Talk Talk (RIP Mark Hollis)

I think my favourite Talk Talk album is "Spirit of Eden". "Laughing Stock" has greater highs ("Taphead", "New Grass" etc.) but it takes a while to get going and doesn't flow quite as well. "Spirit of Eden" on the other hand is stunning from the get-go - the trilogy never ceases to amaze me, and by the time the choirs on "I Believe In You" come on I feel like I'm floating in a sea of morphine.

However I feel it's necessary to state that the album prior to those two, "The Colour of Spring", is definitely necessary if you like "Spirit of Eden" and "Laughing Stock". It's more pop-friendly and has a greater reliance on song structures, but the songs are mad fun and the ambition and attention to detail had already begun to manifest. Songs such as "April 5th" and "Chameleon Day" wouldn't be too out of place on "Spirit of Eden".

Anyone else notice the way Hollis references other songs? "Does Caroline Know" ("Caroline, No"), Laughing Stock and "The Daily Planet" (Love), "Inside Looking Out" and "It's My Life" (Animals), "Mirror Man" (Beefheart)... I know there are more.

That's why they're so great. The Colour of Spring is one of my favorite records.

Tim, I'm rather curious about the connection you see between Bark Psychosis and Radiohead. I'm a big BP fan but I've never really sensed their influence in Radiohead's stuff.

And, maybe just the fact that Bark Psychosis and Radiohead seem to still bear some allegiance to post-punk, which to my mind is totally non-existent in Talk Talk (in all three a matter of residual evidence of past incarnations).

Re. Radiohead and Bark Psychosis. Yes, they do have elements in common, the paranoia being the most obvious one, but they seem to have taken them in different directions. Late-period Radiohead is much more claustrophobic than Bark Psychosis; there's an feeling of the whole world weighing down on you, and the music tries to encompass that world. Whereas BP's stuff has much more light and space about it and seems to contain an acknowledgement that there is a world outside that isn't touched by the paranoia and that it is escapable to. Even after Kid A and Amnesiac, I can't imagine Radiohead putting out anything like Hex (the song) with it's huge wall of static that abruptly gives way to the gentlest shimmer.

I suppose that what I'm arguing is that they do share elements, but these are more likely to be derived from a common root rather than BP acting as a mediator from Talk Talk to Radiohead.

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.

I have not actually listened to orang, which practically is talk talk w/out vocals...has anyone else? how does it measure up?

and i am pretty sure lee harris is drumming on it, as well as it featuring the old dude who played vibes on hex.

How did you find out about this?

What kind of record deal are they looking for? (being serious here. feel free to email me)

just to tie things together (and keep this post OT), Sutton contributed ("guitar") to both O.rang albums. he also provided a great Boymerang 12" remix of "p53" on Echo(UK)/Hit it!(US). i don't believe this track was ever anthologized on CD. hmm. a disc compiling all the Boymerang remixes would be such a nice thing. though i've hunted and collected them devotedly.

new Bark Psychosis. oh, glory!

the bark psychosis album may be released through the web!

Mitch you probably don't want to hear this but I reckon you should have started with Spirit of Eden instead - it's a more deliberately beautiful record so it makes it easier to get a handle of what Talk Talk are doing that is good.

Yes you did. This has nothing to do with the fact that I regard the Sea and Cake with at most a shrug, of course. *hides from Josh* (More seriously, Tim's advice to Mitch is sound, Jaymc -- and Anthony is right in that the early stuff is equally genius in a different world; heard "It's My Life" out at brunch yesterday and remembered again how great it is. However, there is no album actually called Talk Talk, that's a mistake from MST3K. ;-))

It's sort of weird. If jaymc or mitch had made similar comments about, say Trout Mask Replica or something, I'd be totally sympathetic! I mean, Beefheart rules but I certainly understand if it isn't everyone's cup of tea. That's fine. He's sort of creating this totally oppositional aesthetic; but the fun thing about it is the self-relexivity in 1969, absorbs all these elements of insider culture, outsider culture, basically coming to terms with the different camps and aesthetics and general cultural awareness the 60's had wrought (ok yeah, Zappa too; and the Beatles and basically everyone else - of course - who didnt't make it explicit). Talk Talk, in their own way - more than ANY other group seemed to embody a late 80's trajectory of reflection, becoming, what have you. If you can't get into those two late Talk Talk records .. I mean, what are you asking for in music? What do you want? The fucking Sea and Cake?! That's the worst milquetoast horseshit in the fucking history of humankind!

