Brian Eno + David Byrne: My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts (Remastered + Expanded) CD Track Listing

A list by checkmate

Brian Eno + David Byrne My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts (Remastered + Expanded) (1981)
My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts (Remastered + Expanded)\n2007 Nonesuch Records, Inc.\n\nOriginally Released February 1981\nCD Edition Released \nRemastered + Expanded CD Edition Released April 11, 2006\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: A pioneering work for countless styles connected to electronic, ambient, and third-world music, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts expands on the fourth-world concepts of Jon Hassell and Brian Eno's work with a whirlwind 45 minutes of worldbeat/funk-rock (with the combined talents of several percussionists and bassists including Bill Laswell, Tim Wright, David van Tieghem, and Talking Heads' Chris Frantz) that's also heavy on the samples -- from radio talk-show hosts, Lebanese mountain singers, preachers, exorcism ceremonies, Muslim chanting, and Egyptian pop. It's also light years away from the respectful, preservationist angles of previous generations' field recordings and folk song gatherers. The songs on My Life in the Bush of Ghosts present myriad elements from around the world in the same jumbled stew, without regard for race, creed, or color. As such, it's a tremendously prescient record for the future development of music. [A 2006 remastering improved the sound, added seven previously unreleased audio tracks recorded at the same time, and also included the film clip for Mea Culpa by Bruce Conner, whose work exhibits the same plundering aesthetic as David Byrne and Eno's.] -- John Bush\n\n\nAmazon.com essential recording\nReleased in 1981, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts is a collaboration between ambient pioneer Brian Eno and Talking Heads frontman David Byrne. On Ghosts, the two strong-willed musicians manage to come to a meeting of the minds, blending Byrne's herky-jerky funk with Eno's atmospheric sound sculpting. More than anything, this is a large album, intent on pushing itself to the front of the listener's consciousness. Abundant percussion (everything from booming tribal drums to eerie electronics) reverberates in the background while Byrne and Eno toss all manner of found sounds, field recordings, and radio broadcasts into the mix. What results is a groundbreaking album that introduced a generation to the dazzling possibilities offered by electronic recording techniques. Highlights include "The Jezebel Spirit," an electro-funk workout that uses a recording of an exorcism as its focal point, and "Very, Very Hungry," a mysteriously ethereal display of electronic percussion and large-scale sonic architecture. --S. Duda \n\nAmazon.com Product Description\nBrian Eno and David Byrne's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts appears downright visionary. With its "found" vocals, cut-and-paste arrangements, funked-up rhythms and embrace of influences from all around the globe, the duo's controversial work anticipated the creative cross-pollination and technological innovation of contemporary dance music, world music, hip hop and alternative rock. You can hear echoes of My Life in the Bush of Ghosts in the anthems Moby built around vintage vocal samples, in the outrageously exotic beats of Missy Elliot and Timbaland, in the Middle Eastern accented chill-out tracks of Thievery Corporation or Bjork's otherworldly soundscapes. \n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nAn Influential Album Gets Its Due, April 15, 2006 \nBy Kevin O'Conner\nReissues don't get much better than this. \n\nFirst, the sound quality is much improved over the first CD reissue, warmer and more balanced, with slightly better definition. \n\nSecond, three of the tracks are actually longer than on the original release. "Mea culpa" is almost a minute and a half longer. "Regiment" is about 15 seconds longer, thanks to an extended intro. "The carrier" is 43 seconds longer, including an extra vocal in the middle that, upon comparison, was clearly excised from the original version. (In addition, "Moonlight in glory" takes a bit longer to fade out, though it does not otherwise seem to differ from the original.) \n\nThird, the rather thick booklet actually has liner notes, with essays by David Byrne and Brian Eno (though theirs seem to be mostly David Byrne) and David Toop. You don't see liner notes much anymore, so this is a real treat. \n\nFourth, the new cover art on the slipcase perfectly illustrates the nature of the contents of the package. The image is actually that of the original album cover, only updated using current technology. \n\nFifth, according to the official web site created for this reissue, "David Byrne has personally overseen the tracklisting and remastering". I have seen too many artist catalogs remastered and reissued without the participation of the artists themselves, and the results are usually lacking in some respect. This is not the case here. \n\nFinally, the video for "Mea culpa" is included. And at a decent