1977 Brian Eno “Before and After Science” ILPS 9478 w/ Mint Peter Schmidt Prints

$

100

This original vinyl LP, Before and After Science by Brian Eno, was recorded in London and Cologne, and released in 1977 in the US by Island Records/E.G. Records. Included with the album are four mint-condition watercolor prints by the artist Peter Schmidt. The record itself is in near-mint condition, while the jacket and sleeve are both in excellent condition. The album has had the same owner since the 1970s and has been handled with loving care.

Shipping, including tracking, is $4. If you win any of our other auctions as well, we’re happy to combine the shipping for all items. Note: We do not ship internationally.

The following is excerpted from the Wikipedia entry for Before and After Science:

Before and After Science is the fifth studio album by British musician Brian Eno. Produced by Eno and Rhett Davies, it was originally released by Polydor Records in December 1977. Guest musicians from the United Kingdom and Germany helped with the album, including members of Roxy Music, Free, Fairport Convention, Can, and Cluster. More than 100 tracks were written with only 10 making the album’s final cut. The musical styles of the album range from energetic and jagged to more languid and pastoral.

The album marks Eno's last 1970s foray into rock music as a solo artist, with all his remaining albums of the decade showcasing more of Eno's avant-garde and ambient music, which was hinted at on the second half of Before and After Science. The album was Eno's second to chart in the United States. Critical response to the album has remained positive, with several critics calling it one of Eno's best works.

Style

Jim DeRogatis, author of Turn on Your Mind: Four Decades of Great Psychedelic Rock, described the overall sound of Before and After Science as "the coldest and most clinical of Eno's pop efforts,” while David Ross Smith of the online music database AllMusic wrote that "despite the album's pop format, the sound is unique and strays far from the mainstream.” According to David Bowie's biographer Thomas Jerome Seabrook, the album is "split between up-tempo art-rock on side one and more pastoral material on side two,” while Piotr Orlov of LA Weekly categorized it as an art pop record. The album's opening tracks, "No One Receiving" and "Backwater," start the album as upbeat and bouncy songs. "King's Lead Hat" is an anagram of Talking Heads, a new wave group Eno had met after a concert in England when they were touring with The Ramones. Eno would later produce Talking Heads' second, third and fourth albums, including Remain in Light. The last five songs of the album have been described as having "an occasional pastoral quality" and being "pensive and atmospheric.”

In contrast to Another Green World's tracks, which Eno described as "sky music," the songs on Before and After Science were deemed by the musician to be "ocean music.” References to water in the lyrics appear in songs such as "Backwater," "Julie With . . .," and "By This River.” Author Simon Reynolds noted themes of "boredom" and "bliss" through the album. He cited "Here He Comes," about "a boy trying to vanish by floating through the sky through a different time," and "Spider and I," about a boy watching the sky and dreaming about being carried away with a ship, as examples. Eno's songwriting style was described as "a sound-over-sense approach.” Influenced by poet Kurt Schwitters, Eno consciously did not make songwriting or lyrics the main focus in the music. Tom Carson of Rolling Stone noted this style, stating that the lyrics are "only complementary variables" to the music on the album. Lester Bangs commented on Eno's lyrical style on "Julie With . . .," stating that the lyrics "could be a murderer's ruminations, or simply a lovers' retreat ? or Julie could be three years old.” Schwitters' influence is also shown on the song "Kurt's Rejoinder," on which samples of Schwitters' poem "Ursonate" can be heard.

Release

Before and After Science was released in December 1977 on Polydor in the UK and on Island in the US. The first pressings of the album included four offset prints by Peter Schmidt. The back cover of the LP says "Fourteen Pictures" under the album title, referencing Eno's 10 songs and Peter Schmidt’s four prints. These prints included "The Road to the Crater," "Look at September, Look at October," "The Other House," and "Four Years.” The album did not chart in the UK, but was Eno's first album since Here Come the Warm Jets to chart in the US, where it peaked at 171 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tapes chart.

On a side note, the black-and-white album cover art was used by the Singapore government for an anti-heroin campaign in the late 1970s. The image was used briefly on posters and then quickly changed, probably due to legal reasons.

Reception

On the album's initial release, it received very positive reviews from rock critics. Writing for Creem, Joe Fernbacher called Before and After Science "the perfect Eno album.” Mitchell Schneider wrote a positive review in Crawdaddy!, stating that he couldn't remember the last time a record took such a hold of him — and gave him such an extreme case of vertigo, too. In Down Beat, Russel Shaw wrote, "It’s another typically awesome, stunning and numbing Brian Eno album — the record Pink Floyd could make if they set their collective mind to it.” Tom Carson of Rolling Stone noted that the album "is less immediately ingratiating than either Taking Tiger Mountain or Here Come the Warm Jets. Still, the execution here is close to flawless, and despite Eno's eclecticism, the disparate styles he employs connect brilliantly.” Critic Robert Christgau gave the album an A- rating, stating that he "didn't like the murkiness of the quiet, largely instrumental reflections that take over side two," but didn't find that it "diminishes side one's oblique, charming tour of the popular rhythms of the day.” In 1979, Before and After Science was voted 12th best album of the year on the Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics poll for 1978.

Modern reviews of Before and After Science have also been positive. David Ross Smith of AllMusic awarded the album the highest rating of five stars, stating that it ranks alongside Here Come the Warm Jets and Another Green World "as the most essential Eno material.” The music webzine Tiny Mix Tapes awarded the album their highest rating, stating that it "is not only one of the best albums in Eno's catalog, but of the 1970s as a whole.”

The album was included in Robert Dimery's 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Track listing

All tracks written by Brian Eno, except where noted.

Side 1

1. No One Receiving – 3:52  
2. Backwater – 3:43
3. Kurt's Rejoinder – 2:55
4. Energy Fools the Magician (arranged by Percy Jones, Eno) – 2:04
5. King's Lead Hat – 3:56

Side 2

1. Here He Comes – 5:38
2. Julie With . . .  – 6:19
3. By This River (Eno, Hans-Joachim Roedelius, Dieter Moebius) – 3:03
4. Through Hollow Lands (for Harold Budd) (arranged by Fred Frith, Eno) – 3:56
5. Spider and I – 4:10

Personnel

Musicians

Brian Eno – voices, synthesizers (Minimoog, EMS Synthi AKS, Yamaha CS-80), guitar, synthesised percussion, piano, brass, vibes, metallics, bell

Paul Rudolph – bass, rhythm guitar, harmonic bass

Phil Collins – drums

Percy Jones – fretless bass, analogue delay bass

Rhett Davies – agong-gong, stick

Jaki Liebezeit – drums

Dave Mattacks – drums

Shirley Williams (Robert Wyatt) – brush timbales, time

Kurt Schwitters – voice

Fred Frith – modified guitar, cascade guitars

Andy Fraser – drums

Phil Manzanera – rhythm guitar

Robert Fripp – guitar

Achim Roedelius – grand piano, electric piano

Möbi Moebius – bass Fender piano

Bill MacCormick – bass

Brian Turrington – bass

Production

Peter Schmidt – art prints

Rhett Davies – producer, audio engineer

Ritva Saarikko – cover photograph

Brian Eno – cover design, producer

Conny Plank – engineer

Dave Hutchins – engineer

Cream – cover artwork