Day 0485 - My Life in the Bush of Ghosts

David Byrne and Brian Eno "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" (1981)

Having enjoyed the individual works of Eno and Byrne; I was keen to hear this one.  The album, described by Eno as "psychedelic Africa" was delayed in its release due clearance issues with the various copyrighted materials sampled.  As a result, the Talking Heads'  "Remain in Light" album (also produced by Eno), though recorded later, was released before this collaboration.

Whereas that Talking Heads album was built on a foundation of jam sessions among the various musicians, this is much more a studio construct, formed around samples and based heavily on Holger Czukay's "movies" album.  An interesting album to be sure, but I'd say I really prefer Byrne in more of a traditional song-based vein, whether it's with the Heads, with St Vincent or as a solo artist.

Day 0459 - Peter Gabriel III (AKA "Melt")

Peter Gabriel "Peter Gabriel III" (AKA "Melt") (1980)

 
Gabriel was well clear of his Genesis 'Prog' sound, and with his first two relatively quirky and eccentric solo albums also behind him, he seemed content to settle into a groove as a purveyor of interesting and innovative art pop-rock in the vein of Berlin-Bowie and Brian Eno. He even uses Eno-regular Robert Fripp on guitar, along with his Genesis bandmate (and vocal replacement) Phil Collins.

PG experiments with world music (sampling African chants for one song) and new technology, playing around with drum machines, and studio trickery to produce an album that seems a collision of human with machine.

Day 0388 - Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel "Peter Gabriel" (1977)

 
Gabriel's first release following his release from the perceived creative shackles of Genesis (and the first of FOUR albums simply titled "Peter Gabriel"); and he hit the ground running.  Crafting 9 diverse musical tracks, starting with a fairly theatrical piece "Moribund the Burgermeister" where he swings from his natural singing voice to a deep gravelly 'character' delivery. "Waiting on the big one" and "Here comes the flood" are deliciously epic in feel, and "Excuse me" seems stylistically like it could have been a Randy Newman-penned novelty hit.

As I've said before, this is the kind of solo album I enjoy, where the artist is willing to explore various musical terrains with only themselves to please and (in the case of a solo artist from a band) do something other than what his/her band would normally be doing.

For such an immensely talented and creative guy, he didn't come up with the most imaginative album title... though maybe he just wanted to take 'ownership' of the music that little bit more by slapping his name on it.

Day 0384 - Heroes

David Bowie ""Heroes"" (1977)

A continuation of Bowie's 'Berlin Trilogy' (started with "Low") and another mix of avant-pop and atmospheric instrumentals.  While the songs on the first half are musically busy, vocally Bowie engages in some melodic minimalism.  I mean the title track vocal melody largely sits between two notes while the music gives it mood and context. "Sons of the silent age" is a bit more exploratory.

The instrumental tracks move even further into Eno/Krautrock territory and away from Bowie-the-popstar, with no obvious vocal tracks (lyrical or otherwise) featured.

Day 0369 - Before and After Science

Brian Eno "Before and After Science" (1977)

Eno collaborates with a catalogue of artists including Robert Fripp and even Phil Collins. As with his other solo albums that I've listened to so far, he manages to incorporate interesting audio textures, avant garde techniques and, here, some occasionally virtuosic performances into a cohesive and often quite 'pop' sounding whole.

This album doesn't stand out above the other two of his that I've heard on this list, but that says more about the consistency of quality of Eno's solo output than any particular shortcoming of this album.

Fun fact, Eno would go on to produce the second Talking Heads album, and this record features a track "King's Lead Hat" which is an anagram of that band's name.

Day 0274 - Larks' Tongues in Aspic

King Crimson "Larks' Tongues in Aspic" (1973)

What the hell did I just listen to? ...so much musical excess!

The opening (title) track is a journey from tinkling finger cymbals through various musical movements including some fantastic bass work.  Bass seems to be a featured instrument in many of the prog-rock albums I've listened to so far on the list.

This first track gives way to more mellow songs.  There's the delicate and beautiful "Book of Saturday", with it's graceful violin and backwards guitar duet; the proggy ballad of 'Exiles'; the rock riffs of 'Easy Money'; and again the proggy excesses of 'The Talking Drum' and the second part of the title track.

Brilliant album.