No Pussyfooting, the first ever collaboration between King Crimson's guitarist Robert Fripp and Roxy Music's keyboard player Brian Eno. The two had met at a 1972 session they both did for the band Matching Mole, and the seed was planted for this landmark album that was recorded a year later. Call it the birth of the 'ambient' genre, call it progressive rock, call it space rock, call it electronica, No Pussyfooting is most certainly intoxicating music, as chilling a listen today as it was 35 years ago. The album contained two multi-part suites, featuring Eno's VCS3 synthesizer with digital sequencer, and loops using a Revox A77 tape recorder, with Fripp and his Gibson Les Paul & pedalboard providing the material for the soloing. That's what you get here, an undulating, bubbling maelstrom of sounds, spacey synth washes & loops providing the bed for Fripp's never ending cascades of notes. At times nightmarish ("The Heavenly Music Corporation") , at others quite charming ("Swastika Girls"), the music here never fails to bring out some sort of emotion in the listener. In other words, No Pussyfooting was never meant to be played as background noise...on the contrary, this is music that demands your attention, and sucks you right into its hypnotic haze. It also contains some of Robert Fripp's most gorgeous playing ever, especially on "Swastika Girls", where his crying notes take on an Asian flair, as opposed to his herculean shred tactics that burst through the clouds of electronic smog created by Eno on "The Heavenly Music Corporation".
This remaster sounds great, as they've used modern techniques to remove some of the original hiss that was present on the analog tapes. As a bonus, you get both tracks as they were played on a UK radio broadcast 'in reverse', as well as ""The Heavenly Music Corporation" played at half-speed, the latter of which is pretty torturous to listen to and for completists only. Overall though this is a wonderful reissue of a classic album from two remarkable musicians who have both made a great impact on the progressive rock & ambient music scene with this release, an impact that still stands up today.
Track Listing
Disc: 1
1. The Heavenly Music Corporation Pt. 1
2. The Heavenly Music Corporation Pt. 2
3. The Hevenly Music Corporation Pt. 3
4. The Heavenly Music Corporation Pt. 4
5. The Heavenly Music Corporation Pt. 5
6. Swastika Girls Pt. 1
7. Swastika Girls Pt. 2
8. The Heavenly Music Corporation Pt. 1 (reversed)
9. The Heavenly Music Corporation Pt. 2 (reversed)
10. The Heavenly Music Corporation Pt. 3 (reversed)
11. The Heavenly Music Corporation Pt. 4 (reversed)
12. The Heavenly Music Corporation Pt. 5 (reversed)
Disc: 2
1. The Heavenly Music Corporation Pt. 1 [Half Speed]
2. The Heavenly Music Corporation Pt. 2 [Half Speed]
3. The Heavenly Music Corporation Pt. 3 [Half Speed]
4. The Heavenly Music Corporation Pt. 4 [Half Speed]
5. The Heavenly Music Corporation Pt. 5 [Half Speed]
6. Swastika Girls Pt. 1 (reversed)
7. Swastika Girls Pt. 2 (reversed)
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