Brian Eno is MORE DARK THAN SHARK

INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS & RELATED ARTICLES

Xpress APRIL 20, 2006 - by Robert Penney

BRIAN ENO + DAVID BYRNE: MY LIFE IN THE BUSH OF GHOSTS (2006 VERSION)

Praised by musicians everywhere for its ground breaking cut-and-paste style samplings (or tape splicing, as the mechanical version was called in '81), My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts still feels excitingly new and innovative today, so imagine the impact it must have had twenty-five years ago. The copious amount of musical genres and styles rolled into Eno and Byrne's experimental project are as bulky as the album's heaving reissue booklet. A combination of funk, electronica, ambient and world music (Egyptian, Lebanese) ensure MLITBOG remains a fulfilling experience, even if the occasional synthesizer effects sound unsettlingly dated now. The remastered make-over sounds much clearer and balanced when compared to the '81 version, though seven unused tracks from the initial recording sessions have been crudely attached to the end, ruining the original flow of the album. While that may sound overly precious, a grand total of eighteen tracks is simply too long to digest in one sitting, especially with such an intense mixture of styles. The chant-infested bonus cut Number 8 Mix seems to tread similar ground as Moonlight In Glory and as a whole, the 'new' songs don't carry as much weight as the rest. That said, this 2006 version is still as haunting beautiful as ever, though a second disc to separate the hypnotic masterpiece from the left-over bonus tracks would have made it even better.