The Essential… Brian Eno

07: BRIAN ENO / DAVID BYRNE
MY LIFE IN THE BUSH OF GHOSTS
(SIRE, 1981)

Named after a 1954 eco-existentialist novel by Amos Tutuola, My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts was recorded between the release of Talking Heads’ Fear of Music (1979) and the recording of Remain In Light (1980) – both of which were overseen by Eno. It’s one of the very first sample-based albums, combining densely layered rhythms with voice recordings of – among other things – preacher Paul Morton, Lebanese mountain singer Dunya Yusin and, most memorably, an “unidentified exorcist” on ‘The Jezebel Spirit’. A big influence on hip-hop and the more exploratory strains of punk-funk – from A Certain Ratio on to early DFA-  My Life In The Bush of Ghosts is pop-art at its most questing.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, August 5th, 2010 at 4:39 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

  • Adfih

    it's BLACKwater.

  • username7410

    What the hell? No space for 'Here Comes The Warm Jets'? …think I might not even bother to read the list.

  • ae

    no adfih, it's definitely 'backwater'

  • http://twitter.com/GeraldEmerald Gerald Emerald

    True the name is 'backwater' but I'm sure the lyric is 'black water', but I guess that's beside the point and you win Sir!

  • Telstar777

    Agreed. This article wastes my time by not including Tiger Mountain and Warm Jets. And since the writer went to so much trouble to include other collaborations, might as well throw For Your Pleasure and the first Roxy lp in there too.

  • Tom Lea

    it’s not a blog, Dames.

  • dames

    'spotify'? 'Proto techno'? Internet wanker.

  • dames

    totally!!! How can you leave out some of the main Eno albums in the larger context of… main Eno albums? totally wtf. Note he doesn't even unitalicise the 'and' between the album titles in his haste for blogging glory…

  • malco49

    how can one NOT include an artist's crowning achievement? no taking tiger mountain(by strategy) ? like user7410 i might not even read the list

  • Jckiley

    Kiran = dilrod

  • Arturo_Ulises

    This is far from essential.

  • Fasf

    this list is great, i would make it like this,
    all essentials are her..GOOD WORK! thanks

  • Ian

    Umm, how about the first two Roxy Music albums, and Warm Jets and Tiger Mountain? I’m pretty sure these are more essential than some of the ambient work.

  • Paul Delvecchio

    There’s rarely bad Eno, and all these albums are great, but I like the ordering on this list a bit better. http://echoesblog.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/brian-eno-1-icon-of-echoes/

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