Music that sounds like 'Spirit of Eden' and 'Laughing Stock'

hahahaha it was me. I can upload it if you like. I'm sure it's readily available for high quality legal download too.

i always imagined that Climate of Hunter by Scott Walker sounded in this vein but I've never actually heard it.

Cheers Davek, as if if I'm not losing enough sleep with all this stuff already!!! =)

Afraid I'm a lossless guy. If I can't buy something I get mighty upset.

Autistic Daughters (on Kranky) especially the second album.

Ditto! I think that me and MaresNest say this every damn time this question comes up. They don't have the same diversity of instrumentation that Talk Talk had -just double bass, drums, guitar and voice really- but as far as honing in on that whole sustained mood, these guys are totally OTM. Guess you'd call them improvised ambient rock. The Dean Roberts solo stuff is great too, particularly the one on Kranky (Be Mine Tonight) and And The Black Moths Play The Grand Cinema which originally came out on Mille Plateaux but got reissued later by Staubgold.

The most recent Zelienople album (Give It Up) is kind of in the same vein too, but a bit more rainswept and autumnal. Actually, they're probably a closer match for Bark Psychosis, in that they're more identifiably indie than Talk Talk ever were.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHjkyddpLoY

Thanks for the Autistic Daughters heads up. I'll buy almost anthing on Kranky with confidence so that one's right to the top of the pile.

It's a shame they have such a terrible name really, cos the music is nothing like you might imagine it would be.

Mind you, Talk Talk is a really shitty name too tbh.

Ah, I was looking for a thread like this just the other day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQkU23crm3U

M@tt Climate Of Hunter is kind of like late Roxy Music/Japan but gone quiveringly paranoid and fearful. It's an incredible record and would probably appeal to most late-TT fans though I don't hear much real sonic kinship. There is this multitracked soprano sax break in Climate Of Hunter that is as much of a sonic epiphany as anything on Laughingstock.

I would mention Shearwater from a listener's perspective even if I didn't know they know these albums. Their new one, The Golden Archipelago, is one of my favorites of 2010 so far.

The Blue Nile are the closest thing in my mind to actual Talk Talk peers, even if their balance of elements is different. Thomas Dolby's album The Flat Earth is worth hearing, if you've never heard it, for another interesting example of New Wave synthpop starting to turn into something else.

And the band that actually comes closest to affecting me the way these two albums did is Low, maybe because they're doing something different enough that I don't find myself wanting to listen to Spirit of Eden instead. Haunting minimalism, more intense and less airy, more Winter than Spring.

Oh, and two other wildcards that you're probably 94% likely to find irrelevant but for the other 6%'s sake: Officium, by Jan Garbarek and the Hilliard Ensemble (jazz improv sax over early-music choir, new-age-y but for me it works), and Amazing Things, by the Celtic-rock band Runrig (neither spare nor delicate, but up there with Spirit of Eden in my pantheon of the greatest life-affirming records).

X-Post: Ha yep, A.D. always come up at these times. I never did thank you Nick for the heads up on Dean's solo records, all fantasic! So, thank you.

The Low/Dirty Three 'In the Fishtank' record has a version of Down By The River that substitues the long guitar solos with a front-loaded scratching about section that sounds a lot like Spirit Of Eden.

It doesn't necessarily use the same instruments, but with regards to dynamics and structure, I think Mary Lou Williams' Black Christ of the Andes is a pretty close correlative. The ECM recommendations are also pretty on the nose.

The middle of the album is boilerplate Van bebop sputtering, but the bookend tracks on Van Morrison's Common One sound exactly like Talk Talk and are two of his best tracks ever. Very much in the same tone and spirit as Veedon Fleece but much more expansive and ethereal. I would describe it as In a Silent Way with soft, distant Van singing in the distance.

