The album Brian Eno called “the future of music”
The legendary pioneering musician Brian Eno has always had his finger on the pulse of contemporary trends. When he was a member of Roxy Music, Eno foresaw a changing season in the musical landscape and quit the band to ensure he was at the forefront of innovation. Close to half a century later, Eno is still rubbing shoulders with the next generation of talent.
After departing Roxy Music, Eno established himself as one of the most sought-after producers in the world of music. In 1978, he was recruited by Talking Heads to work in the hot seat for their second album, More Songs About Buildings and Food. The combination of Eno and the new wave New Yorkers proved to be a perfect match, and they’d later reconvene their relationship on the band’s next two records, Fear Of Music and Remain In Light.
When Eno first met David Byrne and the band, he was clear about the direction he wanted to take them in, and the group were receptive to the ideas. Shortly before their initial meeting, the ambient maestro had discovered Afrodisiac by Fela Kuti & The Africa ’70, which touched him in a way few other records ever have done.
During an interview with The Quietus, Eno named the record as one of his favourite albums of all time and explained how it was critical to his alliance with the Talking Heads. He revealed: “When I first met Talking Heads, the first meeting I ever had with them, they had been playing in London and they came over to my flat to talk about me working on their next album. So I said, ‘This is the future of music’, and I played them Afrodisiac, and to their credit they were incredibly impressed by it. If you listen to the third album we did together (Remain In Light) it’s so influenced by that. It’s sort of shameful in a way.”
He added of the record: “Afrodisiac has four songs and they’re all absolutely brilliant. There’s no disappointment on the album at all. On later records there’s quite a lot of fat, the pieces go on and on and sometimes they’re a bit aimless, but Afrodisiac I suppose was being made as an attempt to push Fela over here, so instead of a piece taking a whole side it takes only half a side.”
Eno’s prediction of Kuti being the “future of music” seemed far-flung at the time, considering he had to seek out his records from specialist stores in west London. However, Afrobeat is thriving, and acts from the genre are selling out stadiums worldwide while bands such as Vampire Weekend have been inspired in a way similar to Talking Heads.
