Brian Eno, Roger Eno, Harold Budd, Daniel Lanois: Music For Films (Land)

LET'S NOT mince words; most of these ambienceurs are a fraud, trying to sell us insubstantial ideas that aren't worth listening to by simply turning down the volume and telling us that you don't have to listen to them anyway. Ah, but then there's Eno, who composed or — more often — produced most of the pieces on Music For Films. People seem to see him as this walking mound of eccentricity, but I've always suspected that he's the only truly "sensible" man in music. He would, of course, agree, which is perhaps what makes him eccentric. Eno is also (arguably, if you must), the only person alive who's managed to turn this kind of "sound" into music without sinking irretrievably into the Dulux gloss.