JEFFREY MORGAN’S MEDIA BLACKOUT #532.163!

Eno – Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) (Astralwerks) :: Old Uncle Een’s first album may be noisier and his third one may be quieter, but it’s his second one which is a true work of art whose understated depth and surreal resonance only gets richer with the passage of time. Neatly positioned between two extremes, Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) isn’t bawdily brawny like Here Come The Warm Jets, nor is it ambitiously ambient like Another Green World. Instead, it has a playful opulent majesty that confidently combines the best boisterous elements of the earlier album (“Third Uncle”) while foreshadowing the peerless placid moments of the later one (“Taking Tiger Mountain”).

From the typewriter percussion of “China My China” to the half-speed whistled “Colonel Bogey March” in the background of “Back In Judy’s Jungle,” each new listening reveals a hidden textural gem. That’s why it’s safe to say that Eno’s Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) is a unique masterpiece which will never ever be duplicated.

SIZZLING PLATTER OF THE WEEK: Doug Hilsinger & Caroleen Beatty – Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy): A Modern Recreation of Brian Eno’s 1974 Masterpiece (DBK Works) :: Multi-instrumentalist Hilsinger has singlehandedly crafted a joyful note for note remake-remodel that’s… Well, as Eno himself writes in his liner notes: “I don’t often listen to my own records after they’re finished, but hearing this one as though through someone else’s ears and mind had a powerful effect on me. I thought ‘How sweet! How touching! How sympathetically done! And actually…they aren’t bad songs after all.’ ”

Indeed they’re not—especially when you hear all ten of them sung in sequence with a woman’s touch by Beatty. Admits Eno: “Caroline’s beautiful singing—such an improvement on mine!” Reason enough to buy the one record that’s earned the right to be filed with the rest of your Eno albums; that should give you its main point of reference.

Be seeing you!