My Life in the Bush of Ghosts

1	America Is Waiting / David Byrne 3:37
2	Mea Culpa / David Byrne 3:43
3	Regiment / David Byrne 3:57
4	Help Me Somebody / David Byrne 4:19
5	The Jezebel Spirit / David Byrne 4:57
6	Very, Very Hungry / David Byrne 3:21
7	Moonlight in Glory / David Byrne 4:22
8	The Carrier / David Byrne 3:35
9	A Secret Life / David Byrne 2:30
10	Come with Us / David Byrne 2:42
11	Mountain of Needles / David Byrne 2:37

Barnes & Noble

My Life in the Bush of Ghosts is a masterpiece of pop experimentalism. Using tape loops and raga-like song structures, Brian Eno and David Byrne worked out a brilliant formula: they out-tripped trip-hop long before Tricky, Portishead, and the advent of sampling technology. Check out "The Jezebel Spirit" -- it's a writhing, complex interweaving of found vocals, layered percussion, chiming guitars, doppler-effect synthesizer, and throbbing bass. Each song works in a similarly organic fashion. The artists' synergy is marvelous, as Eno blends the idiosyncratic bounce of his off-kilter pop with Byrne's worship of manic polyrhythms and jangly guitar sounds. An all-star line-up of musicians from the then (1979-80) fertile "downtown" New York scene (including Bill Laswell and David van Tieghem) give inspired and accomplished performances here -- a refreshing reminder of the power of musicianship in an age of machine-driven amateurism. My Life in the Bush of Ghosts captures Eno and Byrne at the height of their powers; the result is a work that is greater than the sum of its considerably talented creators. Bill Lambertson

All Music Guide

A pioneering work for countless styles connected to electronics, ambience, and Third World music, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts expands on the fourth-world concepts of Hassell/Eno work with a whirlwind 45 minutes of worldbeat/funk-rock (with the combined talents of several percussionists and bassists, including Bill Laswell, Tim Wright, David van Tieghem, and Talking Heads' Chris Frantz) that's also heavy on the samples -- from radio talk-show hosts, Lebanese mountain singers, preachers, exorcism ceremonies, Muslim chanting, and Egyptian pop, among others. It's also light years away from the respectful, preservationist angles of previous generations' field recorders and folk song gatherers. The songs on My Life in the Bush of Ghosts present myriad elements from around the world in the same jumbled stew, without regard for race, creed, or color. As such, it's a tremendously prescient record for the future development of music during the 1980s and '90s. John Bush