Project 48: Brian Eno
The assignment was to cover a Brian Eno song. This could be any kind of song with which he was involved, be it from a band he played in, one of his compositions, or even something he produced. But, you could also create a song based on his Oblique Strategies. Go whichever route inspires you or even mix the concepts together. We got some awesome results and some prior Basement Sketches contributors came back with submissions for this one. Super fun to hear their music again! Enjoy!
Mark Schumacher covers
‘The Shade’ by Brian Eno, Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius from the album After the Heat from 1978
Things used: Fender Jazz Bass, Frostwave MS-20 Filter Clone, Yamaha CS-10, EchoFix EF-X2, Fender Jazzmaster, Mu-Tron Phasor, Ibanez Tube Screamer, Warm Audio EQP Pultec Clone, Keyscape VST, Juno 106, Fender Blues Junior III, AKG C414B, Ableton Live (EQ Eight, Glue Compressor, Limiter), UA Apollo Twin
Pete Foss covers
The Big Ship
Here is my bastardized, rocked up, piano-based version of "the big ship." I didn't have much time to work on this project until the very end - but the project was a good reason to take a tour through Brian Eno's catalog, and and this song resonated with me and seemed doable. I'm not patient enough or proficient enough with tweaking synths to replicate the subtle dynamics of the song, but I heard a piano thing in my head and followed that road down the rabbit hole. Didn't have a lot of time for mixing/mastering so it's a bit rough around the edges but that's the nature of the project. Look forward to hearing what everyone else came up with!
David Cox covers
Laid by James, produced by Brian Eno
For this project I covered Laid by James, which Brian Eno produced. This is the first time I took a run at synth organ. Jeni said it sounds like REM LOL. A huge thanks to Tom for adding drums; they sound amazing.
June Panic covers
Cities
I treated this project as an opportunity to dig into the fringes of Eno’s songs, collabs, performances and production work. (For example, how many of you know that Eno played synthesizer on The Coming Of The Crow by The Residents?) But, in the end, I went back to an album very familiar to me: Fear Of Music. Eno produced the shit out of that album and is a big reason why it’s the best Talking Heads album. Out of all of those top-notch songs, ’Cities’ resonated with me the most right now, maybe because I just went through a big move from Vienna to St. Paul and am still contemplating what it means to find a city to live in.
Unfortunately, I spent so much time rummaging through obscure Eno projects that I didn’t have much time left to spend on the actual recording, so this version is even more stripped down than I initially intended it to be. It’s also a lot less frantic than the original. It sounds like what an off-the-cuff cheap demo of ‘Cities’ might have sounded like in a world where cocaine didn’t exist.
Kelly Duclos, Jon Teske, and Joe Woods cover
Everything Merges with the Night
Happy Halloween! Super grateful to have been able to sneak in another project with my friends Joe and Jon while they were here a while ago. Also very grateful for Neil giving me the inside track on the project as well. My recent neck issue has kept me completely away from instruments since mid August so I had this old unfinished Eno cover that Jon and Joe could add to. I had started it 6 years ago after Joe had just introduced me to Eno's music. Digging out this old unfinished song was a great way to record with my friends while not being able to play anything. Joe added bass, Jon added Hammond organ and they both sang. The song sat untouched for the last month plus until last week when my son, Henry, helped me get a rough mix started while I was still unable to operate the computer. Thanks for enduring that, Henry. :) Then, this last Thursday I had disc replacement surgery and by this morning I was able to start fine tuning the mix without pain and got the project finished up just in time this evening. Thanks a lot for the help guys!
Thomas Stromsodt covers
The River
I used to sing little snippets of this song at bedtime with the girls but I hadn’t listened to it in years. I struggled to find an angle for the Oblique Strategy I got so I thought I would revisit this song. Warm feelings were had.
Jon Hart covers
Born Under the Punches
When you announced the Brian Eno project, for reasons unknown to me, I immediately knew which song I wanted to cover. My 9 year old daughter contributed some squeaks and backup vocals. This was a lot of fun to put together.
Bill Fricke
If I had to name one of the most influential musicians/artists on my own personal music journey, it would Brian Eno. It wasn’t until Apollo came out that I really got into him. After that, all bets were off and I wanted to be Eno so bad. Alas, I never got there. But it is still fun to try. I did get to meet Eno at the Walker in the early 90’s. He signed my CD copy of Apollo.
An Ending (Ascent)
I have listened to this piece of music well over a thousand times. It makes me so peaceful and it is so achingly beautiful. This was done mostly on guitar with volume pedals and processing.
Taking Tiger Mountain
There are so many songs from Taking Tiger Mountain I wanted to cover. Third Uncle, the True Wheel, but TTM was nice and simple. Kind of a Low-ish approach (the band) but without the percussion.
2/1 - Voice
I found the notes and timings used for the original piece on Music For Airports. Disregarded those and just went with what felt good. I did pull an Oblique Strategy card for this one. “Be less critical more often.” That was helpful.
2/1 - Disintegrate
Using the same notes from 2/1, but a different arrangement, this is the “Dusty Strings” setting on Garageband. I tried to make it sound a bit like William Basinski’s Disintegration Tapes with static, noise and things falling apart.
Grant Eull covers
The True Wheel and
Uncontrollable Urge (produced by Eno)
Brian Eno, ok? Honestly, I didn't really know much of anything about Brian other than he worked with Bowie and U2 and that he made some very experimental music. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that he produced “Are We Not Men?” DEVO’s debut album… so picking a song from that record was a no brainer. The search for one of his tunes to do was a bit more difficult.
I was familiar with the song Needles In The Camel’s Eye, but that's about it. Turns out after some digging I had heard one other song as local band Extraterrestrials covers The True Wheel.
My search ended there. I am curious to see if anyone takes on the “original” flip side of this challenge, I was hoping to be inspired but ran out of energy and time. Enjoy.
