Ba Da Bing Records announced this year their plans to reissue both Talk Talk’s final (and perhaps finest) album, Laughing Stock, and Mark Hollis’s self-titled solo release. One immediately asks the question: “Why no reissue of Talk Talk’s other magnum opus, Spirit of Eden?” So that got me reading. Being a recent fan of Mark Hollis’s later work - my brother-in-law introduced me to the later albums a couple years back - I was unaware of their tragic story. It’s definitely a recurring one: the conflict between artistic vision and capitalist commodification. Johnny Rotten screamed it best:
There’s unlimited supply
And there is no reason why
I tell you it was all a frame
They only did ‘cause of fame
Who?
E.M.I! E.M.I.! E.M.I.!
Talk Talk were one of the more promising acts of the “New Romantic” synthpop movement of the early 80s. They were grouped with other successful artists of the “2nd British Pop Invasion,” acts such as Duran Duran and Culture Club. Unlike these groups, Talk Talk were developing musically in a direction that would take them far, far away from the realm of popular, commercial tastes of 80s mainstream music culture. After much success on EMI, they were finally offered “unlimited supply,” but like many musicians, they did not realize “...it was all a frame / They only did ‘cause of fame.” Another online article expresses the next part of the story better than I could:“With... [an] unlimited studio budget, Hollis proceeded to record his masterpiece, Spirit of Eden. Released in 1988, it was purely improvised and took a year and a half to record. Musicians would come in and jam for hours at a time in a darkened studio lit with incense and candles..... Spirit of Eden has not dated; it's remarkable how contemporary it sounds, anticipating post-rock, the Verve and Radiohead. It's the sound of an artist being given the keys to the kingdom and returning with art. Yet upon completion it was seen as utter commercial suicide, as if Duran Duran had released a krautrock, free jazz, gospel album after Notorious. EMI responded by suing Hollis for being willfully obscure and un-commercial, much as when David Geffen sued Neil Young for not sounding Neil Young enough. This ridiculous case was eventually thrown out of court, yet it had a long lasting impact on the music industry. The lawsuit set the precedent for the clause that a band's recordings have to be of a commercially satisfactory nature....
....I find the whole story of one man against the system in a bid to maintain creative control incredibly heartening. After the EMI debacle, Talk Talk took up with Polydor who revived the jazz label Verve to put out Laughing Stock, which was even more loose and experimental than Spirit of Eden. Yet the band ceased soon after its release. No particularly reason was given for the split.”
The album can be described, without hyperbole, as a masterpiece. It’s beautiful, and it does anticipate post-rock sensibilities that have only recently caught on in terms of mainstream musical culture. Here’s the music video of the track, “I Believe in You”:
And that was the more marketable song of the album. I apologize for the sound quality of that video. You would think that, if we were going to be advertised to by Vevo, they could at least provide a file of acceptable sound quality.
Sadly, the run-ins with record company bulldozing does not end here for Mark Hollis and Talk Talk. After litigation and law suits, they leave EMI and sign to Polydor’s imprint, Verve Records, to record their greatest accomplishment yet, Laughing Stock (1991 Polydor/Verve Records). The record explores more deeply the artistic directions displayed in their previous project, Spirit of Eden (1988 EMI). There’s lots of improvisation, multi-layers of diverse instrumentation, and a distinct lack of compression, giving space for both tranquility and loudness. Here’s one of my favorite tracks “Ascension Day”:
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Once again, they created a musical masterpiece, and nobody noticed. EMI simultaneously released a remix of their previous greatest hits to steal their thunder, and they did so without the artists’ permission. Lawsuits were declared, and that’s all the press cared about. Interviews focused less on their new artistic effort (which they poured their heart and soul into... the sessions were notoriously long, arduous, and obsessive according to many sources...), and instead, interviewers simply wanted the latest scoop on the current legal drama. It was around this time the band disintegrated, which is tragic. If profit margins, marketing strategies, and legal disputes had not been the obstacles they were, would Hollis still be recording music that proves consistently ahead of its time? Who knows? But reasons for his premature silence seem obvious, and that’s why one can’t help but hate corporate record companies. When it comes to art, they can be toxic. All that to say, I just received the newly reissued vinyl of Talk Talk’s last album, and it sounds amazing. There are so many layers and so many spaces in this album, and the purity of vinyl sound makes it all the more crisp and distinguishable. I believe this is the first time the album was released in the vinyl format for American markets. Why it took this long, I have no idea, but I do know one thing. Tragically, we won’t be seeing a reissue of Spirit of Eden anytime soon. On that note, I leave you with this:
What a great video!!! And it’s in Dallas! Also, check out Hollis’s later solo album as well, Mark Hollis (1998 Polydor/Verve Records). It too was rereleased by Ba Da Bing Records on Vinyl. In honor of EMI, I am leaving you with only one link to the album, Spirit of Eden.
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