Brian Eno is MORE DARK THAN SHARK

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Mojo AUGUST 2007 - by Johnny Black

BRIAN ENO AND DAVID BYRNE: MY LIFE IN THE BUSH OF GHOSTS

A brace of egghead musos trigger the sampling landslide that will terraform rock's sonic landscape.

Delayed by a lawsuit from a faith healer furious at having her voice sampled, and censored after complaints from Islamic clerics who objected to the use of verses from the Qur'an, it's a wonder this mash-up milestone ever saw daylight. Borrowing its name from a kaleidoscopically fantastical 1954 novel by Amos Tutuola, My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts found ambient guru Eno and Talking Heads leader Byrne swerving into territory bizarre even by their own recherché standards. The rockin' domeheads morphed vocal samples, including ritual exorcism texts, fire and brimstone evangelists and Egyptian disco divas into tribal drum loops, minimalist funk guitars and quirky synth textures to create tracks that were by turns startling, dream-like or just flat-out freaky. Talking Heads' Remain In Light was its immediate chart-busting offspring but it's My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts that subsequently legitimised sampling for the wider rock fraternity, as everyone from Goldie to 808 State and Moby will testify.