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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Originally conceived as "a series of recordings based on an imaginary culture", My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts finds Talking Heads frontman David Byrne and studio egghead Brian Eno marking time between 1979’s Fear Of Music and the following year’s Remain In Light with a machetes-out excursion into the dense, unexplored ethnic wilderness. Recorded with a cast of virtuoso players that includes bassist Bill Laswell and New York percussionist David Van Tieghem, it’s an album that blurs the boundaries between African rhythms and the electronic avant-garde, a feat made possible thanks to Eno’s cutting-edge studio tool – the sampler. It’s this equipment that provides the "voice" of the record. A series of disembodied voices, in fact - Arabian singers, raging US talk-show hosts, Christian preacher men, field recordings – not just dropped into the music but immersed in it, until it’s impossible to sense the join. Stiffly funky and reliant on electronics, it’s a defiantly modern record, which paradoxically, dates it somewhat next to Byrne’s next work, Talking Heads’ immortal Remain In Light. It remains a fascinating milestone in experimentation, however, its foundation loosing a tremor that can still be heard in everything from Moby’s Play to the teeming ranks of modern hip-hop.--Louis Pattison
Product Description
Digitally remastered in 2006! Landmark 1981 collaboration between the ex-Roxy Music and Talking Heads men, reissued with 7 rare BONUS tracks. A whirlwind exploration of worldbeat 'n' funk-rock, peppered with found-sounds and samples.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Few records can justifiably claim to be "groundbreaking", but here's one - a mesmerising example of two highly creative musicians at the peak of their powers pushing their ideas out to the edge. Using the infectious poly-rhythms and jerky, high tension riffs & vocals that permeated their brilliantly successful collaboration on Talking Heads' "Remain in Light" as their starting point, they mix-in ingenious looped samples and insidious guitar, synthesizer & percussion back-beats to produce something completely unique. Not only like nothing else around at the time but, like all truly great albums, one that hasn't aged with time. Often sounding more like an inventive slice of modern "electronica/dance" it's almost impossible to believe that it was produced 25 years ago... and, of course, a great deal of what's followed since can be traced back to this amazing record.
Darker and far more "left-field" than "Remain in Light", "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" is no easy listen, but with repeat playing it becomes equally addictive... a worthy successor and a wholly successful exploration of just how far Brian Eno's & David Byrne's complex fusions of electronica & rock could be taken. File under "essential, timeless and under-rated slice of musical genius".
25 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This is less a review than a correction to the Amazon review. The line abou Eno having a sampler was bugging me as I was sure that that wasn't the case. Sure enough, a quick scan of the album notes revealed that Eno and Byrne did it all with tape, making it all the more of an achievement. I guess only anoraks like me will care but what the hey. Whichever way you slice it, it's a great album. Also, anyone interested in this might also want to check out 'On The Way To The Peak Of Normal' by Holger Czukay, ex Can bassist. It was also made by manipulating tape and is, like 'Bush of Ghosts' a remarkable album.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
My Life of the Bush of Ghosts is an extraordinary, prescient collection of songs that is almost without peers (although other reviewers here have done a good job of summarising like-minded artists). It is unparalleled in its synthesis of international music styles into a futuristic funk so energetic and vital it is hard to believe it was largely pieced together in a studio in the absence of the (yet-to-be-invented) sampler. If you haven't already experienced this record then this is a fantastic opportunity for you to discover in all its remastered glory - although I have to say I wasn't blown away by the quality update here. Often you expect remasterings to totally revitalise older recordings but there is no such epithany here - maybe because there was little wrong with the original recording, I don't know. Unlike previous reviewers I was not familiar with the track 'Qu'ran' and may be wrong in my assumption that this was in fact removed from the album tracklist a long time ago, and not specifically for this edition. It is also worth mentioning (as it hasn't been said here already) that this edition includes a number of bonus tracks from the original sessions that are worthwhile from a completist point of view if nothing else. Some of these are just sonic doodles and others are fully realised tracks that may not meet the standard of the rest of the album but are pretty good in their own right.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Immensely important album that I'm pleased to revisit
I bought this albumn when it first came out on good old vinyl. At the time I was bowled over by it's innovation and for once recognised it to be a seminal work from the start. Read more
Published 15 months ago by S. Tracey
Great Bushtucker
This is an album i,ve always loved anyway,but your
price was brilliant,as was the time etc to receive
Top Banana!
price was brilliant,as was the time etc to receive
Top Banana!
Published on 13 May 2010 by Mr. T. F. Rees
Music with "Found" Voices and Instruments
Eno and Byrne described the sampling (I know they did it manually with tape rather than with a sampler machine) as using "found voices and sounds. Read more
Published on 23 Nov 2008 by Numinous Ugo
in the Bushell of Ghosts
I think I ought to counter the effusive responses here and put in my opinion, for what its worth. Yes, this album does sound ahead of its time, and yes, there is some beautiful... Read more
Published on 28 Nov 2007 by Steve
Visionary work
Spacehopper "aldorb" or whatever you're name is: you need to calm down. This is not a great album ruined, nor a sorry excuse for a re-release. Read more
Published on 11 Oct 2007 by stark raven maven
One Of The All Time Great Albums Ruined
As this is one of the most important albums of all time I was astounded that it omits one of the original songs, Qu'ran. Read more
Published on 6 Dec 2006 by Yossarian
An album ahead of its time
This is one of the all time greats, still sounding ahead of the game 26 years after it was originally released. Read more
Published on 26 Sep 2006 by Mark T
Groundbreaking and still fresh
As others have already said, this album was groundbreaking at the time it was made. But what is amazing is that it still sounds so fresh and exciting after all these years. Read more
Published on 2 Sep 2006 by Antony Meadley
Lets get this straight....oh, and buy the cd right now
Qu'ran was only ever available on the first VINYL pressing of this album and its accompanying cassette version. Read more
Published on 28 July 2006 by Mr. Christopher M. Allen
Where have I been the last 25 years ?
Oh my gahhhhd !
This is so cutting edge yet its over 25 years old - where have I been ?
Buy it now & get an education
Yessir!
This is so cutting edge yet its over 25 years old - where have I been ?
Buy it now & get an education
Yessir!
Published on 17 Jun 2006 by S. Frith
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