THE OBLIQUE STRATEGIES OF BRIAN ENO AND PETER SCHMIDT. FIRST ISSUED IN 1975 AND THEN AGAIN IN THIS SLIGHTLY REVISED 1978 EDITION. THESE HUNDRED OR SO CARDS GO SOME WAY TO EXPLAINING THE DECISIONS THAT MADE SOUNDS THAT MADE DAVID BOWIE'S LOW, HEROES AND LODGER ALBUMS SO STRANGELY SATISFYING.

The box. It is very desirable. We have had a few of these early original editions and they are not easy to part with. 

Peter Schmidt was an artist and lecturer who became a friend and close collaborator of Brian Eno. It is his artwork on Eno's Taking Tiger Mountain album. Schmidt died in 1980 and these cards are, of course, far more often credited solely to Eno, but we are sure we remember reading a quote from Eno somewhere where he talks of Schmidt having a card set called Thoughts Behind The Thoughts... so credit where it is due and let's see some of their Oblique Strategies. 

Starting with something slightly inside of the ordinary as there are many such regular cards in the deck but we tend to only show the more obtuse and wryly amusing examples like...
 

Good one.

For the record, Tony Visconti produced the Bowie Berlin albums with assistance from Brian Eno in sound textures or 'avant-garde nonsense', as guitarist Carlos Alomar would have it. We don't know if Eno was pulling cards or just saying stuff like Do we need holes? We do know that Bowie's vocal on Sound and Vision doesn't come in for a full minute and a half after the three minute hit single has started. Big hole. 

This card is a favourite. Any and all of these should be considered while listening to New Career In A New Town, the song that starts like Kraftwerk and then... imagine a multiple pile-up collision where all the vehicles continue at the same speed in one mangled direction. 

Indeed. Like pulling cards from this 1978 box in 2026. Everything old is new again. 

If we were Eno we would have saved this one for Bono, when he starting working with U2. As for his time producing Coldplay records... there is a card saying Do something boring...

That's it. That's what you get. 1970's Oblique Strategies are massively rare. This box is right here, right now on the button below.