(No Pussyfooting) is the first joint album by King Crimson guitar virtuoso Robert Fripp and Roxy Music sound sculptor Brian Eno. However, they had already met professionally during the sessions for Fripp’s second Matching Mole album, Little Red Record (1972), on which Eno played a small part as a synthesiser player. (No Pussyfooting) marked not only the beginning of a lifelong friendship between Fripp and Eno, but also the start of a lasting musical collaboration to which they have returned with regular irregularity.
(No Pussyfooting) contains only two long tracks. The opening track, ‘The Heavenly Music Corporation’, lasts a whopping 21 minutes, and the second track, ‘Swastika Girls’, is almost 19 minutes long. (No Pussyfooting) is often referred to as ambient music, or at least proto-ambient. However, the music on the album is quite violent and piercing in places, and it does not fade into the background in the same way as ambient music usually does. I personally see (No Pussyfooting) as more part of the minimalist music school. Fripp’s electric guitar playing, which is quite wild in places, does, however, somewhat contradict this definition.
All sounds on ”The Heavenly Music Corporationion” were produced using Fripp’s electric guitar looped with two Revox tape recorders. The method was originally developed by experimental composers Terry Riley and Pauline Oliveros, who experimented with similar techniques in the early 1960s. Many other musicians influential in progressive rock, such as Daevid Allen, Kevin Ayers and Hugh Hopper (see the album 1984 featured in this article), had been experimenting with tape loops for years before Fripp and Eno. However, the duo deserve credit for popularising this method, albeit with a delay. (No Pussyfooting) was not an immediate hit. It should also be remembered that although the method used by Fripp and Eno on their album was not unique, the music they created was very much so. At the heart of Fripp and Eno’s concept is the idea of two people creating one sound, the end result of which is ideally something completely different from what one man could achieve. Fripp fed building blocks into Eno’s system, which Eno then manipulated, after which Fripp reacted in real time to the soundscape Eno had created. Eno then manipulated the sound again, and so on ad infinitum.
However, the second track on the album, ‘Swastika Girls’, differs from the aforementioned concept in that it is based on a loop created by Eno using a VCS3 synthesiser, over which Fripp weaves additional sounds with his electric guitar. This is followed by the feed and feedback cycle described above.
So, what does the music created using this method actually sound like? The music on the album (No Pussyfooting) is extremely difficult to describe. I hear it something like this. The music on the album is like a slowly undulating, mercurial mass that is occasionally pierced by Fripp’s searing electric guitar. The sound mass echoes some of Fripp’s notes back into the mix and absorbs some of them into its droning mass, growing larger. This repeats over and over again. At times it is more static, at times it awakens the listener with rougher outbursts. The listener is either hypnotised by this magical and unique soundscape or, alternatively, becomes bored ‘when nothing happens’. It is even possible that the same listener experiences both extremes of emotion depending on their state of mind when listening to the album.
(No Pussyfooting) was successfully followed up a couple of years laterby the album Evening Star. The third Fripp & Eno album, The Equatorial Stars, was released in 2004.
Author: JANNE YLIRUUSI
Tracks:
Side A
”The Heavenly Music Corporation” 20:55
Side B
”Swastika Girls” 18:34
Producer: Robert Fripp, Brian Eno
Label: Island/ EG
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