My Life in the Bush of Ghosts [ENHANCED]

David Byrne (Composer, Performer), Brian Eno (Composer, Performer), Tim Wright (Performer), Busta Jones (Performer), Bill Laswell (Performer), Chris Frantz (Performer), David Van Tieghem (Performer), John Cooksey (Performer)

Product Details

• Performer: David Byrne, Brian Eno, Tim Wright, Busta Jones, Bill Laswell, et al.
• Composer: David Byrne, Brian Eno
• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced
• Label: Sire / London/Rhino
• ASIN: B000002MM1
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #155,038 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

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

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording

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

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Techno-africa?, April 3, 2000

By	DAC Crowell (Rankin, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This is such a strange, wonderful work. Many claim this is the 'start of sampling', but the real fact is that the admitted inspiration here is Holger Czukay's "Movies"; anyone who likes this should also buy that release. Byrne and Eno, around the same period as Talking Heads' "Fear of Music" and "Remain in Light", crafted this 'instrumental' (there are vocals, but they're all from recorded sources!) record, which shares a lot of the feel of those two albums. It's also related to Eno's collaboration with Jon Hassell, "Fourth World, Vol. 1", with that being the pure-ambience side of the African/Arabic soundscape that this album occupies. Musically, this is a heady brew, with downtown NYC funk side by side with sampled Lebanese folksingers, and strange sci-fi ambiences swirled together with ominous voices beamed in from...somewhere. Hard to explain, really. Best way I could explain this is to describe it as the soundtrack to some strange Egyptian redux of "Blade Runner" that has yet to be shot, if ever! Buy!

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow, July 14, 2000

By	P. McGrath "prmcgr" (Orlando, FL United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The immediate post-punk music scene of the late '70's and early 80's was unquestionably the most musically inspired era of our time. Up until that time, Rock & Roll had stratified and corporatized and there was virtually nothing worthwhile playing on the radio. Into that creative void leapt pioneers like David Byrne (then still with Talking Heads) and Brian Eno (formerly with Roxy Music). The two came together on a series of collaborative efforts - every single one of which has stood the test of time (note also the "Catherine Wheel", Talking Heads' "More Songs About Buildings and Food", "Fear of Music" and - of course, "Remain in Light"). "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" is their penultimate effort. Bizarre and sublime at the same time, virtually every track on what was then Side 1 on vinyl is a singular achievement.

The herky-jerky, and twisted, "America is Waiting" (Track 1), the menacing (and paradoxically humorous) "Mea Culpa" (Track 2), the haunting "Regiment" (featuring a Lebanese folk singer accompanied by electric guitar - Track 3), the wonderful "Help Me Somebody" (sampling aviary noises accompanied by the impassioned pleas of a black preacher - Track 4), and the skin crawling intensity of "Jezebel Spirit" (sampling voices from an exorcisim (!) with an unstoppable beat - Track 5) are all (for better or for worse) forever etched in my mind.

The remaining tracks traverse much more ambient terrain (and are not nearly as intense as Tracks 1 through 5 - almost a welcome relief, especially after "Jezebel Spirit"). Unlike a lot of ambient music, though, Side Two is not musical wallpaper.

"My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" has got to be heard to be believed.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars groundbreaking and mesmerizing, April 6, 2000

By A Customer

If you're fond of Moby's "Play," you'll love this album. Decades before Moby decided to take creaky old gospel wails and blues hollers and fuse them onto gleaming, haunted electronic grooves, Brian Eno and David Byrne were doing exactly the same thing--only with even more imagination. Behind the funky musical backdrop of "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" you'll hear TV chatter, Arabic chants, exorcisms, random shouts. It's truly a wild ride--like a quantum-leaping psychic journey from Mississippi to Mecca to Manhattan and then finally all the way up to a mountain in rural Japan. If you're at all curious about the roots of ambient music, electronica, sampling, "world beat"--well, Byrne and Eno paved the way for a lot of those genres with this gorgeous, hypnotic album. Check it out.