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Music CD - Brian Eno, David Byrne: My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
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Music CD: My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
Artist: Brian Eno, David Byrne
List Price: $18.98
Our Price: $13.50
Your Save: $ 5.48 ( 29% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Nonesuch
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Average Customer Rating: 
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Tracks:
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1. America Is Waiting
2. Mea Culpa
3. Regiment
4. Help Me Somebody
5. The Jezebel Spirit
6. Very, Very Hungry
7. Moonlight in Glory
8. The Carrier
9. A Secret Life
10. Come with Us
11. Mountain of Needles
12. Pitch to Voltage
13. Two Against Three
14. Vocal Outtakes
15. New Feet
16. Defiant
17. Number 8 Mix
18. Solo Guitar with Tin Foil
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0075597989427
Format: Enhanced
Label: Nonesuch
Manufacturer: Nonesuch
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Nonesuch
Release Date: 2006-04-11
Studio: Nonesuch
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Astounding
Comment: This music is astounding, sublime, wonderful, violent, surprising, mesmerizing, subtle, groundbreaking...you get the idea. Most wonderful.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A favorite album made even better.
Comment: I purchased "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" when it came out on vinyl in 1981. I first heard it at a party and was immediately drawn to it. At the time, it was one of the most innovative albums I had heard. I have probably played this album more times than I have played any other; it is burned into my brain. When it was eventually released on CD in the late 1980's, the sounds was somewhat cleaner (no vinyl crackle and pops), and overall sounded much like the original vinyl. That release added "Very Very Hungry" as the last cut, which was not on the original vinyl. An interesting note is that Qur'an was still cut #6 on that release, and it was later self-censored on the 1990 CD release, and on this new remastered CD. "Very Very Hungry" was moved to cut #6 to replace Qur'an.
This remastered edition has remarkably better sound quality. It is a real pleasure to hear one of my favorite albums sound even better after all these year. As others have noted, some of the songs have a few short sections restored, and there are 7 new cuts. The new cuts are interesting historically, but perhaps since I know the old album so well, the new cuts seem disconnected from the rest of the album.
The included booklet includes many pictures and details about the production of the album which were not in any previous edition. The whole package is a great re-release.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: in the Bush of Ghosts
Comment: I think I ought to counter the effusive responses here and put in my opinion, for what its worth. Yes, this album does sound ahead of its time, and yes, there is some beautiful music on here. But first of all, this re-issue muddles the track listing of the original album (to its detriment), and further, the album is not quite as consistently brilliant as everyone here makes out, especially with an extra "side" of bonus tracks.
The opening track, America is Waiting, I can't help comparing to the opener on Public Enemy's Fear of a Black Planet, which was clearly influenced by its scratchy-funk-meets-TV-sermoniser cut-up. But whereas PE's track was brutally, discordantly funky, Eno and Byrne's version just sounds disjointed and a little bit lightweight- I guess its not easy for middle-class white boys to sound too damn funky. Anyway, things really get going with the beautiful Mea Culpa, (the original album opener) with its subtle, multi-tracked world-music percussion, which builds slowly and satisfyingly. Then comes the album's highlight, Regiment, with its funky, proto-trip-hop bassline set against strangely moving African vocals, and a slightly askew sample. Great stuff. The next two tracks don't do anything for me; Jezebel Spirit is often singled out as a highlight, but for me, the dated-sounding 80s slap-bass just sounds a bit lightweight.
Side 2 is the best side. No more dated slap-funk bass, and the emphasis is shifted less towards funk, and more towards polyrhythmic and percussive textures. Very, Very Hungry has a very interesting staccato rhythm, but the highlight of this side is wistful The Carrier, with its plaintive vocals once again married perfectly to Eno and Byrne's sampled soundscapes. Mountain of Needles is also beautiful, an almost completely ambient track which depends for its effect on its glistening percussive timbres. This was originally the album closer, and rightly so, as its understated textures and blissful ambience serve to cleanse the palette. Unfortunately, becuase this is a re-issue, we have another "side" of bits and pieces to get through, which, like most re-issued bonus tracks, are mostly unmemorable, although Two Against Three and Number 8 are culled from the original.
There's some impressive stuff, here, undoubtedly, and the influence of Eno's "non-musician" approach is clearly everywhere, but for me this is just too "difficult" an album to be completely enjoyable: nonetheless, it comes recommended.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Classic
Comment: This is a classic recording. I really like it. If you like Eno or Talking Heads, you will like this one.
Customer Rating:
Summary: good rerelease of an amazing album
Comment: I'm not sure how much better the remasters are on this disc than the original recording. They are better, I think, but the change is subtle. (As opposed to, say, the Talking Heads remasters, which are instantly, recognizably, and indisputably superior to the original recordings.) Everything just sounds a little crisper, I guess.
You can compare and ponder the point for some time, but what this rerelease has done is made me go back and listen again to what was a truly remarkable record the first time around and remains so to this day. It has held up amazingly well over the years. Way ahead of its time. Imagine Remain in Light with random samples and looped noise and sampled vocals filling up the spaces that David Byrne voice would normally occupy and you have a sense of it. Incredible.
This version also comes with seven bonus tracks. These range from tracks that truly could have made the album to ones that are just out-and-out bizarre. I adore the final number, guitar with tin foil.
If you already have the original version, I recommend getting this. If you don't have any previous version, you should stop reading this right now and go get it. Now. In fact, I'm not going to type anymore, just so you can go do it.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Released in 1981, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts is a collaboration between ambient pioneer Brian Eno and Talking Heads frontman David Byrne. On Ghosts, the two strong-willed musicians manage to come to a meeting of the minds, blending Byrne's herky-jerky funk with Eno's atmospheric sound sculpting. More than anything, this is a large album, intent on pushing itself to the front of the listener's consciousness. Abundant percussion (everything from booming tribal drums to eerie electronics) reverberates in the background while Byrne and Eno toss all manner of found sounds, field recordings, and radio broadcasts into the mix. What results is a groundbreaking album that introduced a generation to the dazzling possibilities offered by electronic recording techniques. Highlights include "The Jezebel Spirit," an electro-funk workout that uses a recording of an exorcism as its focal point, and "Very, Very Hungry," a mysteriously ethereal display of electronic percussion and large-scale sonic architecture. --S. Duda
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