Oh yeah, 'Haunts of Ancient Peace' OTM!

sometimes LS reminds me of Giant Sand/Calexico/Calla type of desert music

"Spanish Dancer" by Steve Winwood

I intro to this '80s cheese nugget is totally "Colour of Spring" y.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc3Sa4n0rS8

As mentioned, similar music to Spirit of Eden is Miles Davis' In A Silent Way and Hex (Bark Psychosis) which is one of my favorite albums and is, for me, perfect late-night listening and the quintessential winter album.

Spirit of Eden is one of my Desert Island albums, alongside
A Storm in Heaven (The Verve)
No Other (Gene Clark)
Lazer Guided Melodies (Spiritualized)

Aside from the obvious... Bits of Grizzly Bear's output. Bits of the last Notwist album. Rook by Shearwater. That french band called Bed (but they only sound like the quiet bits). Bits of Hidden by These New Puritans. Bits of early Elbow. Reckoner by Radiohead. That Unkle song that samples laughing Stock and has Thom Yorke on vocals. Bits of Wild Beasts.

I hear you on that Notwist album. Great thing about it is it seem's to draw influence from the more abrasive side of late Talk Talk rather than just the ethereal pretty side which seems to be the norm. See for example the wicked one note noise solo in 'Alphabet'.

No-Man's Together We're Stranger fits the bill.

"Beautiful People" - Mark Pritchard & Thom Yorke

Yeah, No-Man is a good recommendation. Their Returning Jesus precedes Together We're Stranger and is quite similar in tone. It was also just reissued in an expanded 2CD version.

Tim Bowness is no Mark Hollis, to put it mildly, but I quite like the songwriting and the instrumental textures on both of those albums (I couldn't get into their first two and have yet to hear Schoolyard Ghosts).

As far as Sylvian goes, the Rain Tree Crow album is far closer to TT than anything else he has been involved with.

i agree with this

what about parts of gone to earth?

for sure but production-wise, RTC is the closest thing i've heard that sounds like late talk talk: avant-pastoral jams with digital clarity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTiiMEnzLXU

i mean https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEJe6cJ10kw

yeah i wasn't challenging, it just occurred to me at the moment that Gone to Earth has a lot of that stillness and pastoral trumpets and sleekness and stuff

yeah they both rule, i really just wanted to post that RTC song. and actually thinking about it, i believe this thread is actually what led me into the deep sylvian rabbit hole a few years back

The new Gaussian curve

I love Shearwater and will defend them to the hilt against the charge of being Talk Talk copyists. That said, there is enough in their Island Arc trilogy to satisfy any TT fan, although I feel Palo Santo has more similarities than the aforementioned Rook.

Since someone mentioned Autistic Daughters upthread, Dean Roberts's Be Mine Tonight is wonderful as well, though I haven't heard it in years. I wish he hadn't given up on music (assuming that's what happened).

Sigur Ros - ()

"ave yet to hear Schoolyard Ghosts" you need to hear that one, it's a much more tonally compatible album (in that, I feel like much of No-Man is a bit electronica heavy; that album, however, is not).

that barbieri-hogarth album is good too.

hogarth is an unabashed hollis fanboy

I did these two mixes pretty much seeking this feeling--maybe equal parts Talk Talk and Blue Nile as the inspiration:

https://musicophilia.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/musicophilia_00_various_-_the-dawning_1981-1989_cover.jpg?w=600

Various – ‘The Dawning’
(1981-1989)

Part I

01 [00:00] The Blue Nile – “Over the Hillside” (Hats, 1989)
02 [05:00] Heaven 17 – “Let Me Go” (The Luxury Gap, 1983)
03 [09:16] Hot Gossip – “Morale” (Geisha Boys and Temple Girls, 1981)
04 [12:18] Dif Juz – “The Last Day” (Extractions, 1985)
05 [16:13] Tears for Fears – “Start of the Breakdown” (The Hurting, 1983)
06 [21:03] Mick Karn – “Tribal Dawn” (Titles, 1982)
07 [25:12] Thomas Dolby – “The Flat Earth” (The Flat Earth, 1984)
08 [31:34] Peter Gabriel – “Zaar” (Passions, 1989)
09 [35:56] Nona Hendryx – “Off the Coast of Love” (Skin Diver, 1989)
10 [40:23] Cocteau Twins – “Lazy Calm” (Victorialand, 1986)
11 [44:34] Talk Talk – “I Believe In You” (Spirit of Eden, 1988)

