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| Talk Talk - Laughing Stock Band: Talk Talk Tracks: - Myrrhman - Ascension Day - After the Flood - Taphead - New Grass - Runeii Before Its Time Talk Talk's final album was probably meticulously planned and structured - yet somehow it comes across as a spontaneous, flowing jam session. A highly eclectic work, it combines jazz, classical and blues influences, and even seems to anticipate future musical trends such as trip-hop, acid jazz and even industrial ambient. These diverse elements, however, are always used judiciously. Mark Hollis and his fellow musicians understand the importance of Space within the music, and they build up layers and pare them back with remarkable subtlety. An album of focussed passion, with an emotional range sometimes bordering on the spiritual, it's a worthy companion piece to its predecessor 'Spirit of Eden'. Once pigeon-holed into the early 80's synth-pop genre, Talk Talk departed a decade or so later totally transformed. This album is proof positive. A melancholy angel, yearning for a loved one back on Earth.. would listen to this album in heaven. Talk Talk's Laughing Stock is a completely unclassifiable bit of sonic brilliance. Biased? Perhaps, but only due to the fact that I've listened to the album. The songs are tied together by Mark Hollis's wonderfully fragile voice. Silence plays a major roles in songs such as Runeii, while Ascension Day ends with a loud wall of sound only to collapse into the hushed intro of After the Flood. Even with noisy shots of distortion injected into songs, there is a content, Zen-like calm feel to the album. While oftentimes Laughing Stock could be classified as ambient, the music is liquid, twisting and changing constantly. It is by no means accessible, expect no instant gratification, but a focused listener will find that once you hear this album, your life is changed. With an album like this, you won't need to buy anything else for months. This is the sort of album to play at night, staring into the dark, with nothing in mind but the music. A major touchstone for the 90's post rock bands, anyone that considers themselves fans of experimental music owes it to themselves to listen to this album. 45 minutes of obscure, free-from ambience: sheer brilliance! Talk Talk were dropped by EMI after a row over their previous album, the equally brilliant SPIRIT OF EDEN. They turned to Polydor's jazz label, Verve, to release their final album, but executives on the label must have despaired when they realised they had acquired some of the most uncommercial music ever recorded by a rock band. The album was deleted within three months! Fortunately another label has stepped in to Rescue this extraordinary piece. Talk Talk had already entered into studio lore for spending a long and expensive day recording a large brass section, keeping only the sound of a trumpeter clearing spit from his mouthpiece. This is dark music, set to Mark Hollis's lyrics about sin and redemption. I don't bother too much with words personally -- Hollis never makes it very easy for us to follow what his fragile voice is singing about. The music is simply tremendous: spiritual, improvisatory, overflowing with ideas. This is Hollis's Love SUPREME. It is in the same vein, but in my view much better, than Radiohead's KID A. Buy Talk Talk Laughing Stock at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.comJamster - the latest ringtones for your phone! |