Oh fuck, I dunno. I shouldn't post to this board late at night. I've had some beers, I should go to bed. I don't know, jaymc. You seem like a nice guy. You're a homeboy from Chicago, which I have to give you points for. But if you like that Sea and Cake garbage over Talk Talk I just have to ask what you're looking for in music? I think you need to try to put these records in context. Nothing sounded like those records in the late 80's. The Talk Talk records are the sound of life lived gently, jaggedly, coagulating into these song forms full of mystery and beauty and humility. Instruments asserting themselves, pulling back, hesitating, shouting; it's the sound of life writ large. Lyrically, Hollis deals with lots of horribly emetic, traditionally "rock" tropes on these records - addiction, spirituality, redemption - but he always renders them in a touching, riveting way. There's very much an improvisational - "happy accident" - quality to the proceedings (sounds simple, right? try it, try to make it sound this good; sorry, the chicago dorks don't come close if they were trying [and many of them, O'Rourke not excluded, most definitely did cite Hollis as a big inspiration]), which was completely Hollis' vision; he says as much on a promotional interview cassette I have that was released circa Laughing Stock. In fact, on it he claims his big inspirations were Can's Tago Mago, Coltrane's Live at Birdland (he actually describes loving the sound of some technician setting up / adjusting Elvin Jones' drum kit on the record; that "accident" aesthetic), and something else well fuck it i'm drunk and i'm not gonna listen to it reight now.

In Hollis, you've got this guy starting as a great craftsman of pop melodies mutating into this sort of studio hermit, perfecting his craft, making two fucking absolutely arresting albums, then moving on to a life in the monastery. And never looking back. Oh shit, wait he made the solo album which is just as great!! it's a great story, sort of like Van Vliet, maybe better. Ultimately, forget about my mythologizing - listen to these records, give them some time; it's all right there you give it some time, if you listen intently to the sound of human beings working together.

Nick wrote the be-all and end-all study of Spirit here which is so dense I haven't even read the whole thing.

I actually blushed when I clicked on anthony's link and it lead to my piece! I thought he must mean someone else.

if 'spirit of eden' is a more 'tightly composed' or 'conventionally structured' record then i definitely DON'T want that: 'laughing stock' is interesting to me at its *most* protracted moments, hovering between event and non-event. I can kind of objectively see how hollis' voice works within those tensions - guiding, sculpting, directing, whatever.. but where you hear pure gospel soul or whatever i hear something that's stopping me from listening to the songs as the 'sound happenings' that i want them to be. so yeah, i was being flippant, there ARE things that jaymc is missing, it's just that the noises coming out of mark hollis' throat are making it harder for me to appreciate them. but maybe that's just me, and maybe that's just me NOW, i'm on a bit of an ambient and electoacoustic kick at the moment.

(from another forum) Mojo, March 2006 interview with Tim Friese-Greene: Four minutes into the song After The Flood, a 75-second gap awaited a solo. Hollis reached for the Variophon, a German, breath-controlled synthesizer which made Talk Talk's distinctive brass-banshee/distressed-elephant sounds. "They were the most unreliable machines ever made," notes Tim. "Originally, Mark had a part for the solo which spanned the whole section and was just two notes. He played it through a very large amplifier and the Variophon was clearly malfunctioning, jumping between octaves randomly and producing all sorts of internal feedback. We listened back to it and thought, This is too much, and stripped it down to one note. That was the only possible solo that could go there. I was out in the studio tweaking the amplifier and I heard this one note roaring back through the amp and I remember thinking, This is the end. This is as far as we can go. After one note there's no notes. This will be the last album we make."

Interesting that none of the records feature a credit for the Variophon, they might have wanted to keep it a secret as their own special sonic tool.

aahhh thank you, mattt!! seems i might have mixed it up with something else.

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

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

New Held By Trees album Solace is excellent and includes quite a few musicians from latter Talk Talk/Mark Hollis sessions

https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2022/03/held-by-trees-interview-david-joseph-new-album-solace.html

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

Might check it out, but Talk Talk is maybe the worst band ever for new acts being compared to them falling pitifully short of the level

Happiness really isn't easy

solid album

agreed, this is great. thanks for posting, gp!

it's a pretty good album. last track gets a bit wanky in the guitar department and is def. more Dire Straits-y than Talk Talk but I still like it.

yeah definitely prefer the more sparse moments, but hey . . .

Happiness really isn't easy

― imago, Wednesday, May 18, 2022 12:46 AM

About 3/4 of the way into this Mark Hollis biog. Kinda interesting as he comes across poorly a lot of the time, some people say he was an earnest, funny geezer and sometimes a bit moody other reports render him a bully, sullen, a mean drunk.

Can quite easily imagine all those things being true.

He'd get especially sullen when he'd read this thread and see his records referred to as crinkle-cut chips.

Surprisingly this does not seem to be available to buy as an ebook. Physical edition is too $$$ for me ok afraid

To be honest you're not missing much (so far, at least imho) there's not much of a tale to tell it would seem and what is there is told in a boilerplate fashion.

That’s the other thing… if the stir around it was more positive the cost wouldn’t be such an issue.

So glad we got phill brown’s book.

Yeah that and Spirit of Talk Talk seem to be all you need.

There's a lot about Ed Hollis in the earlier part of the book (naturally), he seemed like a really interesting cat and I didn't know that he had such a big hand in Mark's early stages.

What's the Phill Brown book?

https://www.amazon.com/Are-We-Still-Rolling-Recording/dp/0977990311

It's a great overview of Brown's work -- the Robert Palmer stories alone are really revelatory, further underscores just how underrated Palmer was, frankly -- and by the time the Talk Talk/Hollis records start happening you get a sense of someone who has really become a master of his craft working for a band that knows they want to next level further.

