Robert Fripp and Brian Eno's first collaborative effort was recorded while Eno was hard at work on his first solo album, Here Come the Warm Jets, and it marks not only Fripp's first foray into what would later come to be known as "frippertronics," but it also marks Eno's first experimental/Ambient recording. The music was created using two Revox tape recorders set up to play recorded sounds randomly and on a continuing loop, the volume descending slightly with each iteration in order to create a decay effect. On top of this repetitive yet dynamic soundscape, Fripp's beautifully serpentine guitar solos weave in and out, sometimes joining and melting into the loop themselves. While not entirely original (Terry Riley had experimented with this method years earlier), on No Pussyfooting, this all works to great affect, especially on "The Heavenly Music Corporation" suite, perhaps my favorite piece of "Ambient" music; with its melancholy drone and Fripp's aeronautical guitar antics, this is music paying homage to the depthless beauty of the arbitrary.
