Brian Eno's Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy

Doug Hilsinger | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 18, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Dbk Works
• ASIN: B0001XALS2
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #259,633 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Burning Airlines Give You So Much More

2. Back In Judy's Jungle

3. The Fat Lady Of Limbourg

4. Mother Whale Eyeless

5. The Great Pretender

6. Third Uncle

7. Put A Straw Under Baby

8. The True Wheel

9. China My China

10. Taking Tiger Mountain

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars brilliant forgotten treasure re-recorded by genius fan, May 20, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Brian Eno's Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy (Audio CD)

brian eno's original lp, Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy,his second solo effort from 1974, is an often overlooked and amazingly advanced and unique record that has been one of my very favorites for years.
The idea of someone actually trying to re-create this classic and experimental work is mind-boggling. They would have to be exceptionally talented musicians with enough technical savvy to record and produce a very complex tribute, one worthy enough to present simultaneously with the re-issue of the original work, just released in the same week. They would have to know and love the original completely and be pretty brave to undertake the task.
With this disc their love of the original and the undeniable musical genius and capabilities of Doug Hilsinger and Caroleen Beatty (both are members of the San Francisco band Waycross)ring loud and clear. From beginning to end this record soars with a breathtaking beauty and confidence, exercising perfect levels of interpretive freedom yet concise restraint and respect for the original. It's not simply a soundalike, it is a celebration of an almost forgotten gem in musical history and Hilsinger and Beatty rose to the occasion with a supernatural glow and charm and wit. Their version of "Third Uncle," likely the most well-known song from TTMBS, stomps and lilts with a dichotomous force, somehow sounding sped up and slowed down simultaneously--yet completely recognizable. This record is exciting from end to end--as you will see from the liner notes, Brian Eno couldn't have been happier with their labor of love. This disc is essential for all.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I enjoyed the heck out of this., December 14, 2004

By 

Turner Morgan "turnermorgan" (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brian Eno's Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy (Audio CD)

the two folks who put this together opened for Camper Van Beethoven locally to me not too long ago. I'd figured it would be sort of tedious, but I was amazed to find myself completely into it. The album captures a lot of the sheer electrical excitement of that performance, though- regrettably- not all of it.
While the original album's one of my favorite albums period (and certainly my favorite Eno solo album), the new sensibilities that Beatty and Hilsinger bring to a couple of the tracks are especially impressive- I find their interpretation of 'Mother Whale Eyeless' to be vocally superior (I know, I know; I'm a heretic), and I like the tweaks they did to the rhythm of Third Uncle.
My only real complaint is that a lot of the songs do not take the original as a jumping-off point. I think that the Hilsinger/Beatty covers work a bit better when they are experimenting, and going off in a new direction from the original work: color-by-numbers covers have always displeased me, as if I wanted to listen to the same performance as the album someone else wrote, I'd put on the album that someone else wrote.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Remake/Remodel It?, June 7, 2005

By 

B. Thomasson "bthomasson" (North Little Rock, AR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Brian Eno's Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy (Audio CD)

For those that who have made it this far. it's a good bet you are either an Eno fan or doing a term paper on post-revolutionary Maoist rock opera, a genre that would probably not exist in most realities if not for Eno. Personally, I would like to see all of Eno's early works sliced, diced and served with a good spud. This particular outing by Hilsinger and Beatty, previously unknown to me, is a very fine rock interpretation of Eno's experimental 1974 classic. Caroleen Beatty sounds a bit like Debra Harry; the guitar and percussion work are well thought out. This is as close to a perfect remake of Tiger Mountain as we will likely ever see. At present it takes 7 weeks for Amazon to deliver this jewel. It will probably be out of print soon. If you can part with $15, buy it now. Worse case scenario, it will go out of print and be a hot commodity on ebay. I mean, no one else is writing music based on militaristic-cartoono-operatic playing cards anymore. This may be your last chance.