Customer Reviews

Music From the Penguin Cafe

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A unique and strange record, even by the standards of the pan-musical Penguin Café Orchesta, 'Music from the Penguin Café' was originally released on Brian Eno's 'Obscure' record label in the mid-seventies, by mail order only.

'MFTPC' is hard to describe, and very few retrospectives of the group's career (sadly, leader Simon Jeffes died in 1997) give this more than a passing mention, as it's almost beyond criticism - a totally self-contained universe of music, mixing primitive electronics, Brian Eno-style ambient, classical and folk to form a side-step into a timeless, alien environment. Surreal and dreamlike, it has a very distinctive 'live' sound, with birdsong faintly audible in the background of some of the tracks. Imagine Michael Nyman's wiggiest moments, as produced by Brian Eno's second assistant tape operator, and you're half-way there.

After this (and the similar follow-up, 'Penguin Café Orchestra') the PCO settled down and become much more conservative - their later work is tuneful, folky, and much less experimental.

The first time I listened to this album was when I was a teen. Ever since, I have been addicted to Penguin Cafe Orchestra's work, but this first album is the best of all.

I owned an LP of this but recently bought a CD again, and listened to it more carefully with a better-sounding system. This made me to rediscover this gem. What a wonderful music they made! I don't think pieces in this album are so "weird". Actually, I found some of them are most relaxing music that I ever heard. But they could be a different kind of music, anyway.

The only and probably minor problem with this album is that, probably due to the inferior recording condition of their day, some pieces are suffering from distortion.

Hilariously excellent music. People this talented are impossible to explain. I saw the documentary about them on PBS light years ago. Bought CD, lost CD. Could not live without CD so came back to Amazon and bought it again.

This might not be the best choice for newcomers to the Penguin Cafe, but this is ultimately their most satisfying album. "Music from the Penguin Cafe" shows off their soft melodic sides (Penguin Cafe Single, The sound of someone you love...) while at the same time demonstrating their more experimental and harsher sounding moods (In a Sydney Motel, Surface Tension). Highly recommended are the songs "Penguin Cafe Single", "Zopf: In a Sydney Motel", and the sorrowful "The Sound of Someone You Love Who's Going Away and it Doesn't Matter".

This is a great CD. Simon Jeffes is a musical genius (heh, that's an understatement :). There are some wonderful songs on this album, such as "Zopf" and "Chartered Flight," however, many of the songs are quite abstract. They could really give a person a headache. And some songs on this CD, like "Penguin Cafe Single" are great, beautiful, and relaxing, but they become abstract somewhere in the middle. If you are planning to by more Penguin Cafe CDs, none of the others are quite as bizzare as this one. But I still highly recomend this CD, for its creativity, originality, and variety. Byeeeeee ^__^