Brian Eno, Francis Monkman, Ray and I don't know the fourth person. It's a live album. The songs are as follows "Tomorrow Never Knows", "Baby's on Fire", "Miss Shaparo", "Sombre Lizards", "You really Got Me", and there's more. I think they only made this one album. I think around the mid 80's.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/801_(band) ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/801_(band)

Linkfail.

Thanks :bigthumb:

801 LIVE

(released by: 801)


Year Of Release: 1976
Overall rating = 11

A live album that illustrates the great cooperation between Manzanera and Eno; bizarre and sometimes hard to sit through, but worth it.
Best song: THIRD UNCLE

Track listing: 1) Lagrima; 2) T.N.K. (Tomorrow Never Knows); 3) East Of Asteroid; 4) Rongwrong; 5) Sombre Reptiles; 6) Baby's On Fire; 7) Diamond Head; 8) Miss Shapiro; 9) You Really Got Me; 10) Third Uncle.

This was a very curious project - a short-period band that only released one studio and one live album; I don't have the studio one yet. The key figures here are once again Eno, who's sitting at the synths, and, once again, Manzanera, who, as you might have guessed, plays the guitar (I thought about putting this record on the Eno page, but then I thought it's more Manzanera than Eno anyway, so let it be here). Other members include Simon Philips on drums, Bill McCormick on bass, Lloyd Watson on slide guitar and Francis Monkman on a second set of keyboards. As far as I understand, Eno only joined the band as a live player; the studio version of 801 was fully dominated by Manzanera.
The band's name probably says a lot of important things to Eno fans - '801' was lifted off directly from Eno's 'We are the 801' line, found in 'The True Wheel' off of his Taking Tiger Mountain album, and invokes certain apocalyptic and cabbalistic imagery which I really wouldn't want to discuss here (I'm somewhat sceptical when it comes to Eno's mystical gimmicks and 'oblique strategies'). But apocalyptic or not, the album in question is very good, or at least - very interesting. It's a bit tough to sit through on first listen, though: much of the material is purely instrumental and presented as a set of jams that mostly display Manzanera's guitar skills. However, Phil is indeed a versatile player, and even the guitar solos are well worth listening to. And, after all, there are lots of other little pleasures here.

The band was presumably a bit short on original material - Manzanera had only released one solo album, and Eno either wasn't too keen on offering his material or just didn't want to overshadow the colleagues (he still gets three of his solo compositions on here). So they turn to songs as diverse and distant from each other as the Beatles' 'Tomorrow Never Knows', on one side, and the Kinks' 'You Really Got Me', on the other. The Beatles' number is rendered impeccably - they do butcher the classic Beatles' arrangement, but they fully compensate with ethereal, spaced-out guitar lines and, of course, lots of obligatory buzzes and bleeps on Eno's part. The song rocks along nicely, and you can even tap your foot to it - if that's your wish. As for 'You Really Got Me', it's played more or less by the book, except that Eno augments the classic riff with a beepy synth pattern, and the riff itself is only introduced near the 'climactic' part of the song - the effect is thus kinda more quiet and subtle, but not less rewarding. Eno is showcased on three tunes, one each from three of his 'song' albums - 'Baby's On Fire' off Here Come The Warm Jets, 'Third Uncle' off Taking Tiger Mountain and the instrumental 'Sombre Reptiles' off Another Green World. All three of the performances are splendid - 'Sombre Reptiles' is just as sombre as the original, and the other two represent experimental glam-rock at its most professional and tasteful. 'Third Uncle', especially, gets my praises in this context - it's amazing that such a band, which apparently had little time to rehearse or gel together, could play such a complicated tune at such a fast speed, but so it is: Phil's lightning-speed riffs and solos are flawless, Eno's rappy lyrics hit you like small pebbles from under a car's wheels, and Simon Philips drums like a demon. As an encore for the concert, the tune must have left even the audience completely drained, and it almost manages to blow the regular studio version away.

Manzanera's solo album is represented by a couple tunes like the title track from Diamond Head and 'Miss Shapiro' (plus 'Lagrima' which is used as an atmospheric intro to the whole show). Funny - they're slightly rearranged, and both appear quite in the glam-Eno vein, with similar chord changes and weird sound effects cluttering them, quite unlike the more restrained versions on Head. 'Miss Shapiro', for instance, is sped up and rocks along as well as anything, although the bizarrified 'Diamond Head' does take some time to get into. Likewise, the instrumental 'East Of Asteroid' (which doesn't seem to be related to 'East Of Echo') is a hard treat - I'd call both of them 'astral jams', if such a term is justified. Namely, take an ounce of blues, an ounce of heavy metal, an ounce of psychedelia, a bunch of special Enotronic effects, and an untrivial, synth-processed guitar tone that drives Manzanera's playing, and try to put all these things together. There's hardly anything cathartic about these tunes, but at least they can easily compete with all these spaced-out jams that Yes are famous for. In fact, I'd take 'Diamond Head' over a Yes jam easily, as Phil's soulful, minimalistic guitar playing appeals to me more than the flashy leads of Steve Howe. In this respect, 'East Of Asteroid' is quite scary and disturbing, while 'Diamond Head' is quite becalmed and relaxating.

Oh, there's also a very nice song called 'Rongwrong' whose origins I'm not too sure about. I only suppose that it's Eno singing lead vocals on it; but the most pleasant thing about it is the slide guitar part by Lloyd Watson - there's almost something Harrison-like in it. I also suppose Eno was involved in the writing - it sounds exactly like all these comforting, mellow ballads on Another Green World. At least, if he's not the author, he certainly made the song his. So take your time and do not hurry - the record will grow on you over time. It's really really good. It's not at all similar to Roxy Music - it's more like prime Eno, and, frankly speaking, I'm still thinking of relocating the review to the Eno page. Then again, let us not forget, that for the first year of Roxy's existence, to a large extent Roxy was Eno - not Ferry, but Eno. I mean - can't you feel the influence of 'Bogus Man' in these tunes? Looks evident to me.






From this site: http://starling.rinet.ru/music/roxy.htm#Live