13. Brian EnoDiscreet Music
More than any other artist, Brian has had a significant impact on me. The reason I chose this one was because in terms of the sonic world and the composition of everything Brian’s done, it feels almost like the least interesting in many ways. But I remember hearing this record when I was 15 or 16 during a period where I was making a lot of music. It’s a great time when you’re that young, where nothing’s really required of you but you’re on the cusp of adulthood. There’s this great unbounded freedom to this time, which is the world I want to live my life in now. Just to make music in the same way as I was at that point. What I was making around that age was not sophisticated or particularly brilliant but the spirit of time is embedded into the spirit of creation – that is so untouchable to me. So if I hear this record now, I can picture the blue sky of that time and I can always summon this record in my head if I need it to happen and I need to get into that mind-set again.
This is stuff that Brian has ended up talking about – like when I did his Baker’s Dozen feature and we were talking about the Velvet Underground and how you’re always trying to get back to that place of being so mystified by music as a force when you’re young. That thing as an artist you’re trying to do is get back to what he called the edge of innocence. So this record, along with Another Green World, represents that feeling to me.
Also, it’s just an excuse for me to talk about Brian and his influence on me. I have been extremely lucky to have Brian involved in what I do, and be involved in what he’s doing. Tell the younger me that would have happened and I wouldn’t have believed it. Now that’s a cliché in itself but it really is true. If we’re talking about the content of this record, I think there’s something so innocent in the tones of the synths and the type of melody and mode that it’s in. It’s evocative of a kind of freedom and liberation of thought. I know that Brian is very attached to that in his own life as well. This is probably my most listened to piece of music. I can’t think of a record I’ve played more. I still probably put it on nearly once a week.
