Talk Talk - Spirit Of Eden

[Roth-Handle Studios]

Yeah, I know. I love the album but despise their copycat attitude. If you can't come up with a unique way of recording your music you might as just quit.

Right?

// Mattias

As far as the creative process is concerned, Talk Talk (together with producer Tim Friese-Greene) were merely doing what Miles Davis and Teo Macero had done with Bitches Brew some twenty years earlier: record and then edit / assemble afterwards. Same approach.

Spirit is a wondrous album, as is Laughing Stock (which I prefer).

[at least 100 dead]

^
Fake computer kids should pack it in.

Seriously, isn't it fascinating that one approach can yield such differing results? It's all about the players indeed (or, rather, about the interaction between a given group of players): How well do they listen to each other? Are they willing to take chances, to abandon tried & true licks in favor of things they haven't played before. This, to me, is where music becomes truly exciting.

Miles Davis famously once asked McLaughlin to play as though he had never touched a guitar (for the Silent Way session IIRC) and the resultant sound has a searching quality that (to me) transcends a lot of rehearsal intensive music.

[the winter tree]

SOE is the direction that I wish Traffic would have gone. Some of it actually reminds me of Traffic a la "Low Spark of High Healed Boys". Steve Winwood played organ on several songs on the previous TT album Colour of Spring.

[Scrotum Scissor]

Some of it actually reminds me of Traffic a la "Low Spark of High Healed Boys". Steve Winwood played organ on several songs on the previous TT album Colour of Spring.

Yes on both. Especially if one thinks in terms of Traffic tunes like "Low Spark" and "Dream Gerrard"; the latter in particular searches for a boundless form of sorts, something TT would trace to perfection on the final two records - although most things happening on Laughing Stock leave fairly little to chance and were all part of the coordinates. This differs a bit from SoE in that respect.

[Kcrimso]

^sort of a reverse Genesis ;-)

Scott Walker started out very pop and starting in the late 70s started going further out there with every release. His 1984 release, "Climate of Hunter", while still somewhat of a " pop" record, was his last that had any resemblance to a main stream release.
His next ,"Tilt" , departed completely from his previous work and every subsequent release has gotten further out there and he's pretty much abandoned vocals.

What do you mean "abandoned vocals". He has made soundtrack albums without vocals but Bisch Bosch (2012) and Soused (2014) are full of his singing.

[the winter tree]

^I meant he left his more conventional vocalizing behind. I should have been clearer.

[Kcrimso]

^I meant he left his more conventional vocalizing behind. I should have been clearer.

Ok, well that is of course true.

[NogbadTheBad]

Only listened to it a few times, I'll probably end up buying it. Seems like its a grower for me.

[miamiscot]

I prefer Laughing Stock but Spirit Of Eden is righteous too.

What a great band!!!

[Nightingalesandbombers]

I found Laughing Stock too dissonant for me to keep but still have Spirit of Eden. Colour of Spring was a great transition album of their style change and the easiest of those three for me to listen to.

[at least 100 dead]

I found Laughing Stock too dissonant for me to keep but still have Spirit of Eden.

That's a pity. IMO, LS is actually very melodic; especially "New Grass" is one of the sweetest and purest tunes I know. There's an almost redemptive force at play between the nervous, jazzy ride cymbal and the guitar...

[the winter tree]

I'm still trying to decipher the printed and sung lyrics on SOE ;-)

[at least 100 dead]

I'm still trying to decipher the printed and sung lyrics on SOE ;-)

Even after deciphering the syntax, the semantics remain oblique.