Part II

12 [50:40] Comsat Angels – “After the Rain” (Fiction, 1982)
13 [54:31] King Crimson – “Two Hands” (Beat, 1982)
14 [57:48] Bel Canto – “Without You” (White Out Conditions, 1987)
15 [61:43] Scott Walker – “Dealer” (Climate of Hunter, 1984)
16 [66:33] Scritti Politti – “Absolute” (Cupid & Psyche ’85, 1985)
17 [70:53] Arthur Russell – “This Is How We Walk On the Moon” (Another Thought, 1984)
18 [75:34] David Sylvian – “Orpheus” (Secrets of the Beehive, 1987)
19 [80:20] Durutti Column – “Love No More” (Vini Reilly, 1989)
20 [83:06] Kate Bush – “Never Be Mine” (The Sensual World, 1989)
21 [86:42] David Byrne – “Ghosts” (The Knee Plays, 1985)
22 [89:54] Colin Newman – “I Can Hear You” (Commercial Suicide, 1986)
23 [94:16] This Mortal Coil – “Ivy and Neet” (Filigree & Shadow, 1986)
24 [99:04] Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark – “Of All The Things We’ve Made” (Dazzle Ships, 1983)

[Total Time: 1:42:27]

Download or Stream

https://musicophilia.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/musicophilia_00_various_-_evensong_1985-1995_2017_cover.jpg?w=600

Various – ‘Evensong’
(1985-1995)

Part I

01 [00:00] It’s Immaterial – New Brighton” (Song, 1990)
02 [05:31] Tears for Fears – “The Working Hour” (Songs From the Big Chair, 1985)
03 [12:06] Tortoise – “His Second Story Island” (Tortoise, 1994)
04 [14:14] Michael Brook & Pieter Nooten – “Searching” (Sleeps With the Fishes, 1987)
05 [17:07] Shelleyan Orphan – “One Hundred Hands” (Helleborine, 1987)
06 [21:29] Stina Nordenstam – “A Walk In the Park” (Memories of a Color, 1991)
07 [24:54] Sade – “Pearls” (Love Deluxe, 1992)
08 [29:38] Massive Attack – “Protection” (Protection, 1994)
09 [37:26] The Cure – “The Same Deep Water As You” (Disintegration, 1989)
10 [46:19] Depche Mode- “Waiting For the Night” (Violator, 1990)

Part II

11 [52:41] Evelyn Glennie – “Light in Darkness” (Light In Darkness, 1991)
12 [55:59] R.E.M. – “Sweetness Follows” (Automatic For the People, 1992)
13 [60:21] The Innocence Mission – “Medjugorje” (The Innocence Mission, 1989)
14 [61:53] Disco Inferno – “Second Language” (Second Language EP, 1994)
15 [66:52] Slowdive – “Rutti” (Pygmalion, 1995)
16 [76:53] Rain Tree Crow – “Cries and Whispers” (Rain Tree Crow, 1991)
17 [79:26] Bark Psychosis – “Pendulum Man” (Hex, 1994)
18 [82:37] Peter Gabriel – “Mercy Street” (So, 1986)
19 [88:27] Low – “Sunshine” (I Could Live In Hope, 1994)
20 [91:35] Portishead – “Roads” (Dummy, 1994)
21 [96:44] Hector Zazou & Bjork – “Visur Vatnsenda-Rosu” (Songs From the Cold Seas, 1994)

[Total Time: 1:40:43]

