Customer Reviews
A tasty takeout from the Cafe - By: jol legend, 07 Sep 2007 
The PCO's debut album is a fascinating record of mostly instrumental music that combines elements of classical, folk, jazz, & minimalism. Many of the tunes, like the opening "Penguin Café Single", sound familiar like you've heard them before (and often you havein a film or commercial) but they are littered with unexpected twists & turns that lend an edge to the music.
Whereas some instrumental music spawns somewhat random titles the marvellously titled "The Sound of Someone You Love Who's Going Away & It Doesn't Matter" describes the album's brooding 12-minute masterpiece perfectly. A heartrending melody is lightly plucked on guitar before being gradually joined by strings & jazz lounge electric piano. Following a trademark interlude of sawing violins & other avant-garde noises, bliss is restored with the return of the haunting theme. My favourite PCO trackin their whole repertoire & worth the admission price alone.
The other substantial composition is the seven piece "Zopf" suite. The collection includes "In a Sydney Motel" which could have come from one of executive producer Brian Eno's own mid-70s pop albums. The beautiful "Surface Tension" is PCO at their economical best. "Milk" with its looped samples & insistent bass is reminiscent of krautrock band Can & the ambient "Pigtail" is similarly unusual. "From the Colonies" & "Giles Farnaby's Dream" are typical pieces of playful Penguin whimsy, & "Coronation" is noteworthy for vocals by Emily Young, the eminent sculptor responsible for the surreal penguin headed figures that frequent the Penguin Café.
Something rich and strange - By: Mr. A. Pomeroy, 28 Mar 2000 A unique & strange record, even by the standards of the pan-musical Penguin Café Orchesta, 'Music from the Penguin Café' was originally released on Brian Eno's 'Obscure' record labelin the mid-seventies, by mail order only.
'MFTPC' is hard to describe, & very few retrospectives of the group's career (sadly, leader Simon Jeffes diedin 1997) give this more than a passing mention, as it's almost beyond criticism - a totally self-contained universe of music, mixing primitive electronics, Brian Eno-style ambient, classical & folk to form a side-step into a timeless, alien environment. Surreal & dreamlike, it has a very distinctive 'live' sound, with birdsong faintly audiblein the background of some of the tracks. Imagine Michael Nyman's wiggiest moments, as produced by Brian Eno's second assistant tape operator, & you're half-way there.
After this (and the similar follow-up, 'Penguin Café Orchestra') the PCO settled down & become much more conservative - their later work is tuneful, folky, & much less experimental.