Oh, that looks terrific. Thank you!

It will also make you want to pull out John Martyn and Stomu Yamashta

One World and Go specifically

Finding 'A Perfect Silence' pretty enjoyable so far. It's written in a simple, straightforward way but competently--certainly not trying to be poetical or of a piece with the feeling of Talk Talk as an artwork in its own right, but that might be tiresome past essay-length. I supposed I tend to be moderately ignorant of the "histories" of most artists I like, tending to focus on just the music itself, but this is still engaging stuff. I'm just pre-major-commercial-breakthrough now, looking forward to chapters on the last two albums and 'Mark Hollis'.

The introduction raises the question of whether an author should pry into the life of someone who was very private... and just kind of leaves the ethical implications out there (while obviously having determined internally it was kosher to move forward). But thus far, the book mostly covers professional relationships and musical processes, without overly speculating on personal/private/inner life. Maybe it goes into that more, later (for better or worse)?

I just got Talk Talk's Spirit of Eden, remastered, on CD. Previously listened on Spotify on headphones. Now I'm listening on my stereo and my goodness - what a difference! This record needs to fill a room. And it needs to be LOUD. Like, as loud as you can handle.

What a fantastic album.

Yup, one of the first things I played on my new speakers. My downstairs neighbor even texted me saying how stoked he was to hear me playing it... did not expect that.

I love that. What a cool neighbour!

I reckon I got into this hard as a kid because my dad would absolutely blast it in the car. Not only filling a room, but a particularly small one

I have been known to play Laughing Stock at nuclear volumes, the recording comes to life when the instruments are as loud as they were in the studio.

While we're on the subject, a podcast called Hold Onto The Colours has episodes from this year that feature (separately) Phill Brown, Tim Friese-Greene and Ben Wardle.

Thanks for the Phill Brown interview recommendation. Brilliant interview. I really must read the book.

i bought this today purely because of the Tim Friese-Greene production credit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9YiYDG71xw

favourite comment:

sixthtimelucky - 7 years ago
Dreadful then... dreadful now haha :)

Derek Ritchie - 5 years ago
I agree, and I was the drummer!

30p and i still feel like i was robbed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYQzJ6ezdLs

I mean, it's very much the season anyway, but having seen the 'What's in my bag?' with Meshell Ndegeocello on another thread, where she selects the Hollis solo album today was the day. Shit is sacred music.

Fun story and photo from Paul Webb about the car they got from their advance.

new book

Mark Hollis: Or The Art of Fading Away
by Frederick Rapilly and James Marsh

https://www.roughtrade.com/en-gb/product/frederick-rapilly-and-james-marsh-mark-hollis-and-talk-talk/mark-hollis-or-the-art-of-fading-away

rough trade are the exclusive uk retailer

November 7th

another book,

Ghosts: Journeys To Post-pop: How David Sylvian, Mark Hollis and Kate Bush reinvented pop
by Matthew Restall

November 14th

Three music-obsessed, suburban London teenagers set out to make their own kind of pop music: Kate Bush became an overnight star, while success came to David Sylvian (and Japan), and to Mark Hollis (and Talk Talk) after years of struggle. But when their unique talents brought them international acclaim, they turned their backs on stardom. ‘Just when I think I’m winning,’ sang Sylvian on ‘Ghosts,’ a 1982 Japan hit, ‘when my chance came to be king, the ghosts of my life grew wilder than the wind.’ Haunted by doubt, spooked by fame, shocked by the industry’s classism, sexism, and rapacity, Sylvian, Hollis, and Bush were driven to brave new destinations by multiple factors: creative originality and the inspiration of artists from every genre; the turmoil of personal relationships and inner psychological struggles. Along the way, as sacrifices were made – bands, friendships, marriages, the trappings of stardom – and experiments were pursued with dogged fearlessness, these musicians forged something new, changing how we hear pop music and the role of its creators in modern society. Ghosts uses the Sylvian, Hollis, and Bush journeys to define post-pop for the first time. Weaving together memoir, biography, musicology, cultural criticism, and history, the book shows how the story is both personal – as individual artists struggled with their own ghosts – and contextual, a larger history of pop music, popular culture, and the creative process itself. The post-pop story is about music and fame, ambition and fear, happiness and melancholy. As a journey from noise to silence, the journey to post-pop is ultimately about life itself.

Burning Shed: Ghosts: Journeys To Post-pop: How David Sylvian, Mark Hollis and Kate Bush reinvented pop
by Matthew Restall
published by SonicBond
https://burningshed.com/store/sonicbond/matthew-restall_ghosts_book

As pleased as I might be to see the publication of a book examining the careers of three of my favourite musicians, my suspicions are immediately aroused by the assertion that success only came to Sylvian and Hollis "after years of struggle". What a bizarre statement. Japan had a record deal by the time that Sylvian was 19, and Hollis's first band was signed to Island when he was 22. Granted, neither of them immediately set the charts alight, but it's daft to pretend that their talents weren't quickly noted and nurtured.