No Pussyfooting

How Do You?

Talk about an album that has no formal tunes and is just sounds. This is what I am trying to do with “No Pussyfooting” by Robert Fripp and Brian Eno. Robert Fripp is the guitarist and main man with progressive rock band King Crimson and Brian Eno began his mainstream exposure as Roxy Music’s non-musician specialising in electronics and treatments. Brian Eno is credited with the invention of Ambient Music when he was ill listening to a record but the sound was too low but he couldn’t get up to turn it up slightly but he could hear the music or sound in the distance.

So No Pussyfooting

No Pussyfooting: The Cover

The cover features Robert and Brian sitting in a mirrored blue room with cards (probably Oblique Strategies, though this was released in 1973 but I first became aware of Oblique Strategies in 1974 used on the creation of “Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy”) on a glass table. The back cover is the mirrored room without Bob and Brian and then I noticed the guitar shaped mirror. The cover is a good representation of the music, or sound, however you want to define it.

No Pussyfooting: The Music

The original album consists of two pieces taking up a side each of the original vinyl album

The two pieces that make up the album are “The Heavenly Music Corporation” taking up side one and “Swastika Girls” on side two. Fripp wanted “The Heavenly Music Corporation” to be titled “The Transcendental Music Corporation” but Eno said that people might think they were being serious.

The pieces are essentially repeated tape loops of electronic drone which are then overlaid with Bob Fripp’s treated guitar sometimes referred to as “Frippertronics”. It is almost like waves of sound, the aural equivalent of standing on a beach watching the waves hit the shore.

As I write this I am listening to “The Heavenly Music Corporation” at half speed, so it lasts for 41 minutes, that is 41 minutes of electronic drone with the Frippertonics adding some beautifully jagged diving overlays to the soundscape.

One night Brian Eno was driving hope and he heard the album on the radio,played by John Peel and he noticed that there was something wrong. This was in the 1970s so pre digital and pre mobile phone so Brian had to stop and find a phone box.

He phoned the BBC and got through to the John Peel program to tell them the album was being played backwards! It was on reel to reel tape and somehow the tape was put in the wrong way up resulting in it being played in reverse.

I have the deluxe CD version and this is the full track listing.

CD1

1. "The Heavenly Music Corporation" 20:55 (Side one of original vinyl album)

2. "Swastika Girls" 18:43 (Side two of original vinyl album)

3. "The Heavenly Music Corporation (Reversed)" 20:52

CD 2

1. "The Heavenly Music Corporation (Half Speed)" 41:49

2. "Swastika Girls (Reversed)" 18:54

Listening to this in a darkened room can, for me, induce an almost trance-like state. I find it very helpful for meditating despite some aggressive sections, but it gives me ideas and reasons to lay the words down on paper.

I also find the album useful to have on while I am working or creating, as it provides interesting background sound as you do what you need to do.

Conclusion

Wikipedia has a good write up into how the album was produced, experimenting with a tape system developed by Terry Riley and Pauline Oliveros which you can read about here.