Seeing as we're in the run up to Samhain (as far as I'm concerned) I thought I'd start an irregular series of posts about albums which have the capacity to chill, and I don't mean Groove Armada or Zero 7. First up is Eno's frankly disturbing Ambient 4: On Land from 1982. Where the fuck was his bald head at around this time? On Land is one of the few albums which I find genuinely difficult to listen to alone in the flat... the whole record whispers 'Look behind you!' or at least 'Did you lock the back door?' Especially 'Lizard Point' (named after a genuinely creepy part of England), 'Shadow' and 'Lantern Marsh'. The idea of Eno going all out to freak out his audience is an highly appealing one, and in terms of dread atmosphere and overall heaviness, On Land is comparable to the respective debuts of Black Sabbath and Free... of which, more later.