resolution, too. \n\nI have only two real complaints about this remastered edition. One is the omission of the track "Qu'ran", though I realize that particular choice was made back in the late eighties, when the first UK edition of the CD was released. It also would have been nice if the liner notes had included a mention of this track and the reasons for its absence, even if only in passing. In any event, if this track is a must-have for you, I recommend tracking down a used copy of the first US CD edition (Sire Records, 6093-2). The other is the omission of the credits identifying the voices used. David Toop mentions one of the sources in his essay, but none of the others are specifically mentioned anywhere. \n\nHighly recommended. \n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nROCKIN', YOU SAY?, May 22, 2006 \nBy Kerry Leimer (Makawao, Hawaii United States)\nI was surprised to see a review of this reissue in "Rolling Stone" of all places. The review's writer seemed somewhat at sea. (I hesitate to describe him as a "reviewer" or "critic" since, as we will shortly see, the discipline he applies to developing his opinions are severely limited). Apparently this chap was unable to twig on to what's happening here and gave the effort a less than three-star rating based on -- get this -- his keenly articulated insight that MLITBOG "wasn't rockin' enough". I guess if you believe that "rockin'" is the single criterion for anything and everything then those guiding lights of Commerce trumps Culture, who know the measure of everything, will eventually let you have your very own copy of "ROCKIN'! --The Industry's Guide to What Matters in Music, Entertainment, Food and Fashion, Etc. -- One Word Edition". But only if you take an oath to Obey. \n\nOf course for the rest of us so far removed from the towers of Stone, there's always a bit of an issue in evaluating any form of expression because it requires some effort to determine both the intention and the result -- and then measure the gap between the two. It's also nice to have some context bigger than last week to consider. I'm going out on what I imagine to be a rather thick and well-developed limb, not far off the ground and in complete confidence to be working without a supporting ladder, rope, parachute or big fluffy cushions to break a potential fall, when I say that it seems unlikely that "rockin'" was one of the primary goals here. \n\nFor example, we first hear Eno's use of this "found object" technique on "Before and After Science". On "Kurt's Rejoinder" during which Percy Jones' bass meets up with Dave Mattacks' drums, Eno uses a recording of Kurt Schwitters -- an original member of the Dada movement -- as the vocal in what can only be termed an audio "readymade". "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" takes this aesthetic to new levels of sophistication and deliberate manipulation, and is in fact kin to many art and art music traditions of the 20th Century geared at times to encouraging non-linear processes, trusting an unforeseen outcome and even placing the artist's personality at some remove from utterly dominating all aspects of the created work. Its heuristic tendencies don't derive from a rock sensibility and the importance of a rock sensibility here is at best minimal. In effect, many of the rigidly compartmentalized rhythmic components seem designed to be the absolute antithesis of typical rock forms. So, in addition to some remarkable music, the record's value also lies in bringing this perspective within the reach of a more egalitarian audience. \n\nRolling Stone's critical arrogance aside, "Ghosts" was and is a singularly winning experiment and these remasters are a huge help in clearing up the sound and structure -- there are even a few spots where voices are revealed which were not evident on the original. It's also great to have the single included ("Very, Very Hungry" which here replaces "Qu'ran" -- no offense! spellcheck tells me it should be Qur'an) as well as the other tracks, some of which have surfaced Here There and Everywhere over the years. Needless to add, a disc well worth having and well worth thinking about here in Century 21. \n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nA well-deserved 25th anniversary reissue for the groundbreaking album, 01/20/2007 \nBy Paul Allaer (Cincinnati)\nBrian Eno, producer of the Talking Heads' early albums, and David Byrne, singer-songwriter of the Talking Heads, take a left turn and found further common ground in making this groundbreaking album. First released in 1981, the album receives a long deserved reissue for its 25th anniversary. \n\nThe 2006 release of "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" (18 tracks, 60 min.) is more than just a standard reissue. Personally supervised by David Byrne, this is a reworking of the original album, with 7 new tracks and a new tracklisting. The now 18 tracks are now divided up in "3 sides". It bears noting that much of the album was recorded before the Talking Heads' "Remain in Light", but released afterwards (for technical reasons). Listen again to "Remain in Light" and you'll see how much influence "My Life" had on that album. As to this reissue, everthing is done first class: the remastered sound is impeccable, the 28 page booklet is full of interesting information, starting with an excerpt from author Amos Tutuola's 1952 book "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts", from which the album takes its inspiration, to "The Making of" extensive liner notes by Byrne and Eno themselves. \n\nIn all, this is surely the definitive version of "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" (even with the regrettable omission of the "Qu'run" track). The album has proven over the years to be not merely enormously influential, but better yet thoroughly enjoyable and sounds as fresh today as it did when this came out 25 years ago. Essential for any music fan.