Music From the Penguin Cafe

Very interesting and pleasant. Love how distinctive it is. I feel like I recognise a few melodies. A lovely album. I'll listen to this again.

80s dinner party music for pseuds but better than that sounds.

Entretenido. Conocía canciones suyas posteriores por una banda sonora y por el programa de radio Diálogos 3 creo. Me ha gustado cierto aire musical que puede que haya influenciado bandas sonoras modernas. Lo mismo proviene de algo de música clásica no tengo cultura musical para tanto. Aún así no sé que puntuación darle, si 2 o 3, pero iremos por arriba.

Penguin Cafe Orchestra is doing a lot. It may be doing too much. There’s no one element, in the band or the orchestra that grabs me, and all together at points I even find it off putting. Dialled down a bit it could be a nice background piece. What I can say for it though is that it sounds very modern for 1976.

Dafür mach ich dieses Projekt. Musik finden, die man sonst nie rausgesucht hätte. Interessante Musik, einige Tracks haben mir richtig gut gefallen. Anderen waren leider etwas nervig. Trotzdem 4 Sterne für das kuriose Projekt

I liked this one. Good background music for working. Hard to categorize.

First listen I absolutely HATED this one but on the second go, while it isn’t the best thing I’ve ever heard, it has it’s moments.

Wow, you guys hate this less than I expected.

More fun on paper than in practice to be fair.

Eno's involvement sends it up a star. That's just who I am.

Brilliant. Brings up a lot of thoughts about genre.

When you're a very young child and you listen to music, you don't have any preconceived notions about "what kind of music" you're listening to. Rock, pop, jazz, whatever, you know it all simply as music. I'm leaving out "children's music", which is a thing, but not relevant and typically isn't really in the same world as, say, Aretha Franklin or The Beatles - both of which could be enjoyed by a child, whereas "children's music" is not for a general audience the same way. Likewise, nearly all the world's humans experience melody, rhythm, and the patterns in music in a similar way. I can listen to indigenous music from Africa and "get" it, or Asia, or British Folk... I can even play or sing along with music that doesn't come from my own cultural background, at least in a basic way.

WHAT IS YOUR POINT?

Penguin Cafe Orchestra brings my head to that place. It's just enjoyable music. When I was a kid I enjoyed Henry Mancini, Elton John, and Antonio Carlos Jobim equally. I still do! And I could put PCO in the same category, child or adult. It's all music.

PCO has a surreal quality that all great music does, separating you from the rest of the (sometimes stupid, annoying) regular day-to-day world. There's a quality to the album that is playfully creative, layering instruments in unexpected but perfectly comfortable ways, degrading the simple droning riff then returning to it, abandoning rhythm altogether. The interplay between musicians, as a concept, is another thing PCO works with to expand their scope, beyond the everyday. Playing tightly together is a given in most music, letting the players explore the spaces between the notes or the space around those notes creates a humanistic atmosphere that is really rare. It's a bit more of a challenge to listen to. Worth investing what little of my mind is left in that challenge.

This is that good shit, baby, that pure uncut weird shit. I adore this album

Jede Katzte wimmert musikalischer.

a delightfully strange album

Surprisingly chill and feels like a Spiritualized vibe when it gets really orchestral, but you can tell its got Brian Eno's fingerprints on it

Adore everything about this

This Album has at the same time the most interesting and the most boring moments of music I heard in a while. I can't bring myself to give it a 3, but for sure I won't give it a 5

Really wonderful interplay between the organic and synthetic. Warm lush strings work with cool synth and keyboard tones to create a vibrant, gently thrumming, peice of neo-classical music with shades of ambient experimentalism and jazzy psychedelia. Weird and whimsical, but expertly composed and crafted.

Fuck. Brian. Eno.

Favorite songs: The Sound of Someone You Love Who's Going Away and It Doesn't Matter, Penguin Cafe Single, Chartered Flight

Least favorite songs: Zopf: Milk, Zopf: Coronation, Zopf: In a Sydney Motel

3/5

The sort of music Brian Eno would have made if he wasn't on drugs.

I had never heard of this band or album before, but with Brian Eno involved, I expected something interesting.

This is easily one of the most bizarre albums I’ve ever listened to. Judging by the reviews, I must be missing something—there are plenty of five-star ratings out there. Unfortunately, it won’t be getting one from me.

Musically, some tracks were undeniably beautiful. I really enjoyed Penguin Cafe Single, Zopf from the Colonies, and The Sound of Someone You Love. However, the songs felt like they dragged on endlessly without much variation or progression. I can appreciate its artistry, but ultimately, I found it tedious.

Favorite song: The Sound of Someone You Love—a lovely piece, but it could have been 10 minutes shorter.
Least favorite song: Tracks 3–8 didn’t offer much at all.
Album artwork: The cover is certainly unique.

This was interesting. Not bad, but nothing I would return to. I wouldn’t be opposed to it, but I wouldn’t choose to throw it on.