Download or Stream

Those look great. (getting a 'permission denied' on the Evensong download btw)

It bothers me that The Colour Of Spring gets overlooked because of these two albums. They're great and everything but COS is up there too (and the songs are catchier)

Very otm

Soundslike - those comps look fantastic

Does Lucio Battisti - 'Abbracciala Abbracciali Abbracciati' go here? I think it does. Maybe a slightly oblique similarity, though the opening bars are strikingly prescient of Talk Talk (maybe some point just before SOE,) or even Bark Psychosis. So good anyway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wROsW8vjXjI

Also Gigi Masin - again maybe slightly obliquely related by mood but a few tracks on Wind conjur a similar thing in an ambient jazz way. 'Swallows Tempest' maybe not the closest example but it's the one I want to post.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwSEl3pcs_k

uh how have we not mentioned These New Puritans - Field Of Reeds yet? it's easily the closest anyone's gotten IMO

Crosspost--if you get a "permission denied" on Mediafire, it usually works if you close the tab and try again...

06 [21:29] Stina Nordenstam – “A Walk In the Park” (Memories of a Color, 1991)
07 [24:54] Sade – “Pearls” (Love Deluxe, 1992)

This is such a great one-two.

Like a charm, Soundslike, thanks!

soundslike - I listen to the the dawning all the time, brilliant stuff

stereophonics

Is there really anything that sounds like Spirit of Eden?

I'll cross-link this thread about Thirteen Moons to this thread:

Thirteen Moons (RIYL Talk Talk, Tim Buckley, Blue Nile, 4AD, et al)

Who sound like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHlzkIml28E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSsVQ2HqwKQ

Also worthy of mention, a biography of Hollis is coming out in the next couple of months. Somebody Wardle?

Ordered it--hope it's good!

Current issue of mojo apparently has an excerpt

the Held By Trees album is really good (though the last track definitely gets guitar wanky in a more Dire Straits/Floyd way than some might like).

if anyone is looking for music that sounds very like early talk talk, have you heard this one yet?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WljEUb0815g
Zakochany Człowiek - Better Person

the artist is called better person btw, zakochany człowiek is the name of the song

The new Thousands record is rather good and fulfills this criteria - https://thousands.bandcamp.com/album/no-farther-moon

Lately I have been enjoying Modern Nature's No Fixed Point in Space, which features Julie Tippetts and Chris Abrahams of The Necks, also Maria Elena Silva's "Jasper" (wait for the brushed snare at 3mins):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLKKvOXuyTQ

I very much enjoyed this 28 minute vaporwave/slushwave loop of New Grass https://desertsand.bandcamp.com/album/--38

that's gorgeous, thank you

Oh my

hell yeah

i love it

that ride symbol just washes out to sound like rain and tape hiss, gorg

It's very lazy conceptually, just playing at 1/3 speed and pitched down with some long-decay reverb (maybe that's what "slushwave" is, I'm not familiar)... But can't deny it's entrancing and soothing, applied to "New Grass".

Kind of makes me wish Low had covered it...

The same approach to the Stranglers on the next track, doesn't work so well...

that desert sand album is very soothing

Big Bend's 'Last Circle in a Slowdown' fitting the bill this afternoon.

This guy does generally solid mixes. Not as good as our Soundslike's similar tribute, but some great music:

https://lowlightmixes.blogspot.com/2025/03/the-spirit-of-talk-talk.html

This particular song has always struck me as having a late-era Talk Talk vibe: Bra Joe From Kilimanjaro by Dollar Brand. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UKRXzCW2PE

late pass

thanks for that link. I'm downloading some of his mixes now - the tracklists look great.

Bra Joe From Kilimanjaro - the first time I heard this coming out of my neighbor's apartment I went out and bought it ASAP. So good. Funny I was in the greatest throes of my Talk Talk enchantment at the time but I didn't make a connection to their soundworld...