Latest releases reviewed
DAVID BYRNE & BRIAN ENO My Life in the Bush of Ghosts EMI ****
On its release in 1981, this collaboration with ambient pioneer Brian Eno and Talking Heads frontman David Byrne was described by Rolling Stone as "an undeniably awesome feat of tape editing and rhythmic ingenuity". 25 years on and it's been remixed, remastered and reupholstered - there are seven new tracks here. By no means a conventional album, there are all sorts of booming tribal percussion here mixed with "found sounds", which range from field recordings to radio chatshow broadcasts. One moment you're somewhere in Lebanon, the next in downtown New York. This was viewed as so strange when it first came out that a new term, "fourth world music", had to be coined to describe it. It's all very swirly, very sci-fi and very Afro-Arabic. And it's where Moby got most of his musical ideas from.
Brian Boyd
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