\n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nMaybe that's what artists do, May 24, 2006 \nBy Robert Carlberg (Seattle)\nNot since the Beatles reissues has a remastering provided such a dramatic improvement. Although it doesn't say so, I'd suspect engineer Greg Calbi (who mastered the original album) went back to the original 24-track masters, meticulously cleaned up each individual track, then recombined them digitally for maximum clarity. These don't sound like no safety masters! Vocals, synth lines, percussion and bass all stand out in fresh relief. Comparing this issue to the 1990 Sire CD (or even the 1980 LP) is like the Claritin ad, lifting a haze you didn't even know was there. \n\nThe track layout follows the 1981 re-issue, which replaced the track "Qu'ran" with the single B-side "Very Very Hungry" after the Islamic Council of Great Britain complained. Interesting that 25 years later (in these days of Danish cartoons) we still can't afford to offend. \n\nThe seven bonus tracks are mostly familiar. "Pitch to Voltage" is called "On The Road to Zagora" on the widely-circulated bootleg of outtakes "Ghosts," "Two Against Three" is "The Friends of Amos Tutola" and "Number 8 Mix" is "Les Hommes Ne Le Sauront Jamais." "Defiant" is a radically remixed "Qu'ran" with a different vocal. "New Feet" showed up on Eno's 1980 KPFA interview (as untitled). "Vocal Outtakes" is 0:36 of exactly that and "Solo Guitar with Tin Foil" sounds like Byrne testing a long delay. Still these tracks make a nice adjunct, and needless to say, sound WAY better than on the bootleg. \n\nThe only tracks missing are the real "Qu'ran" and "Into The Spirit World" ("The Jezebel Spirit" with the original Kathryn Kuhlman vocals, which her estate still refuses to license.) \n\nI haven't mentioned the music yet. Somehow, if you're reading this, I doubt I need to. \n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nSkip in "Regiment"?, April 25, 2006 \nBy L. Simon "The Same Yest!" (Boise, ID)\nI'm so glad I picked up this re-issue. It sounds sharp, clean, and fresh. There's much greater clarity than the vinyl and earlier cd release I have. And, as one person already noted, some of the mixes are a bit different from the originals. Track 3, "Regiment," for instance has an extended intro, which I love. HOWEVER, at 55 seconds into that song there is a skip, some kind of glitch that jumps the beat. As a drummer, I noticed this immediately and it really bugs me. Does anyone else out there notice this? Or did I somehow get a defective cd? Check it out! Listen carefully to the beat and you'll hear what I'm talking about (unless I happen to have a defective disc somehow). \nBy the way, "The Jezebel Spirit" still gives me chills and creeps me out (younger people would not know that this came out a few years after the huge popularity in the 70s of The Exorcist movie). Also to put this album in context, you need to listen to Byrne's music for The Catherine Wheel, especially the stuff with John Miller Chernoff, author of "African Rhythm and African Sensibility," a book I still find worthwhile. Oh, and you must read the book by Amos Tutuola, "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts," for a truly remarkable, terrifying, and beautiful story--kind of like an African Alice in Wonderland, but with grotesque, surrealistic absurdity. \n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nWelcome back, old friend!, April 17, 2006 \nBy Dean W. Estes "xoconostle" (San Francisco, CA USA)\n\nSo much has been written about this important and still-enjoyable album that I could hardly hope to add anything of significance, so I'll limit my comments to some random anecdotes. It's a delight to hear this vastly improved release so quickly on the heels of the excellent remasters of the Talking Heads catalogue. \n\nThe track "Qu'ran" was deleted from the album at the request of a Muslim group in the UK. Mr. Eno hasn't said much about this over the years, except to indicate that the excision was made out of respect for the faith of others. Obviously, that doesn't address the potential offense that some Christians might have taken regarding the appropriation of "black preacher" vocals, but then, so far as I'm aware there have never been objections to "Help Me Somebody," only enthusiastic praise over the decades. \n\nThe now-clich?d use of "black preacher" samples on dance tracks started here (well, as inspired by