Review: Brian Eno – Before And After Science (1977)

Before And Science is Brian Eno’s fifth solo album and fourth “rock” album.

Before And Science was a challenging project for Eno, as his 1975 masterpiece Another Green World had set the bar very high, and, on top of that, he had begun to grow tired of rock music. Eno’s interest was shifting more and more toward instrumental ambient music.

Eno experienced the making of Before and After Science as a veritable chore, though this is in no way apparent from the final result. Even though Before and After Science isn’t quite as magical a whole as Another Green World, it’s still a truly strong album. Considering that Eno’s interests had begun to shift away from rock music altogether, it’s also a bit odd that the final album is actually a bit more rock-oriented than Another Green World. The A-side, in particular, is quite aggressive, while the mood on the B-side calms down a bit.

Eno once again assembled a truly stellar lineup of musicians for his album, who gradually added their own parts over the course of a two-year process. There were a huge number of recording sessions over the years, involving a varying number of musicians—a total of no fewer than 15. The album features such giants of progressive music as Phil Collins, Jaki Liebezeit, Percy Jones, Robert Wyatt, Fred Frith, Phil Manzanera, and Robert Fripp (who agreed to participate only on the condition that Eno buy him a brand-new dildo…).

According to reports, the protracted recording process yielded as many as one hundred songs (or, more likely, rough drafts of songs), of which only ten made it onto the final album. As with Another Green World, the tracks on Before And After Science are short (3–6 min.), but they aren’t quite as fragmentary as those on its predecessor; instead, they mostly resemble “real” rock songs.

Side A kicks off with the deliciously metallic (and I’m not talking about heavy rock here) clanging groove of “No One Receiving.” The song is driven by drummer Phil Collins’s kraut/funk rhythm and the bass guitars of Paul Rudolph and Percy Jones (on fretless bass), which clash spectacularly with one another.

The third track, “Kurt’s Rejoinder,” is a playfully jerky song in which the rhythm once again plays a central role, with unusual synthesizer sounds punctuating the music here and there. Stylistically, the song seems to foreshadow Eno and David Byrne’s later collaborative album My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts (1981).

The two-minute instrumental “Energy Fools The Magician,” with its vignette-like quality, is most reminiscent of the atmosphere of Another Green World. Once again, the bass takes center stage. This time, Jones’s fretless bass rumbles in a rather unique way throughout the song, and he was also credited with the arrangement. In practice, the album’s distinctive musicians have certainly had a significant influence on the final result anyway, as Eno has functioned more as a director (and editor) than as a traditional composer.

“King’s Lead Hat,” which closes out Side A, is a punk-infused tribute/parody of Talking Heads, a fresh American new wave band that had just released its debut album and which Eno began producing the following year. Eno’s David Byrne impersonation is surprisingly convincing! The title “King’s Lead Hat” is, of course, an anagram… Fripp plays a unique and heavily effects-laden guitar solo on the track, though it never quite takes off.

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On Side B, the mood becomes more serene. It feels as though Eno may have been aiming for the dichotomy of David Bowie’s Low album (which Eno helped produce): edgy rock songs on Side A and more atmospheric, abstract, and largely instrumental music on Side B. However, the dichotomy on this album isn’t quite that clear-cut, because on Before And After Science, vocals can be heard on most of the tracks on the B-side as well. The music is, however, considerably more ethereal than on the energetically rocking A-side.

The third track on Side B, “By This River,” showcases Eno at his most sensitive. Accompanied mainly by a simple electric piano and led by Eno’s intimate, close-miked vocals, the song is downright moving, even though Eno’s music is generally not at the most emotional end of the spectrum. The song was composed in collaboration with Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius of the band Cluster . In a sense, the song serves as a continuation of the Cluster & Eno album, which was released a little earlier that same year.

“Spider And I,” the album’s closing track, is one of the most magnificent songs of Eno’s career. The triumphant melody brings to mind some of Vangelis’s work, but Eno has the restraint to keep his synthesizer anthem appropriately subdued; he doesn’t go overboard like the Greek king of synthesizers, but instead the song maintains a dignified, understated sound right up until the end, when it finally (far too soon) fades into the ether. With “Spider And I,” Brian Eno’s career as a “pop star” also faded away. After this, Eno focused for a long time on his ambient albums and, on the other hand, on his rocket-like rise as a producer.

Before And After Science received rave reviews from critics upon its release, but it no longer inspired Eno himself. In my opinion, too, the album doesn’t reach the heights of Another Green World, but then again… few albums do. Before And After Science remained Brian Eno’s last vocal-driven rock album for decades, right up until the 2005 album Another Day On Earth.

Best tracks: No One Receiving, Kurt’s Rejoinder, “King’s Lead Hat”, “Here He Comes”, “Spider And I”

Rating: 4 out of 5.
Author: JANNE YLIRUUSI
Tracks
  1. ”No One Receiving” 3:52
  2. ”Backwater” 3:43
  3. ”Kurt’s Rejoinder” 2:55
  4. ”Energy Fools the Magician” 2:04
  5. ”King’s Lead Hat” 3:56
  6. ”Here He Comes” 5:38
  7. ”Julie With …” 6:19
  8. ”By This River” 3:03
  9. ”Through Hollow Lands” 3:56
  10. ”Spider and I” 4:10
Musicians

Brian Eno: vocals, synthesizers (Minimoog, EMS Synthi AKS, Yamaha CS-80), guitar, synthesized percussion, piano, vibraphone, bell Paul Rudolph: bass, rhythm guitar Phil Collins: drums Percy Jones: fretless bass Rhett Davies: agong, stick Jaki Liebezeit: drums Dave Mattacks: drums Shirley Williams (Robert Wyatt): timbales Kurt Schwitters: vocals Fred Frith: guitar Andy Fraser: drums Phil Manzanera: rhythm guitar Robert Fripp: guitar Hans-Joachim Roedelius: grand piano, electric piano Dieter Moebius: electric piano Bill MacCormick: bass Brian Turrington: bass

Producer: Brian Eno
Label: Island

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