BEFORE AND AFTER SCIENCE

The first half of this record is made up mainly of pop-like tunes while the second half consists of mostly ambient songs. Almost like he set it up that way to show his fans the direction he was going with his music in the future. Eno thanks the two guys from CLUSTER in the liner notes as well as David Bowie and Robert Fripp, all for their advise and encouragement.

"No One Receiving" is a funky tune with Phil Collins on drums (and doing a great job), and Eno on vocals, synths and guitar. "Backwater" is too catchy, I can't get it out of my head. It's a funny eighties sounding song with brass and TALKING HEADS like vocals.You know at times I would swear this was recorded in the eighties, but this is 1977. I can't help but think that Eno had a big influence on a lot of eighties pop bands. How cool is it that CAN's Jaki Liebezeit plays drums on this one. "Kurt's Rejoinder" is all about the percusion. "Energy Fools The Magician" is one of my favourites on this record. Fred Frith on modified guitar, with Collins back on drums, Percy Jones on fretless bass, while Eno does his vibes thing. This is a spacey and ambient 2 minute song that is way too short. "King's Lead Hat" is an anagram for TALKING HEADS and yes it sounds like an uptempo TALKING HEADS song. Fripp offers up a guitar solo to end the song, and it sounds like he's playing underwater.

"Here He Comes" is a straight forward mid-paced song with moog and Manzanera on guitar. "Julie With..." is the longest song and also my favourite. It really reminds me of the sound of PINK FLOYD on their "Pipers At The Gates Of Dawn" record. A spacey song with piano and mini-moog. "By This River" was co-written and performed with the two guys from CLUSTER. They would actually record a whole album with Eno and it would be released after this one. This song really reminds me of THE USE OF ASHES from the Netherlands, as does the final song "Spider And I" which is also spacey with a lot of synths. "Through Hollow Lands" has Fred Frith again only this time he's playing cascade guitars.This is a very ambient song with keyboards.The bell is a nice touch. It's cool that Bill MacCormick from QUIET SUN and 801 is playing bass here.

This has really grown on me and deserves a solid 4 stars.