Steve Reich's "Come Out" and "It's Gonna Rain" from the late 1960s.) \n\nAlthough it's unlikely that a legal release of "Jezebel Spirit" with the original Kathryn Kuhlman vocal will ever be released, it's very much worth hearing, if a bootleg recording happens to find you. The drama and conviction in her voice are quite spooky, in contrast to the somewhat "disco-ized" official release with the exorcist's voice, which to my mind sounds more like a humorously naughty string of double-entendres than anything intimidating. \n\nThe track "Very Very Hungry" that was used to replace "Qu'ran" was originally the b-side of the 12" version of "The Jezebel Spirit." \nFor years this superb track was only known to hardcore collectors. \nIt may not be as dramatically compelling as "Qu'ran," but it holds its own as well as anything else on "side 2" of "Ghosts." \n\nThe "extra" male vocal that now appears on "The Carrier" is a snippet of the original sample that was to be used for the entire track. I have a recording of the "Bush of Ghosts" works in progress from c. 1980 that makes this clear. These recordings were played by Mr. Eno in an interview with Charles Ahmikanian on KPFA while Eno was in San Francisco to give lectures on "The History of the Recording Studio as a Compositional Tool," (As a trivia point, Eno played the *live* recording of Jimi Hendrix' "Star Spangled Banner" during that interview, and was actually moved to tears ... he had to take a moment to regain composure.) \n\nThis is the rare re-issue that modifies original material to its improvement, as opposed to providing the mere novelty of a new version. This isn't a cheap gimmick to revive sales of a classic; it's a proper re-introduction, well-timed. If you don't already know this album, you can trust that it still holds up as an amazingly funky and soulful excursion into the influence of world traditions in an avant/pop context, not just as an influential relic. This album is still alive in the house of musical spirits. \n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nAn Influential Recording, Even if it isn't Enjoyable., January 3, 2001 \nBy Alan Koslowski (Seattle, WA)\n\nIn many respects, this album deserves the lavish praise it has received from many critics. Listening to this album, it is obvious that many prominent 1990s techno/electronica and rap artists were strongly influenced by it. MLINBOG is a dense collage of samples (from many different sources), polyethnic and polyrhythmic percussion, funk, and inventive synthetic noise. Since it obviously has been such an influential record, it is defintely worth listening to.\nMLINBG isn't quite as groundbreaking as so many people think it is. In the late 1960s-mid 1970s, a German avant-garde band named Can experimented with electronic music in a similar manner. They also dabbled with Third World percussion, though in more delicate, subtle manner than Byrne and Eno do here. In fact, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts sounds somewhat similar to another album, Movies (1980), by Can band member Holger Czukay. Considering this, MLINBOG is more of a progression rather than a truly groundbreaking work.\n\nByrne and Eno explored similar musical territory on the Talking Heads album, Remain in Light (1980). That record is adventurous and often challenging, but also highly listenable because of Byrne's infectious, focused songwriting (albeit quirky and unusual relative to most pop music). Remain in Light can be viewed as a premise for MLITBOG, taking the music to experimental extremes. But while MLITBOG is even more audacious, it seems unfocused, often approaching tedious monotony. It feels more like an experiment rather than a coherent album. On each track, Byrne and Eno create interesting textures, but they are just textures, not songs. The music is often impenetrable and sounds polymerized. One of things that usually elevated Eno above his peers was his sense of humanity. Here, he and Byrne are perilously close to the mechanical territory of a Kraftwerk/Depeche Mode variety (though MLINBOG in more inventive than anything those groups ever came up with). My Life in the Bush of Ghosts isn't usually inviting or emotive.\n\nDespite it's flaws, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts is of strong interest for listeners of techno, trance, electronica, rap, and experimental music (as is most of Eno's work). Even if it isn't as groudbreaking as many people think it is, MLINBOG is still a solid progression in the context of experimental music. The whole may be less than the sum of it's parts, but the parts themselves are respectable. It may be just an experiment, but it's an important experiment. \n\n\nHalf.com Details \nContributing artists: Bill Laswell, Chris Frantz, David Van Tieghem, Mingo Lewis \nProducer: Brian Eno, David Byrne \n\nAlbum Notes\nThis is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.\n\nPersonnel: David Byrne (guitar, synthesizer, bass guitar, drums, percussion); Brian Eno (guitar, synthesizer, bass guitar, drums, percussion); Tim Wright, Bill Laswell, Busta Jones (bass instrument); Prairie Prince, David Van Tieghem (drums, percussion); Chris Frantz, John Cooksey (drums); Jose Rossy (congas, agogo); Steve Scales (congas, percussion); Mingo Lewis (bata); Dennis Keeley (bodhran).