Music that sounds like 'Spirit of Eden' and 'Laughing Stock'

As far as Sylvian goes, the Rain Tree Crow album is far closer to TT than anything else he has been involved with. Get that first.

Maybe some Jon Hassell in non-dancey mode? I am not a Hassell expert.

That BLue Nile record is one of my top 10 80s albums but I do not hear it in the SoE/LS continuum.

In fact the first time I ever heard LS, specifically 'Taphead', on college radio in Madison Wisconsin 1991, the host intro'd it by drawing comparisons to the Rain Tree Crow.

Great thanks, I was fishing for a Sylvian tip.

Not sure I hear any clear connection with The Blue Nile either, sometimes when the music gently swells it kinda reminds me of 'Spirit of Eden'.

Hood's late 90's output to thread

Shearwater totally WANT to be in this thread so I'll begrudge them one acknowledgment

I still haven't heard that goddamn Hood stuff! The only Hood they have on eMusic is later on.

As far as Sylvian goes, the Rain Tree Crow album is far closer to TT than anything else he has been involved with. Get that first.

lol, no

Also you kind of have to mention the Beth Gibbons & Rustin' Man record since it has at least three Talk Talk members in it (I am counting Mark Feltham).

Yeah, I picked up the Beth Gibbons & Rustin' Man record but it never really did anything for me. Been meaning to give it a fresh listen for a while now though.

there's some good stuff along these lines in this thread

sounds like late period Roxy Music

solo sylvian to me is like the archetypal new wave dude explores organic instrumentation and experimental song structures, as much as i love the rain tree crow album i'm not sure why you'd recommend rain tree crow first

i like to think that mark hollis was in someway influenced by those first three sylvian albums, has he ever mentioned this in interviews?

What is the most Talk Talk sounding Sylvian album?

S. Reynolds says in Blissed Out that along with Miles' In a Silent Way and Sketches of Spain, other precursors to the late Talk Talk sound are John Martyn's Solid Air and Roy Harper's Stormcock and albums from the jazz label ECM...*

*I have never heard any of the above-mentioned albums ever, not even late period Talk Talk (I know, I know...!)

I picked up 'Solid Air' many years ago. Of course, it's great. Pretty sure I picked it up because of a Talk Talk connection. Think Mark Hollis himself might have mentioned his name as an influence.

Stormcock is a great, great record but I don't hear much late TT in it. It's more like if Zep had a better singer and made an entire record of their best pastoral/arcadian stuff.

I tried Solid Air and kinda couldn't roll with it. The ECM catalog surely contains more apposite examples but I don't know what they are.

I'd definitely second the Hood recommendation. I have them in my mind as closer to Bark Psychosis (and even Disco Inferno) than TT (been years since I've really listened), but you should certainly give them a listen. "Cold House" is a great album.

Autistic Daughters (on Kranky) especially the second album.

SF band Laughingstock.

Also what is the name of that French band, Bed? Bedhed?

yeah, Bed.

Movietone - The Blossom-Filled Streets, this one sounds more like LS though.

Someone mentioned that in a recent Talk Talk thread and right away, even without even hearing it, I was already getting annoyed at how scarce it seems to be.

hahahaha it was me. I can upload it if you like. I'm sure it's readily available for high quality legal download too.

i always imagined that Climate of Hunter by Scott Walker sounded in this vein but I've never actually heard it.

Cheers Davek, as if if I'm not losing enough sleep with all this stuff already!!! =)

Afraid I'm a lossless guy. If I can't buy something I get mighty upset.

Autistic Daughters (on Kranky) especially the second album.

Ditto! I think that me and MaresNest say this every damn time this question comes up. They don't have the same diversity of instrumentation that Talk Talk had -just double bass, drums, guitar and voice really- but as far as honing in on that whole sustained mood, these guys are totally OTM. Guess you'd call them improvised ambient rock. The Dean Roberts solo stuff is great too, particularly the one on Kranky (Be Mine Tonight) and And The Black Moths Play The Grand Cinema which originally came out on Mille Plateaux but got reissued later by Staubgold.

The most recent Zelienople album (Give It Up) is kind of in the same vein too, but a bit more rainswept and autumnal. Actually, they're probably a closer match for Bark Psychosis, in that they're more identifiably indie than Talk Talk ever were.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHjkyddpLoY

Thanks for the Autistic Daughters heads up. I'll buy almost anthing on Kranky with confidence so that one's right to the top of the pile.

It's a shame they have such a terrible name really, cos the music is nothing like you might imagine it would be.

Mind you, Talk Talk is a really shitty name too tbh.

Ah, I was looking for a thread like this just the other day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQkU23crm3U

M@tt Climate Of Hunter is kind of like late Roxy Music/Japan but gone quiveringly paranoid and fearful. It's an incredible record and would probably appeal to most late-TT fans though I don't hear much real sonic kinship. There is this multitracked soprano sax break in Climate Of Hunter that is as much of a sonic epiphany as anything on Laughingstock.

I would mention Shearwater from a listener's perspective even if I didn't know they know these albums. Their new one, The Golden Archipelago, is one of my favorites of 2010 so far.

The Blue Nile are the closest thing in my mind to actual Talk Talk peers, even if their balance of elements is different. Thomas Dolby's album The Flat Earth is worth hearing, if you've never heard it, for another interesting example of New Wave synthpop starting to turn into something else.

And the band that actually comes closest to affecting me the way these two albums did is Low, maybe because they're doing something different enough that I don't find myself wanting to listen to Spirit of Eden instead. Haunting minimalism, more intense and less airy, more Winter than Spring.

Oh, and two other wildcards that you're probably 94% likely to find irrelevant but for the other 6%'s sake: Officium, by Jan Garbarek and the Hilliard Ensemble (jazz improv sax over early-music choir, new-age-y but for me it works), and Amazing Things, by the Celtic-rock band Runrig (neither spare nor delicate, but up there with Spirit of Eden in my pantheon of the greatest life-affirming records).

X-Post: Ha yep, A.D. always come up at these times. I never did thank you Nick for the heads up on Dean's solo records, all fantasic! So, thank you.

The Low/Dirty Three 'In the Fishtank' record has a version of Down By The River that substitues the long guitar solos with a front-loaded scratching about section that sounds a lot like Spirit Of Eden.

It doesn't necessarily use the same instruments, but with regards to dynamics and structure, I think Mary Lou Williams' Black Christ of the Andes is a pretty close correlative. The ECM recommendations are also pretty on the nose.

The middle of the album is boilerplate Van bebop sputtering, but the bookend tracks on Van Morrison's Common One sound exactly like Talk Talk and are two of his best tracks ever. Very much in the same tone and spirit as Veedon Fleece but much more expansive and ethereal. I would describe it as In a Silent Way with soft, distant Van singing in the distance.

Oh yeah, 'Haunts of Ancient Peace' OTM!

sometimes LS reminds me of Giant Sand/Calexico/Calla type of desert music

"Spanish Dancer" by Steve Winwood

I intro to this '80s cheese nugget is totally "Colour of Spring" y.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc3Sa4n0rS8

As mentioned, similar music to Spirit of Eden is Miles Davis' In A Silent Way and Hex (Bark Psychosis) which is one of my favorite albums and is, for me, perfect late-night listening and the quintessential winter album.

Spirit of Eden is one of my Desert Island albums, alongside
A Storm in Heaven (The Verve)
No Other (Gene Clark)
Lazer Guided Melodies (Spiritualized)

Aside from the obvious... Bits of Grizzly Bear's output. Bits of the last Notwist album. Rook by Shearwater. That french band called Bed (but they only sound like the quiet bits). Bits of Hidden by These New Puritans. Bits of early Elbow. Reckoner by Radiohead. That Unkle song that samples laughing Stock and has Thom Yorke on vocals. Bits of Wild Beasts.

I hear you on that Notwist album. Great thing about it is it seem's to draw influence from the more abrasive side of late Talk Talk rather than just the ethereal pretty side which seems to be the norm. See for example the wicked one note noise solo in 'Alphabet'.

No-Man's Together We're Stranger fits the bill.

"Beautiful People" - Mark Pritchard & Thom Yorke

Yeah, No-Man is a good recommendation. Their Returning Jesus precedes Together We're Stranger and is quite similar in tone. It was also just reissued in an expanded 2CD version.

Tim Bowness is no Mark Hollis, to put it mildly, but I quite like the songwriting and the instrumental textures on both of those albums (I couldn't get into their first two and have yet to hear Schoolyard Ghosts).

As far as Sylvian goes, the Rain Tree Crow album is far closer to TT than anything else he has been involved with.

i agree with this

https://youtu.be/vIaznyD076c

thanks for the loma track, that's absolutely amazing. 100% late talk talk. a beautiful build-up, even the small noisy bits remind me of them. and her voice is phenomenal. the rest of the album though doesn't click with me at all.

i meant the atonal bits of the woodwind instruments.

That's weird, because the rest of the album is totally of a piece with that track.

really? then i have to give it another go.

This lovely piece from the new Gaze is Ghost record is giving me slight TT notes.

https://gazeisghost.bandcamp.com/track/wild-geese

This is gorgeous, as is the other track - thanks Maresn3st

NP - I'm excited to hear this album when it emerges.

Yeah, I quite liked that.

gaze is ghost v lush

Lilys - Eccsame The Photon Band (1994) often gets miscategorized as "shoegaze" but has this huge Spirit of Eden (esp. the demos of) sound as well as a heaping dose of Japan/Sylvian sprinkled on top.

I feel like the drums on that record might be the controversial element there, though. I could see people feeling like it undermines the quiet moments. Had mixed feelings at one point, but for me they really give the record a unique sound.

think i'm their main cheerleader on ilm, so it would be v remiss of me not to say that zelienople put out yet another great album last year called 'hold you up'. it's all good but this is the closing track off it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JlfYpHgtjo

Zelienople are in some respects my Platonic ideal of a band but I always seem to forget about them. Just listened to Hold You Up and it's predictably gorgeous.

Matt Christensen is sounding weirdly reminiscent of Adam Granduciel on the whole record.

Oh I love this (Zelienople)

that weather station album is finally out and is really good!

Matt Christensen is sounding weirdly reminiscent of Adam Granduciel on the whole record.

― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Tuesday, February 9, 2021 4:31 AM (eight hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I thought "wait, who is that?" then as soon as I hear the first syllable of vocals in the above song, instantly "oh yeah that guy"

surprised that there's not been mention of sylvian's nine horses project though.

Just stumbled on this and thought of this thread. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5hp4nIJd-8

I feel that unearth, one of the great and most consistent users of RYM, has basically his whole taste built around Talk Talk.
https://rateyourmusic.com/list/unearth/eternal-recurrence/1/

I only got to 150 but good grief that’s a dull list.

It's auto-generated from 5-star reviews in Mojo.

breathtakingly curious about user unearth's thoughts on women

Careful, there might be a list

So his taste is drastically different than most people who would be reading a message board thread about Talk Talk?

idk let's magnify the boring and poll it

last few comments aren't really in the spirit of this great thread tbh and a bit unnecessary

is the need to feel superior to someone that pressing, really

the internet took "hey we like the same things, let's be friends!" and mutated that into "i only like you if you hate the same things as me."

although, yes: i am automatically suspicious of any rate your music user.

Modern Nature's Annual from last year (or was it the year before?). Their new album Island of Noise is perhaps more like Mark Hollis

So uh, this was just released today:

https://mellotone.net/collections/held-by-trees

It's now on streaming platforms but no non-lossy digital downloads are available yet.

Listening to this now. It's nice - like morning vacation music. Reminds me a bit of All India Radio's vibe.

sounds like an AI was tasked with making something that sounds like a Talk Talk album

Well, "members of Talk Talk, etc" lacking Hollis has a similar weight as "a new movie from one of the Executive Producers of...", so hearing it more in RIYL vein, works for me.

is there an uncanny valley for music?

stereophonics

Is there really anything that sounds like Spirit of Eden?

I'll cross-link this thread about Thirteen Moons to this thread:

Thirteen Moons (RIYL Talk Talk, Tim Buckley, Blue Nile, 4AD, et al)

Who sound like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHlzkIml28E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSsVQ2HqwKQ

Also worthy of mention, a biography of Hollis is coming out in the next couple of months. Somebody Wardle?

Ordered it--hope it's good!

Current issue of mojo apparently has an excerpt

the Held By Trees album is really good (though the last track definitely gets guitar wanky in a more Dire Straits/Floyd way than some might like).

if anyone is looking for music that sounds very like early talk talk, have you heard this one yet?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WljEUb0815g
Zakochany Człowiek - Better Person

the artist is called better person btw, zakochany człowiek is the name of the song

The new Thousands record is rather good and fulfills this criteria - https://thousands.bandcamp.com/album/no-farther-moon

Lately I have been enjoying Modern Nature's No Fixed Point in Space, which features Julie Tippetts and Chris Abrahams of The Necks, also Maria Elena Silva's "Jasper" (wait for the brushed snare at 3mins):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLKKvOXuyTQ