Brian Eno - David Byrne – My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts

Easily the best sounding pressing of this important album. Snare a copy if you can!

This CD version is the one to have ! Why ?
Because it's complete , that's why ! As simple as that !

Great sound on this pressing. Really punchy bass. Foot tapping guaranteed.

Incredible record. ‘Regiment’, “Qu’ran”, ‘The Carrier’, & ‘A Secret Life’ all feel like you’re communing with a Higher Power. Burn some incense and enjoy.

Honestly don’t know exactly what pressing I have, and way too lazy to research it, but it is an original from 1981, and it sounds absolutely amazing. And it is one of the flimsiest records I have (100 gram?), but kills most 180 gram records I own.

The album’s title was taken from the 1954 novel “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts” by Nigerian writer Amos Tutuola. The work is entirely metaphorical, revolving around an unnamed West African boy and his older brother, both lost in the the bush, the wilderness, perhaps even a metaphor for his mind, attempting to outdistance himself from slave traders. Like the album, the book is a collection of related narratives, it’s dreamlike and surreal, and again, like the album, stands on shifting sands, devoid of chronological order. This lack of A to Z presentation is what makes the work of David Byrne and Brian Eno so interesting and nearly imperative, as it matters not what order one plays the tracking, matter of fact, it’s much more delightful to play this album in random order, an aspect not easily achieved with vinyl or cassette, yet with the introduction of the compact disc, the record blossoms over and over again, as if seeing the same sunset from differing perspectives.

It’s easy to listen to this record without understanding the nature of the concept, yet once one has read the book, the record becomes impossible to listen to without attempting to understand how the songs interweave with the written word. The music presents the boy’s unawareness of the dangers hiding in the bush, a nocturnal word of spirits and ghosts that pray on mere mortals, where the songs profoundly act as a narrator, moving the listener though a series of nightmares and haunting experiences.

David Byrnes and Brian Eno draw deeply form Tutuola’s belief in African folklore, distilling a sense of otherworldliness, where the line between reality and faith is razor thin, offering up an insightful listen regarding the human condition during desperate times.

***The Fun Facts: Package design and artwork was created by Peter Saville. The cover image was created by pasting small cutout humanoid shapes onto a monitor and pointing a camera at it to create video feedback, infinitely multiplying the shapes. Byrne said of the process: "Somehow, despite it being very techie, these techniques also seemed analogous to what we were doing on the record. It was funky as well as being techie. Extremely lo-tech, actually, and not what you were supposed to do with a TV set."

Review by Jenell Kesler

Good pressing, sound more than correct and delighted to have this second bonus disc for this emblematic album

I'll echo nabuchodinosaurus's review - amazing quality vinyl. I was fortunate to be working in record stores and a'ready well-acquainted with Eno's and Byrne/Talking Heads's respective and shared ouvre, so I had the chance to pick up a Japanese import copy of the record (preferred but definitely pricier source as American vinyl was spotty ay best in those days). Qu'Ran is definitely a standout track, not the only one, and the record sands well without it, but its loss to the listening public due to the Islamic Council of Great Britain objecting to the samples of Qur'anic recital in the track as blasphemy, and the track disappeared after the original pressings. In 2006, Byrne said: "We thought, 'Okay, in deference to somebody's religion, we'll take it off.' You could probably argue for and against [but] we were certainly feeling very cautious ... to try and clear all the voices, and make sure everybody was okay with everything ... So ... we reacted maybe with more caution than we had to." But you can listen to it on YouTube.

Incredibly dynamic, silent pressing. Even the sleeve feels higher quality than normal. Wish all records were like this. Great job by Pallas.

A very good sounding Canadian pressing of probably one of the most important records of the last century, important then and in our present time. And it takes a lot of good English to explain, why and how. To give it a try: There is a collection of vocals and voices of religious heritage, put beside each other from track to track, beautiful or menacing or both at the same time, Christian, Islam, and other, more obscure ones, framed with sound, without any animosity towards any of them, acknowledging each one's validity simply by embedding them in brilliant music. And there are, in other tracks, political voices, that practice treason on themselves just by the way they sound, while serving again the beauty of the music. Speaking of the music, highlights are and have been at the time of their release: "The Jezebel Spirit", a Disco classic from the times of the famous Paradise Garage in NYC (that there was to be heard an unidentified exorcist in this dance track was of no importance for the dancers, probably they took it as an interesting atmospheric sound). "Regiment", another trippy down beat dance music for New Wavy Clubs and Punk venues, very intense, with the unbelievable singing technique of a female Lebanese mountain singer. "Help Me Somebody", fast and driving, again made for dancing or jumping yourself into a trance. The beautiful "Moonlight In Glory" you might hear driving a car though a lonely night somewhere in the country. And last but not least the first track on side B, that was cancelled (cancel culture already then) in later releases, just because some religious people would not accept, that their beautiful and holy lyrics would be used for a magnificent piece of art, and will threaten the life of people who would dare to publish this art. Talking about culture(s). And the knowledge about tolerance, that comes with that. All this concerns questions that are even more current today.