This is the dream-like response Eno had to working with Cluster, a band he had admired for a long time, merging it with the role of producer for many other bands from the same period. Substitute ‘levers’ for ‘sliders’ and ‘dark sheds’ for the windowless studios that he worked in with the bands and then ‘guiding the signals to the radio’ describes his job of producing the music for the bands’ next big hit (well. Most bands would like to have some air-play).
Both Conny Plank’s studio (where Broken Head was recorded) and Cluster’s studio in Forst were in rural settings, which may explain the line ‘Out in the trees’… Eno on a fag break. Cluster themselves are name-checked in this verse and their record label Sky is the last word sung in this track.
How to read the line ‘I lose control and at last I am part of the machinery’? It is a very ‘cybernetic’ lyric and if the studio-setting interpretation here has some truth to it, then becoming part of the studio machine might describe Eno’s frequent references to treating the studio itself as an instrument. Surrendering to the system.
This is the dream-like response Eno had to working with Cluster, a band he had admired for a long time, merging it with the role of producer for many other bands from the same period. Substitute ‘levers’ for ‘sliders’ and ‘dark sheds’ for the windowless studios that he worked in with the bands and then ‘guiding the signals to the radio’ describes his job of producing the music for the bands’ next big hit (well. Most bands would like to have some air-play).
Both Conny Plank’s studio (where Broken Head was recorded) and Cluster’s studio in Forst were in rural settings, which may explain the line ‘Out in the trees’… Eno on a fag break. Cluster themselves are name-checked in this verse and their record label Sky is the last word sung in this track.
How to read the line ‘I lose control and at last I am part of the machinery’? It is a very ‘cybernetic’ lyric and if the studio-setting interpretation here has some truth to it, then becoming part of the studio machine might describe Eno’s frequent references to treating the studio itself as an instrument. Surrendering to the system.
@Falsedog Thanks for this!
@Falsedog Thanks for this!