(NO PUSSYFOOTING)

There's not much to write about the album, If I'm to omit the standard introduction in the likes of: "Eno and Fripp boldly un-pussyfooting" (what's the opposite of pussyfooting anyway?) or "Let me, breathtakingly, explain how Frippertronics work". By Jingo, you can make these facts out simply by reading a Wikipedia article! As for the Frippertronics system, I'm not willing to make a fool of myself by elucidating a concept I barely grasp myself. To a child of the modern age, tape delay sounds like using tinder and flint to make fire. Secondly, for more proof on not-pussyfooting look at the running time of the "songs". Honestly though, I shouldn't be using quotation marks, because my personal quota allows me to call everything with at least 30% music a song, whilst the two sides of (No pussyfooting), contain mostly music, layers upon layers of Fripp's sustained guitar noodling.

This brings us to the most important elements of Fripp's trademark guitar sound featured here: the aforementioned sustain and moreover the kind of inanimate, digitalized notes the instrument produces. The guitar sounds as if constantly picked by a machine, making me wholeheartedly believe Robert Fripp is the complete opposite of Mark Knopfler (not in terms of skill, but rather in terms of guitar style). Even the overdrive seems set to a level mathematically balanced by the combined powers of Einstein, Fermi and HAL 9000. Brian Eno on the other hand is inaudible, occupied more overtly with tape loops than with providing a synthesized background to Fripp's clearly self-indulgent jamming.

The Heavenly Music Corporation, a title which is by all standards Fripp-esque (just check out a few of the later King Crimson improv titles: some of them are built out of full blown sentences - nonsensical, but still sentences), introduces the listener to Brian and Roberts tape delay warm-up round. They are still pussyfooting now and then (curses, I couldn't deny myself the pleasure of throwing in a reference to the album's title), but the immense grandeur compensates for the overall repetitiveness of the sounds. The ambient soundscapes created on both tracks are bearable up to the level of being occasionally enjoyable. The music can be aptly compared to sounds of shadows crawling, cars passing in slow-motion and playing in reverse. The latter of the two tracks starts with something comparable only to the resonance of digital whirlpools backed with a buzzing and twanging guitar (mainly sans distortion), plus improv noodling entering in the middle of Swastika Girls. Don't get fooled by the title, though. The second song sounds more carefree and however droning it may be, it doesn't make me nauseous. And this is a very good thing, considering their second collaboration spawned the unlistenable Index of Metals.

If you're lookinng for groundbreaking experiments and especially fond of Fripp's guitar style - buy (No Pussyfooting), undoubtedly. Note that there is a remastered edition now for sale with the tracks reversed and half-speed. Wonder how that sounds?

Best song: (You're funny. It's more of a "take it or leave it" choice)

Worst song: (It will surely kill you to death at some point if you aren't a fan of droning guitar noises)

PS: Oh, and I want a studio that looks like the room on the album cover (complete with mirror covered musical instruments), which, by the way, perfectly represents the album's contents.

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