Before And After Science by Brian Eno

Art and experimental rock to a very weird and strangely accessible degree. To give an idea of what you in for with this one, note that the title of the album is actually aan anagram of the original title of the album: Arcane Benefits of Creed.

Its a trip, man. Released in 1977 and arguably the biggest bird that could be given to the punk, funk or disco that was rapidly beginning to dominate everything.


Its worth noting who plays on this wild ride of an album:
Brian Eno – voices, synthesizers (Minimoog, EMS Synthi AKS, Yamaha CS-80), guitars, synthesized percussion, pianos, brass, vibes, metallics, bell
Paul Rudolph – basses, rhythm guitar
Phil Collins – drums
Percy Jones – fretless bass, analogue delay bass
Rhett Davies – agong-gong, stick
Jaki Liebezeit – drums
Dave Mattacks – drums
Shirley Williams – brush timbales
Kurt Schwitters – voice
Fred Frith – guitars
Andy Fraser – drums
Phil Manzanera – guitars
Robert Fripp - guitar
Hans-Joachim Roedelius – piano
Dieter Moebius – bass, piano
Bill MacCormick – bass
Brian Turrington – bass


The first side begins energetically enough with No One Receiving. The song is like a funk song gone completely haywire. Imagine Earth Wind And Fire meets Pink Floyd and you have an idea of what's going on here.


Backwater keeps up the pace and replaces the funk with a Beatles-esq piano backing. The Floyd vocal stylings have been replaced with something that comes across far more like the Talking Head's (with whom Eno is closely associated) than anything. Tons of synth eventually replace the piano almost completely. Its just gets weirded and weirded... but tis very listenable and enjoyable - kind od liek Uncle Albert does. "Do what you do in a tiny canoe" kind of sums it all up, eh.


Kurt's Rejoinder begins in territory more often inhabbitted by Jaco Pastorius. A bass-line rhythm bounces along with a handful of nonsensical vocals and an ever elaborate amount electronic details. As usual the main riff gives way to synth and the song fades intot he distance.


Energy Fools The Magician slows everything down but keeps the goofy instrumentation coming. That's all it really is. A short instrumental track that is quite beautiful.


King's Lead Hat - an anagram Talking Heads and also a single in 1978 - sounds like a Talking Heads song. Punkish in that"80s" sounding way, but this is 1977, so its significantly cooler than all of the nonsense that tried to mimic it throughout the early 80s. A really fun tune.

Side two begins the pastoral and mellow stuff (yeah, I stole the pastoral line from Wikipedia, but its apt).

Here He Comes is gorgeous guitar rock with exactly the right amount of synth mixes in. Great vocals cap off a stunning song. This is the type of song that you always want your favorite band to cover, not just because its a somewhat obscure tune, but because its just such a satisfying listen and it'd be great to hear other versions of it. A perfect song.


Julie With ... delves into the mellower trend, but brings in a semi-psychadelic bent (lots of backward stuff!). This sounds like it walked out of a Pink Floyd session in 1971. Wow. Another perfect song. The song features stunning guitar soloing - indescribable. Its a sad and terrible song in the most wonderful way.


By This River continues the sad and terrible feeling, but with Piano. The opening words -"Here we are, stuck by this riven, you and I underneath this sky that's ever falling down, down down." - leave the listener stunned. A third perfect song. Vocal hamronies so sublime end the song far too soon.


Through Hollow Lands (For Harold Budd) somehow manages to find an even more depressing tenor. Its an instrumental that would fit any aweful moment in any movie. Picture the scene when Kong dies in the original BW King Kong, this fits. Picture when Vader dies and Luke burns him up... this fits. Picture when Homer ate the Fugu and spent the night listening to Larry King narrate the Good Book... this fits.


Spider and I is the song that, buying the album you wanted to hear most and it doesn't displease. The album closer is the arguably the best song on a fantastic album. It takes elements of the entire second side and sort of sums them up in an way that makes you feel like you are rising out of deep, dark water, one inch at a time.


Spider and I
Sit watching the sky
On our world without sound.
We knit a web
To catch one tiny fly
For our world without sound.
We sleep in the mornings,
We dream of a ship that sails away,
A thousand miles away.


Conlcusion: Over 100 (!!!!) songs were recorded for this album... 8 made it out of the box and onto wax. Beach Boys, eat your heart out. How many other perfect mellow & pastoral songs that are both sad and terrible never saw the lgiht of day? I totally recommend buying this album and playing it from start to finish as soon as possible. Obviously if you have never heard this, you ought to seek it out. It will open a whole new world of music to you.