsmouth Sinfonia and backing vocals by The Simplistics and most memorably by Randi and the Pyramids on "The True Wheel".
For all the hyperbole(fully deserved mind) about Eno , what is very rarely mentioned is what a great writer of pop songs he is. Taking Tiger Mountain is bursting apart with stunning pop ruminations . Allied to Eno,s brilliance for creating absorbing sonic textures and evocative atmospheres allied to his cryptic lyrics it has tunes that would thaw out a woolly mammoth.
Whether you are enjoying the fizzing keyboards or burping melody of "Burning Airlines Give You So Much More", the stately "Fat Lady Of Limbourg" , the Dadaist lullaby "Put A Straw Under Baby", the lurching dense "The Great Pretender", the militaristic beats of "Back In Judy's Jungle", the serene trance of the title track or the scattergun pace of "Third Uncle" this is an album that never palls. Like all great albums it is seamless yet diverse. Best of all are "China My China" a truly lovely ballad and the schizophrenic "The True Wheel " written with Manznera which starts out like choral krautrock then descends into an extended discordant guitar wig out replete with Eno,s increasingly aggressive exhortation "Lets, get it understood".
The title of the album is taken from the name of a Maoist opera and the album contains several references to China and it,s culture .Yet it never assimilates Chinese culture and sounds alien and yet still English -if thats not an oxymoron . It provided the name for 1976 prog-rock band 801(taken from the " The True Wheel" lien "We are the 801/ we are the central shaft") and Manchester funk/rock band A Certain Ratio (who also took their name from "The True Wheel")Most of all though it,s the kind of brilliant left field pop album that Eno does,nt turn his domed head to often enough. But he,s a genius so he can do what he wants.
Early Eno Classic February 2, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I just recieved this cd and I was very impressed. I knew of Brian Eno from his numerous production duties of such giants as U2 and Talking Heads, but this is very much his own thing. He sounds almost like a kind of electronic syd barrett, the crazy unhinged lyrics kind of reminded me of that. Fans of Roxy Music would definitely be at home here, especially if you aren't so keen on the later 'smooth' lounge music Roxy that came after the 'Siren' album. If you longed for Roxy Music to carry on with the 'for your pleasure' style it might be worth checking this out.
The album contains glam tinged pop/rock, but with the strange Eno stamp. 'Mother Whale eyeless' has a superb insistent bass line which sounds somehow very modern for the time. 'Third Uncle' seems to have borrowed it's Bass line from Pink floyd's 'One of these days' but that's no problem. Phil collins is even credited with 'extra drums' on track 4, a sign that Eno's musical family has always been quite a wide one. He has Phil collins play on track 4 and the Portsmouth Sinfonia on track 7!
I never owned this album in its original cd state, so I don't know how much better the sound quality is with this DSD transfer. It certainly sounds very good though and the combination of excellent sound quality and a very contemporary sounding album make this one worth revisting!.
Excellent second album from Eno at his quirky best June 24, 2004
Dr. D. B. Sillars
24 out of 25 found this review helpful
This is almost an Eno/Manzanera album, such is Phil Manzanera's significant contribution as arranger, co-producer and performer throughout. Manzanera is a highly under-valued guitarist and was the first with which Eno experimented, using treatments to manipulate his basic guitar sound. As a second album this is much more consistent sounding with more of a band feel than "Here Come the Warm Jets". Lyrically it is just as oblique and fanciful with vividly weird tales of men inside whales without raincoats and black eggs melting into candles. The blueprint to his work with Talking Heads is on this album. Listen to the jagged guitars, pumping bass and hissing electronic percussion on this and then compare to "More Songs about Buildings and Food". Taking Tiger Mountain like the majority of Eno's output is years ahead of it's time. Being a non-musician he had no regard or pre-conceptions about what and what could not be sonically done. He just did it! A classic piece of new wave thrashing is "Third Uncle", with Manzanera never sounding so manic. I prefer the version on "801 Live" but there is no denying the intensity and originality on display. The centrepiece of the album is "The True Wheel" with it's wonderfully infectious squelchy electronic backing, fuelled by Manzanera's riffing guitar. The female chorus sing about being the 801 with Eno looking for a certain ratio. Amazing stuff. "China My China IS prototype Talking Heads, with Manzanera showing the way for David Byrne. There is a hint of Eno's impending ambient ambitions on the title track, with its gorgeous Harold Budd-like piano motif. So, another original, individual album made even more remarkable set against the times in which it was made. A couple of comments about these re-issues. They are minimally packaged in digipaks which are housed in transparent plastic slip cases. These are not remasters as such, but new transfers taken from the original master tapes using the new Direct Stream Digital (DSD) format. This is state of the art as regards mastering onto compact disc. They have been transferred by Simon Heyworth who is one of the best in the business. He has made statements about the remastering of these recordings. Why change something that was done right originally! Eno was happy with the original mastering so what is needed is just the best transfer onto compact disc that is currently feasible. Whereas the original CD's sounded flat and thin, these transfers are much livelier and offer a fuller, more detailed sound.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 8
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