\n\nRecording information: 1979 - 1980.\n\nEno was a key figure in the development of Talking Heads, producing some of their most innovative albums. This collaboration with head Head Byrne built on the sonic ground the two had already broken together via their well established working relationship. The pair couldn't have known how influential MY LIFE IN THE BUSH OF GHOSTS would be in the next two decades.\nDeconstructing the avant-funk of the Heads' REMAIN IN LIGHT, Byrne and Eno recorded polyrhythmic backing tracks similar to that effort. Instead of creating lyrics or melodies to lay over them, the duo turned to "found sounds" and voices, looping everything from radio talk show conversations to Muslim chants atop the rhythm bed, before anyone even knew what a sampler was. The subsequent impact on everything, from electronica to World music to whatever Bill Laswell is doing this week, was inestimable. The most important thing is that all this high-minded studio wizardry works on a very immediately satisfying level.\n\nIndustry Reviews\nRanked #36 in NME's list of the 50 Greatest Albums Of The '80s.\nNew Musical Express (09/25/1993)\n\n[I]t's the unidentified voices seeping in from the haunted boundaries of American talk radio that capture our attention and that now seem to speak to us about another, still uncharted world.\n\n\n5 stars out of 5 -- Byrne and Eno's collaboration drips with emotional intensity....The feelings don't come directly from them but from the found voices of Pentecostal preachers and Algerian Muslims that the duo harvested from American radio and ethnic field recordings.\n\n\n5 stars out of 5 -- The disturbingly funky exotic stew that resulted was mind-bending in its day and remains so now.\n\n\n[T]he remastered GHOSTS feels haunting, hypnotic, and fresh 25 years later. -- Grade: A-\n\n\nROLLING STONE REVIEW\nMarshall McLuhan would have loved the concept: sample the global media blitz, edit, add polyethnic rhythm tracks, name the results after a novel by Nigerian author Amos Tutuola and recycle them into the blitz. Talking Heads' David Byrne and audio eclectic Brian Eno have made vocal tracks from snippets of radio broadcasts and Middle Eastern music (the way Robert Fripp turned his neighbors' fighting into "NY3"), then set them in and against percussive, repetitive mind-funk designed more for listening than dancing. My Life in the Bush of Ghosts is an undeniably awesome feat of tape editing and rhythmic ingenuity. But, like most "found" art, it raises stubborn questions about context, manipulation and cultural imperialism.\n\nWhat's the difference between using evangelists' rhetoric as lyrics (for "Once in a Lifetime" on Talking Heads' Remain in Light) and using the voice of New Orleans preacher Reverend Paul Morton in "Help Me Somebody"? Plenty. "Once in a Lifetime" is obviously Byrne's creation, complete on its own terms. "Help Me Somebody" is a falsified ritual, with its development truncated and its rhythm deformed. A pseudodocument, it teases us by being "real." Even more annoying is "The Jezebel Spirit," which utilizes a recorded exorcism. Byrne and Eno latch onto the rhythm of the exorcist's dry laugh for the backup, but they fade out before we find out what happened to the possessed woman--which would have been a lot more interesting than the chattery band track. Blasphemy is beside the point: Byrne and Eno have trivialized the event.\n\nStill, electronic music does have an honorable tradition of messing with speech sounds. "America Is Waiting," "Mea Culpa" and "Come with Us"--rhythmic nuggets from an editorial, a talk show and yet another evangelist -- are smart, funny-creepy transformations, justifiable because they don't promise a narrative payoff. But messing with music is a more dubious proposition. You'd think that if Algerian Muslims had wanted accompaniment while they chanted the Koran ("Qu'ran"), they'd have invented some. Or if Lebanese singer Dunya Yusin craved a backbeat, she could have found one (Byrne and Eno's "Regiment" sounds like something from the Midnight Express soundtrack).\n\nWhen they don't succumb to exoticism or cuteness -- luckily, that's most of the album -- the Byrne-Eno backups are fascinating, complementing the sources without absorbing them. David Byrne and Brian Eno pile up riffs and cross-rhythms to build drama, yet they keep the cuts uncluttered and mysterious. As sheer sound (ignoring content and context), many of the selections are heady and memorable. My Life in the Bush of Ghosts does make me wonder, though, how Byrne or Eno would react if Dunya Yusin spliced together a little of "Animals" and a bit of "The Paw Paw Negro Blowtorch," then added her idea of a suitable backup. Does this global village have two-way traffic? (RS 340 -- Apr 2, 1981) -- JON PARELES
This misc cd contains 19 tracks and runs 66min 22sec.
Freedb: 1c0f8c13
Buy: from Amazon.com

Categories

Latest lists

Brian Eno + David Byrne: My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts (Remastered + Expanded) CD Track Listing

Category

Tags

cyList

Legal