Talk Talk (RIP Mark Hollis)

Another winner imo, right up my alley.

Just out of curiosity: you're not compiling these as playlists too, are you? Like a mixtape instead of a mix, on Spotify or Tidal or whatever. What is the appeal for you of a mix instead of a mixtape/playlist with the songs from beginning to end? (not that I've ever come across a ruthless cut/break in a song in a mix of yours, just curious)

It can be subtle in mixes where they're closer to "compilations" than mixes (though many of my mixes are more heavily mixed), but I spend a sort of silly amount of effort on getting the levels right, getting the segues (even if small) right, on the flow/sequencing, etc. Also, as I make these downloadable, I want them to be a single mp3 (like a podcast) instead of individual tracks, so there's no misunderstanding I'm bootlegging music. Also, I've never really checked, but it's likely Spotify wouldn't have a lot of the tracks I mix.

Really, my intent/hope is to get people to go buy music--I don't personally use or support Spotify et al, and their 0.007 cents per stream bullshit.

Oh shit I can’t wait to listen to these! I listened to all 5 of their albums yesterday, it’s such perfect fall music. I also threw in Sarah McLachlan’s Fumbling Towards Ecstasy bcz it is basically a Talk Talk album

Feel like there's an early Lilys' song or two that would make a very nice Hollis-inspired mix...

maybe "The Turtle Which Died Before Knowing"

Sarah McLachlan performed Give It Up from The Colour of Spring when I saw her in 1991. The big influence that Hollis seems to have had on her later work is taking years between records.

So this was Tim Friese-Greene's big hit before Talk Talk, you can see why Mark Hollis wanted to work with him.

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

The colour of spanx

Strong Brenda Bristols vibe to the brunette.

A trial run before the video to 'Life's What You Make It', clearly.

I can no longer claim to be a Talk Talk completist.

Not fair, TFG had also produced Wang Chung's first record (Huang Chung) as well as Thomas Dolby's "She Blinded Me With Science" during that same stretch.

No. 1 single though! Also he seems to have been quite closely involved with the 'band' Tight Fit in a way he wouldn't be again till Talk Talk:

Later in the year, record producer Tim Friese-Greene recorded a version of the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" with another group of session singers. The singer was Roy Ward, the former drummer and percussionist from the British 1970s band City Boy. The song was released in early 1982, again under the name Tight Fit. The song gained instant attention and so a new group was formed to front it. Dancer, singer and model Steve Grant was teamed with female singers Denise Gyngell and Julie Harris. The song reached No.1 in the UK for three weeks in March 1982 and the line-up was catapulted into sudden and unexpected stardom.[4]

Satisfied this line-up could actually sing in their own right, Friese-Greene produced their next single, "Fantasy Island" – a song by The Millionaires which had been in the Dutch Eurovision Song Contest heats. The song, in a very similar vein to the pop group Abba, was also a success, reaching No.5 in May 1982.[5]

LOL he also produced the Nolans!

Goodness I remember that Tight Fit song. I'm old.

The B-side is called "Rhythm, Movement And Throbbing".

I can just picture Hollis getting hammered in an after hours studio sesh and cranking out a cover of it.

Just started

Time to listen to Spirit of Eden

No tweets from me, no guests. Just the music

Use #TimsTwitterListeningParty if you would like to share memories pic.twitter.com/PDh0O09h2O

— Tim Burgess (@Tim_Burgess) January 25, 2021

Still struggle to read the writing though 🤔 pic.twitter.com/c7bH6XQNQK

— Peter Bale (@ftodg) January 25, 2021

Backwards-sloping handwriting is so weird.

he writes his lyrics like he sings them

The cassette had typed lyrics!

Left handed?

"The cassette had typed lyrics!"

Made me laugh, not really sure why.

I guess it's an unexpected bonus of buying an inferior format.

Tonight at 8pm (U.K. time) pic.twitter.com/TcvRgaci0P

— Tim's Listening Party (@LlSTENlNG_PARTY) February 25, 2021

I keep hearing boomer tracks that remind me of "The Colour of Spring"-era Talk Talk. The first one was this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpXG23PlvF4

Which I guess makes sense, given a) Winwood is kind of a ground zero vocal reference, from Gabriel to Hollis, and b) he actually plays on "The Colour of Spring." But the other was this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9Omu_QYb4Q

The Winwood seems like it has more similarities to the It's My Life era, with the fretless bass and a funkier rhythm than they used on the next album. The biggest similarity with the Plant song is using the piano as bass, as in "Life's What You Make It"; I guess there is a general aura of sonic luxury and heavy studio expense to both.

Spanish Dancer, from the same album as Night Train, is very Talk Talky, imo.

i seem to recall reading in a british music mag around the early 2000s about just exactly how they got all that feedback for "after the flood."

(from what i remember)

it was some fringe japanese-engineered thing. the way it was described, it sounded more like a computer than a musical instrument. and apparently they had quite a time just getting the thing to the recording studio in the first place.

does anyone remember this? or know more specifics?

in any case, i remember it being a great subplot in the greater story.

i don't think there was mention of it in Phill Brown's book but I can go reread the laughingstock part

The story I've heard is that it was a breath controller for a synth which malfunctioned when they cued it up for a solo, but they left it recording and decided it was just what the track needed.

(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