From the Vaults: Talk Talk

(Originally posted on Glamorama in 2004)

Imagine, if you would, a world without Talk Talk...

Imagine if Radiohead had never made Kid A.
Imagine if DJ Shadow had nothing to sample.
Imagine if Doves and Sigur Ros didn’t exist.

Talk Talk began life as a part of the “New Romantic” genre along with the likes of Duran Duran. Their hit from this incarnation, “It’s My Life”, was recently made a hit again by No Doubt. But their pop beginnings are of little consequence when one considers what they discovered later. After years of living the high life as an 80s pop star, Mark Hollis came off heroin and made two albums of ambient orchestration and lush live instrumentation.

“Spirit of Eden” and “Laughing Stock”, although they were made in 1988 and 1991 respectively, sound better than pretty much anything being before or since. The successful marriage of rock with looser, more abstract jazz structures is second to none. The warm organic feel of guitar, tom drums, harmonica and strings is something numerous groups since have tried to replicate, however unsuccessful they may have been.

“Spirit of Eden” was the true breakthrough. First song “The Rainbow” is an absolute gem, as a slowed down swamp rock section gives way to a choral breakdown that is basically every song Doves have ever written. Second song “Eden” recalls The Velvet Underground’s “Heroin”, and one can be sure that Hollis was on intimate terms not only with that band’s music, but also with the song’s dark subject matter.

Listen to "The Rainbow":

[Download the MP3 Here]

When "Laughing Stock" was released in 1991, it represented a continuation of “Eden”. Considering that "Eden" got the band dropped from EMI, it shows how courageous Hollis really was. After releasing what most fans saw at the time as a cryptic, impenetrable record, he did not return to the band’s pop origins. Rather, he pushed forward with the dazzling new music his group had pioneered. All told, “Laughing Stock” could be even better than “Spirit of Eden”. The ethereal melody of “Ascension Day” floats above an uneasy bed of jazz drumming and noisy guitar. The music repeatedly swells up and then recedes again, offering fleeting glimpses of the song's emotional center. The track “New Grass” would later be sampled by DJ Shadow to form the foundation of Unkle’s “Rabbit In Your Headlights” (incidentally, Hollis would also appear on the album “Psyence Fiction”, playing uncredited guitar on “Chaos”).

Listen to "New Grass":

[Download the MP3 Here]

Discovering the strange and exciting music of latter-day Talk Talk, one thinks back to the early 90s and wonders what he/she could have possibly been listening to that was better than “Spirit Of Eden” or “Laughing Stock”. If you are constantly searching for music that reveals new realms of human experience, that opens up the drawers Salvidor Dali imagined in each person's subconscious, then you will find Talk Talk a revelation. It is beyond rock, beyond pop, and beyond jazz. It carves out its own musical genre, showing us at the same time that such classifications are completely unnecessary.

"I Believe in You" Promo: