Talk Talk

I'm thinking about getting into Talk Talk/Mark Hollis. Dove into some of their late 80s albums last year, but they didn't do much for me. Any tips?

Laz, Loomis, Ambler, Santa... Aural?

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Cheers Ambler. Starting the Grooveshark playlist as I type...

Loving Mirror Man. Reminds me somewhat of Simple Minds' Hunter and Hunted in terms of mood and production.

Yeah, lovely string arrangement. Don't know who did that.

Main problem with The Party's Over is a lack of sonic variety and dynamics. At that point, Talk Talk were essentially a three-piece band with just keyboards, drums and bass and, as it was pre-MIDI and cheap sequencers, that severely limited their sound. Still, you've got to love a post-punk band that dares to sing in cod-Latin in the middle eight of Today. ;-)

Hollis was right to shake things up for the second album, though - couldn't have taken another dose of the same.

Almost finished with It's My Life. Huge change in scale. Anyone know what the keyboards used on this were? Lots of great ambient sounds and (what sounds like) digital delay units.

The only bit of hardware Vintage Synth lists is the PPG Wave 2. Strange.

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Can barely make out anything Hollis says. Sounds like he's always got a cold. It's obviously more than just the reverb.

No. I do not like.

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Santa wrote:

No. I do not like.

More of a Klaus Nomi girl.

40 days? I hope you're being careful.

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Talk Talk's It's My Life is one of my Top 10 80s singles...

Certainly better than No Doubt's limp version.

Erica Ambler wrote:

This is Talk Talk, eh? I always assumed this song was by Depeche Mode.

Erica Ambler wrote:

Certainly better than No Doubt's limp version.

Gwen needs to stick to her own stuff...actual song starts around 1:47

Erica Ambler wrote:

Ah, Talk Talk...

Well, a year and a half on you can consider me a Talk Talk fan. I've even grown to like Mark Hollis's voice - yeah it's nasal, congested and sometimes unintelligible, but it's bluesy in a very English way. A miserable geezer from Tottenham trying to do an Otis Redding impression, or Steve Winwood after a stroke. He's best when he just belts it out.

The Colour of Spring is obviously the best record as you said, rootsy but with an edge to it. That said, the last two have really grown on me. Great music for lying on the grass and smoking a joint to. Love the use of overdriven harmonica and harmon muted trumpet - reminds me of Gil Evans's work with Miles Davis.

One of my favourites from the early years is the standalone single My Foolish Friend. Especially this uptempo live version.



And from The Colour of Spring.

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The Montreux performance is great, but some of the arrangements are a bit sluggish.

Have you seen Snow in Berlin, the online collection of Talk Talk reviews, articles and paraphernalia?

http://www.snowinberlin.com/

On Talk Talk's self-titled debut single:

Quote :

Watery reflections of Duran Duran and Simple Minds, a contrived looking image of pretty boys all in white - gee, is virginity making a comeback? - and that’s about the size of it. The next big what? Don’t make me laugh.

Talk talk at montreux is mainly interesting today as a record of a band in transition. Starts lethargically enough with the simple and fairly unlistenable early stuff, but once the session guys begin to improvise you can see Hollis's eyes being opened; it's the start of his realisation that while pop and rock has energy, creatively it's essentially a dead end.

Looks like even in 82 Hollis had those aspirations in the back of his mind. I guess it's a question of them not having the session players and musical chops yet.

Quote :

Mark: “The whole thing about this band not having any guitarist is to get the melodies across with more force. You’ve got a rhythm section to provide the beat, and keyboards to provide the melody, which they can do much better than a guitar. In a way, the line-up is closer to a jazz quartet than a rock band. “It allows us to put more emphasis on our songs. A lot of the stuff around at the moment relies too heavily on the arrangement and the production rather than the song. But those aren’t songs. They’re just arrangements with a couple of trimmings. I like bands like The Police who just keep it simple - a good, strong rhythm section with the melody coming from the vocals.”

Always loved Talk Talk, right from the start and through all their various styles and reinventions of themselves. As we are waiting for the spring:

LAUGHING STOCK was initially not immediately accessible, but after a few listens it consolidated itself as a work of genius.

Phantom Commander wrote:

As we are waiting for the spring:

A great album.

My favorite song of theirs is either "Life's What You Make It" from the same or naturally "It's My Life" from their earlier album.