Talk Talk (RIP Mark Hollis)

This is a very good discussion everybody otm

yes excellent, just the place for it.

I don’t think volume has been mentioned, but to me the only way to listen to Laughing Stock etc is absolutely cranked. I’ve had a few instances where everyone has left the house and I’ve put it on and turned it up and up and UP until it blooms into a giant space of music. It’s because it was so well recorded of course, but what an experience.

Not to universalise my own experience but I wonder if there's something emblematic in Hollis' 'journey' that satisfies a certain type of music listener. We're all looking for the transcendent and unearthly (holy?) in our listening, and his move from the early decadence through the studied cathedral spaces of Eden/Laughing Stock, into the near-erasure of the solo album feels from this distance like watching an archetype in the making. That he never came back and effectively completed his monkish disappearance is all the more perfect.

one of the few albums directly inspired by spirit of eden that i think absorbs that influence correctly is fumbling towards ecstasy by sarah mclachlan ok i'll show myself out

New Grass I've listened to a lot, but it wasn't until relatively recently that my ears even locked on to the baseline.

Bassline, goddam autocorrect.

At the risk of being fairly obvious, if you compare Hollis's solo record with the contemporary Orang releases it's fairly easy to make the case that they demonstrated in different ways how the members apparently -- emphasis on apparently, the truth is likely more muddled -- showed which members brought which sounds and approach to the fore.

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, February 27, 2019 12:19 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yes! Also anyone ITT who has never listened to the Orang albums needs to go do so rite now.

Those photos of his house a guy tweeted... it occurred to me this morning how they might have been obtained. the Hollises just moved recently right? These might have been photos used by a realtor to sell the house they were moving out of.

ah shit I bet that’s it!

...cos I really couldnt imagine Hollis inviting hello magazine round

Talking with Neil Sims before Catherine Wheel played Chicago in August 1997, I told him I heard they were using Spirit of Eden as walk-on music slash opening act, and he said something like, "Wait until you hear the Mark Hollis solo album -- it goes even farther 'out' than Laughing Stock! Trouble with Polydor, though." Hear the WHAT?! Hadn't known such a thing was in the works. Maybe THE week of the gig, EMI reissued the first four Talk Talk albums. I was the import buyer at a record store and ordered a set for myself. Don't think I saw anything else about the Hollis album until the Wire profile (in the same issue as Kodwo Eshun on Drexciya). Bought a few copies into the store, played it often, and got some polarized reactions, including one of surprised excitement from a regular who knew exactly what hit him. Sold maybe two or three more prompted by a Metro Times review written by a future friend/co-worker mentioned upthread by Broheems. Asides Besides, Allinson/Brown, Tim Friese-Greene's first Heligoland thing, and the U.S. editions of the .O. Rang albums were also released during or just after this period -- a bizarre happenstance glut of Talk Talk and related product.

Anyway, can't recall being more anxious to hear an album.

The O.Rang guys made this weird dice game called Go-Rang. It came with all sorts of tiny gadgets and some rather detailed instructions in the form of a dinky scroll. If anyone should happen to have BP's "Clawhammer" flexi or the release that has "Reserve Shot Gunman," I'd be more than happy to part with my extra Go-Rang.

― Andy, Tuesday, June 5, 2001 8:00 PM (seventeen years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Offer retracted, ingrates!

You terrible person.

Jon not Jon you were 100% right:

https://www.zoopla.co.uk/property-history/19-lingfield-road/london/sw19-4qd/34611646

feels kind of wrong looking at that tbh

i justed wanted a close up of the records, didn't rly need to see the toilet thanks

that's a nice 4 bedroom house but 3.25 mn quid? that's nuts.

london prices m8

square toilet looks like it might be uncomfortable tbh

ha! good catch. I have detective instinct.

There's no zooming in on those CDs is there. I can make out the Miles Davis Quintet box and I think another Miles next to it. That's it.

An ok appreciation by Richard Williams: https://thebluemoment.com/2019/02/26/mark-hollis-1955-2019/

I think this touches on several aspects being discussed here. Like its that much better than the post-rock because Talk Talk/Hollis can't be divorced from its pop beginnings. That's where Hollis' voice comes from, it and the hits they made allowed for the record company to indulge them with studio time and cash to burn in the musicianship that was bought in to make those last two records. Its interesting that MBV comes up because Loveless had as fraught a birth in a more indie environment but Creation was nearly made bankrupt by the monster it had created. Plenty of cash and studio time (~20 engineers/producers). Its an indulgence that totally comes off into something beautiful; Talent that needs time and money to nurture, which has its roots in The Beatles and Beach Boys and their strange trips.

There's no zooming in on those CDs is there. I can make out the Miles Davis Quintet box and I think another Miles next to it. That's it.

Yeah I figured there had to be a couple of those.

I think the argument re their pop roots being necessary as the start is very well observed, and not something I've seen argued much, at least not in a sense of seriousness. It tends to be more 'but then they got beyond that,' certainly encouraged by Hollis himself in his own way.

In A Silent Way certainly didn't take as long to edit as Laughing Stock, but if your point was to pick an example of a spontaneous creation then you definitely picked something that nearly illustrates the opposite -- the real revolution of IASW is in Teo's edit, not the live take. it's a complete foreshadowing of how Hollis used cutting and pasting of improvisations to compose; he cut away 95% of the pre-composed piece and left only the one chord vamp & the solos.

― Milton Parker, Wednesday, February 27, 2019 2:40 AM (nineteen hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

xpost and off topic but is there any recommended reading about this?

Given the price tag on that house I guess having a few hits in the eighties was a helluva lot more lucrative than I imagined!

bought in 1995 for £500k [/dailymail]

again, his wife might be a lawyer or doctor or something

i heard it's my life on the radio today (no doubt versh but still)

alfred i enjoyed your piece and i'm sorry that you have such whiny commenters under your articles

>recommended reading about this?

liner notes or AVClub or Dominique's review for the In A Silent Way box set are good. best thing is just to listen to the original take & final version back to back (though even the 'original take' on the box was already pruned a bit too). IASW thread here ok as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnI17nFA-GQ

thanks! i think i first started listening to that via the boxset so have come at it backwards, didn't realise that the editing had played such a large role in it at all.

You know, I don't think I knew Steve Winwood was on "Colour of Spring," but I swear "Give It Up" always reminded me of '80s Steve Winwood, esp. the organ and sub-chorus or post-chorus part. Ironic, since it's a track I don't think he plays on, but even Hollis' vox sort of resemble Winwood's vox.

Was listening to 'Living In Another World' earlier - that bit where all the instruments drop out and then there's that one chord that basically sounds like someone lobbing half a housebrick into the piano

I was out to dinner with a friend last night, and heard what I could have sworn was "Ascension Day" piping out the PA (which had otherwise been playing Wire and Talking Heads). Anyway, I mentioned that Mark Hollis had just died to my friend, and he had heard, but - and this is where it'll be fun - he actually is one of those people who knew of the band and liked a lot of the music but *didn't know the last two or three records!*. Needless to say, I'm excited to introduce them to someone to hear what they think.

Yeah, "Give It Up" has a sound that is powerfully evocative of 80s radio for me to, Josh... although instead of Winwood, it makes the think of Robert Plant's "Big Log". And Tears for Fears!

Winwood's "Spanish Dancer" from the early 80s is v. Talk Talk

let's talk about the CoS B-sides.

Pictures of Bernadette. Such a weird tune. Sounds like it was composed during It's My Life but given birth in the soundworld of Colour of Spring. It has a bridge and that just seems so talk talk 1.0. Catchy as fuck. Skronkiest guitar solo up to this point in their career - is that robbie mcintosh or mark?

It's Getting Late in the Evening and For What it's Worth - both total godhead the equal of anything on CoS or SoE, I sure wish they had included these on the record. CoS has one too many bangers IMO and could have used one or two more brooders enhanced with Variophon.

I see I made the same comparison in this thread fifteen years ago

i love that winwood LP so much

one of the few albums directly inspired by spirit of eden that i think absorbs that influence correctly is fumbling towards ecstasy by sarah mclachlan ok i'll show myself out

this album is blowing me away, i had no idea

xp Yeah, Arc of a Diver is perfect but I hadn't noticed the possible influence on TT until now.

Returning to the slightly voyeuristic pics of MH's home, I'm thinking that the prominence of a piano suggests that he never lost interest in playing or even composing music. It's more likely that he was exceptionally mindful about what he chose to release. This SPIN interview with Brian Reitzell supports this idea. One wonders if Reitzell will ever choose release the entire soundtrack. I suspect that he won't.

“The producers wanted Philip Glass, but Mark loved the script, and then he made some music and sent it to me,” Reitzell says. “Hollis did it with the refined elegance of a great composer, but then I didn’t use it.” The reasons, he says, were all too typical for Hollywood: The studio meddled with the film, firing both the director and producer and drastically changing the film. “They took the movie away from everybody, so I protected Mark and pulled the music,” says Reitzell. (Ultimately, a sliver of this music appeared when Reitzell did music supervision for Gus Van Sant’s short-lived television series, Boss.)

this album is blowing me away, i had no idea

― diamonddave85​​ (diamonddave85), Thursday, February 28, 2019 11:11 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hell yeah!!!!!!

Wow at the Fumbling comparison, v v otm

Man, some of the editing/mixing on Spirit of Eden is so incredible -- there's that moment in Rainbow where it goes from the sort of "verse" part into I guess what could be called a refrain, where there's this very quick and smooth transition from an almost screechy sound into what sounds almost like a building up church organ swell into a hammond organ and then suddenly everything drops out and it's just the piano, chills

even more impressive when you factor that much of the record was made by piecing together chunks of improvisation

Wow at the Fumbling comparison, v v otm

― flamboyant goon tie included, Thursday, February 28, 2019 12:37 PM (nineteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

sarah and pierre marchand talked about spirit of eden in interviews a lot around the time, whenever they were asked about the sound of solace/fumbling/surfacing. the only reason i know about this is bc i had to research it lol but it was a huge revelation

Rocko Schamoni, a German musician, ex-punk, writer, comedian and entertainer had planned to seek out Mark Hollis and give him some flowers to say thank you for all. Unfortunately it won't happen anymore. But at least he made a song. Mark Hollis lebt!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5nulPjQD_o

i am gonna listen to sarah mclachlan now it seems!

i mostly like that SM record but it doesn't much in common with SoE beyond the instrumental palette iirc

Pictures of Bernadette. Such a weird tune.

Just refreshed my memory of this one. That riff in the chorus sounds like 96 Tears or something! Like 'Talk Talk' the song, it reminds me a lot of Teardrop Explodes, another band that were purported to be Duran Duran-esque new pop but had a big splash of garage psych about them

and the title seems like a Who nod.

Not strictly a b side, but Why Is It So Hard (from 84, a film soundtrack song) is amazing. The Asides Besides compilation is fabulous and was v important to me when I was first exploring TT.