My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (Expanded) [Enhanced, Original recording remastered]

 

 

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On this 1981 collaboration, Byrne & Eno are assisted by eleven musicians on instruments like bass, bodhran, bata sticks, congas, drums, guitars, synths, various percussion and found objects. The tracks (they're not really songs) are built around radio broadcasts of politicians, evangelists and exorcists or taken from world music recordings which are clothed in Byrne's jerky polyrhythmic beats and Eno's sonic sculptures, and spiced with cleverly chosen samples.

This re-release has been enhanced by a video clip and extra tracks that do not add much to what was already a masterpiece of mixing music from around the globe into a cohesive whole. The title is derived from the 1954 novel by Nigerian writer Amos Tutuola, about a young Yoruba boy who runs away from his village and suddenly finds himself in America where he undergoes a series of scary and hilarious experiences before returning home.

Bush Of Ghosts takes some getting used to, but there's such an innovative variety of musical marriages that the album's manifold charms soon engage the listener. Two distinct styles are discernible - the Western and the Ethnic which encompasses both Middle Eastern & gospel sounds from the Sea Islands of the South Atlantic coast of the USA. Funky electronics dominate the hypnotic and spooky America is Waiting whilst Mea Culpa has a multi-track voice with echo effects over a slow beat and ominous vocals.

The dreamy Regiment, the first of the Arabic tracks, is based around the contralto of Lebanese singer Dunya Yusin over a down-tempo beat, creating a mournful ambience. In 1979 the German experimentalist Holger Czukay had released his album Movies whose highlight, Persian Love, is based on the shortwave recording of a romantic Farsi duet between a male & female vocalist. Strictly speaking, Czukay had thus paved the way.

The skittering rhythms of Help Me Somebody carry the passionate voice of a New Orleans preacher. The next, unidentified radio evangelist is downright scary as he performs a blood-curdling exorcism by questioning a young woman and then fiercely tongue-lashing the Jezebel Spirit within her. If that weren't enough, the edgy drums and percussion succeed well in ratcheting up the levels of unease and repressed hysteria.

Even more eerie is Moonlight In Glory with the voices of the Moving Star Hall Singers where it is difficult to determine what the emotion-laden voices are saying. It seems to be an event or passage from the Bible that these artists from Georgia's coast are narrating. Two more Arabic tracks follow, The Carrier which is a rhythmic chant by the aforementioned Dunya Yusin and the brooding A Secret Life, constructed around the vocals of Egyptian singer Samirah Tawfiq.

Lots of bleeps and found sounds characterize Come With Me which also carries the vocoderized voice of a third preacher. More classical-experimental than the rest, Mountain of Needles has the feel of a soundtrack segment and reminds me of Cabaret Voltaire. The glaring omission of the original track number 6, Qur'an, overshadows all the new stuff. It is a haunting piece of Algerian believers chanting verses from their scripture. Why the spineless retreat, one wonders, when DJ Cheb i Sabbah uses a striking mix of Hindu mantra & Muslim prayer on Shri Durga, his 1999 masterpiece? Western artists who practice self-censorship undermine their integrity. For that, one star was deducted.

Indeed, "Bush of Ghosts" is the birthplace of so much contemporary music that it sits, unassailed and unquestioned, as one of the great classics of modern recording. It is the source for much of what followed: Modern Electronica, Hip Hop, Trip Hop and many other hybrids - forms that utilized samples of older music, non-western and folk recordings, radio broadcasts, exorcisms, political confessions, Nasa flight recordings and so on. Without the original "BOG" one wonders if a lot of what followed in subsequent decades would've happened at all, OR, if it was an inevitability that just happened to take form in Eno and Byrne's collaborative minds first. PHD theses have probably been written on that.

The Beatles, Pink Floyd and others did use "found sound" bits and snippets of other musics before this, most notably "Good Morning" on "Sgt. Pepper" and a lot of the "Studio" album from "Ummagumma", not to mention Alan Parson's fantastic sound effects on "Dark Side of the Moon". But these were ornamentations, additions grafted onto the main body of the music to augment it. Eno and Byrne's brilliance was to use the recordings AS THE BASIS of the music, as the main body around which the rythms and harmonies of "proper" instruments were wrapped.

And the music itself is revolutionary. Both Eno and Byrne, both being creatures of conceptual art backgrounds sought to create a new form of Western music that was not based on the rock aesthetic of "heated" individual emotionality. They sought a "cooler", less hierarchical music that invited participation rather than detached appreciation. African, Middle-Eastern, Funk and Disco all embody forms that necessitate DANCING for the musical experience to be complete and were the main sources of inspiration for the two artists. So as Sytze Steenstra points out in his analysis of Byrne's work ( "Song and Circumstance" ) the main creative tension and interplay on "Bush of Ghosts" is between the "heated" and overwrought emotional vocal samples and the "cooler", dance and rythm based musical tracks. The "hot" voices relay time in an anticipatory and a remembering vein, while the "cool" experience of physical participation, ie dance, is in "moment" time, that is, the present.

In 1980 this was a shocker and a thrilling, challenging move. For a lot of people this was so beyond anything else heard heretofore that it caused a lot of hot debate that raged vociferously in both adulation and condemnation. Certainly, this is a recording that treads no safe and proven ground. It was audacious and breath-taking then and now it wears it's years very well. "Bush of Ghosts" still sounds fresh and while it may not seem so daring to a younger listener it's power and influence are in no doubt.

This edition is an expanded looking back and a reassessment. Everything after "Mountain of Needles" is newly added material that appends the music that was on the original release. The additional material is not quite as fleshed out and detailed as the music that made it onto the final 1980 copy, but it makes for fascinating listening too. These tracks are a less dense but their clarity and striking uniqueness make them a valuable addition. Anyone who has an interest in really daring experimentation will find all of it worth listening to. Indeed, as was cited elsewhere, a proof of it's appeal comes when the CD ends and you find yourself wanting to put it on again ( and again ... )

The new packaging contains very interesting notes from both Eno and Byrne, some wistful old photographs of these two in their peak years and some good graphic presentation. The re-vamped, much-improved, sound is worth the purchase price too. A major classic of 20th Century contemporary music, re-packaged and enhanced.

There are moments of inspired ingenuity here bordering on brilliance. Some of these moments were instrumental in shaping what became 'Remain In Light' by Talking Heads featuring head Head Byrne and performer-moonlighting-as producer Brian Eno. Apparently, the process of making 'Ghosts' taxed this relationship but not so much that they would never work together again. Though it never really jels as a cohesive work, its moments are sublime and challenging all at once. Who would come up with stuff like this? Well, the answer is here. Unlike anything else recorded up until then, MLITBOG was bold, belligerent and beautiful. Truly a collaborative project, neither pure Byrne nor pure Eno. It was something neither would sound like on their own. The original release has been re-sequenced and expanded here. Part One really works and then, the focus gets fuzzy. The bonus tracks are like Appendices, added at the end with no real purpose other than reference. Yet, at least one, 'Solo Guitar with Tin Foil', is so sparsely perfect that you can forgive the excesses indulged in elsewhere. It closes the recording in a manner so unexpected that you are compelled to start the journey all over again to see what you are sure you missed first time through!

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