elf@utcsrgv.UUCP (Eugene Fiume) (11/27/84)
[]
I am not a big U2 fanatic. I'm one of the few people in the known parts
of the galaxy who wasn't all that knocked out by U2's last LP "War".
I think U2's latest LP, "The Unforgettable Fire", is magnificent.
If you listen carefully for it (I don't) you'll still hear that characteristic
U2 twang. But co-producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois have opted for a
more atmospheric (for lack of a better word) sound which I find very
beautiful. This may not be to the satisfaction of true U2 devotees.
It's only on their single "Pride (In the Name of Love)",
that one is reminded of the old raw U2--which makes it the weakest cut for me.
The vocals throughout, and especially on the title track, are excellent and
often moving. The album closes with a gripping lullaby (sp?) with a
background arrangement that is Eno all the way.
Brian and Danny, if you can hear me, please produce the next Simple Minds
album before they're completely ruined. Pretty please.
Highly recommended.
Eugene Fiume
U of Toronto
{decvax|allegra}!utcsrgv!elfjeff@dciem.UUCP (Jeff Richardson) (11/27/84)
The new U2 sound is certainly to my satisfaction. I am definitely a U2
devotee, and I thought "War" was an excellent album, as are most of the
Steve Lillywhite produced albums I've heard (like Simple Minds' last album),
but making another album like that would have been a waste of effort for U2
as far as I'm concerned. (Though it would probably have been financially
rewarding for the band.) The new sound is at least as good as the old,
but best of all it's different, so there are times when I'll prefer the new
sound, and times when I'll prefer the old, but I'll never wish they had stuck
with the old sound. However, there are still a lot of similarities, and I
can't see a lot of people who liked "War" being completely turned off by
"The Unforgettable Fire".
I'd be thrilled if Eno and Lanois produced the next Simple Minds album.
Big Country should try a new producer too. I loved their first album, but
they're getting stuck in a rut with Lillywhite after only one year on the
scene.
Eno and Lillywhite have actually worked together as a production team. The
only example I can think of is Ultravox's first album, but there may be
others. Lanois is the Canadian who made Martha & The Muffins' "This Is The
Ice Age" one of the best Canadian albums I've ever heard. There are a lot
of Eno-ish effects on that album, but I'm not sure if Brian and Danny ever
worked together before "The Unforgettable Fire". "Ice Age" is the only
other Lanois work I'm aware of.
--
Jeff Richardson, DCIEM, Toronto (416) 635-2073
{linus,ihnp4,uw-beaver,floyd}!utcsrgv!dciem!jeff
{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!dciem!jeffpeterr@utcsrgv.UUCP (Peter Rowley) (11/28/84)
> Lanois is the Canadian who made Martha & The Muffins' "This Is The > Ice Age" one of the best Canadian albums I've ever heard. There are a lot > of Eno-ish effects on that album, but I'm not sure if Brian and Danny ever > worked together before "The Unforgettable Fire". "Ice Age" is the only > other Lanois work I'm aware of. The Eno soundtrack "Apollo" was a Lanois/Eno effort, with Lanois actually writing some of the music. There's a good piece on Lanois in a local Toronto free paper called "Metro"... some excerpts: In 1978, [Lanois] began a more intense involvement with [Grant Avenue Studio]'s sound production. By 1981, he had given himself over to it almost completely. "At first", he says, "you get lost in the technology. I did. You add an echo here, shift a mike up under the drum, get a reverb going off of the base [sic?] and through it through the speakers. That's how the 'great mutation' begins. The real music that was there in the beginning gets distorted in the hype of the technology. When I was playing everywhere and anything I lost the initial enthusiasm that got me playing guitar in the first place. When you're a kid and you pick up a guitar its because you are moved by it, right? Your body says yeah, and your mind goes crazy and you want to produce that in others. You think of yourself as Chuck Berry or Keith Richards or whomever, but along the way it gets lost. Technology is often a substitute for what got lost. Hald the time the sound you are hearing is only one third you. The rest is the technology. In some cases of course that could be a blessing. But generally what you come up with is diluted street music. It all starts on the street and if it ain't got the street in it, then its got nothing; no guts, no heart, just syncopated white trash or some other form of non-music". [The writer contrasts this with L's reputation as a wizard producer and asks...] After all, isn't technology basically what music is all about? "No" says Dan, "The best producers can hear the sound of the street in the music and settle its purity in the technology. That's precisely what happened with U2. We just allowed the music to speak for itself." [But he goes on to say...] "Admittedly, not all sounds are going to [be what you want] so you have to bring them out a bit with the technology, but it's knowing when to let that happen." Dan and Peter [Gabriel] are co-producing the soundtrack for a new movie by Allan Parker called "Birdie". ... Dan's intention is to add the moody undercurrents to the soundtrack complimenting Peter's more punchy sound. ----------------- One can see Eno and Lanois in the video for "Pride -- In the Name of Love" by U2. Finally, the best place to get the Eno deletes is Records on Wheels, 631 (or close to that) on Yonge. They're all $3.99. Awfully good deal! (Sorry to you non-Torontonians for this bit of local info) peter rowley, University of Toronto Department of C.S., Ontario Canada M5S 1A4 UUCP {linus ihnp4 allegra floyd utzoo cornell decwrl uw-beaver}!utcsrgv!peterr CSNet peterr@toronto
rlr@pyuxd.UUCP (Rich Rosen) (11/29/84)
I, too, got tired of U2 after "Boy" (everything they did began to sound like some fascist fist-in-the-air anthem), but "(Pride) In the Name of Love" justs packs a whollop. A very powerful, yet unpretentious (a near first for U2?) song. > Eno and Lillywhite have actually worked together as a production team. The > only example I can think of is Ultravox's first album, but there may be > others. Lanois is the Canadian who made Martha & The Muffins' "This Is The > Ice Age" one of the best Canadian albums I've ever heard. There are a lot > of Eno-ish effects on that album, but I'm not sure if Brian and Danny ever > worked together before "The Unforgettable Fire". "Ice Age" is the only > Lanois work I'm aware of. [Jeff Richardson] My understanding is that Eno and Lillywhite were both credited as producers of "Ultravox!", the first (and arguably the best---anything pre-Midge Ure is far better than the crap they're spewing out now) Ultravox album, but that they did not work together; rather they produced different sets of cuts. I'll bet Eno was behind "My Sex", though. Just a gut feeling... Lanois has worked with Eno before, on the "Apollo" album, and his work can be found on the "Music for Films, Volume 2" album (which is supposedly only available in the Eno box set). (P.S. to Eugene Fiume: "The Pearl", the Budd/Eno collaboration, contains some rather piano compositions.) -- Now I've lost my train of thought. I'll have to catch the bus of thought. Rich Rosen pyuxd!rlr
gtaylor@lasspvax.UUCP (Greg Taylor) (11/29/84)
You'll find Eno and Lanois have the same relationship (producer to engineer) that Eno and Lillywhite did back in the early Ultravox days. The early work with Eno and John Hassel is recorded in on Canajan soil, and that's the earliestexplicit stuff i can see in the discography. Lanois also gets credit on the On land stuff too, i think-but who knows when that stuff was started? You might also want to check out the sound of the last Martha and the Muffins (now M+M) album. THe echoes of BoG/Byrne tinged Afrofunk are pretty well handled. Gregory Taylor
strock@fortune.UUCP (Gregory Strockbine) (11/30/84)
>Technology is often a substitute >for what got lost. Half the time the sound you are hearing is only one third >you. The rest is the technology. In some cases of course that could be a >blessing. But generally what you come up with is diluted street music. It >all starts on the street and if it ain't got the street in it, then its got >nothing; no guts, no heart, just syncopated white trash or some other form of >non-music". If it wasn't recorded in a garage I don't want to hear it.
strock@fortune.UUCP (Gregory Strockbine) (12/03/84)
>My understanding is that Eno and Lillywhite were both credited as producers >of "Ultravox!", the first (and arguably the best---anything pre-Midge Ure is >far better than the crap they're spewing out now) Ultravox album, but that >they did not work together; rather they produced different sets of cuts. I'll >bet Eno was behind "My Sex", though. Just a gut feeling... Great album and a great song. I remember being up in Toronto in 1978 and seeing this guy with "short hair" and a t-shirt that said "I want to be a machine". Ah nostalgia.