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

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

what about parts of gone to earth?

for sure but production-wise, RTC is the closest thing i've heard that sounds like late talk talk: avant-pastoral jams with digital clarity

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

i mean https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEJe6cJ10kw

yeah i wasn't challenging, it just occurred to me at the moment that Gone to Earth has a lot of that stillness and pastoral trumpets and sleekness and stuff

yeah they both rule, i really just wanted to post that RTC song. and actually thinking about it, i believe this thread is actually what led me into the deep sylvian rabbit hole a few years back

The new Gaussian curve

I love Shearwater and will defend them to the hilt against the charge of being Talk Talk copyists. That said, there is enough in their Island Arc trilogy to satisfy any TT fan, although I feel Palo Santo has more similarities than the aforementioned Rook.

Since someone mentioned Autistic Daughters upthread, Dean Roberts's Be Mine Tonight is wonderful as well, though I haven't heard it in years. I wish he hadn't given up on music (assuming that's what happened).

Sigur Ros - ()

"ave yet to hear Schoolyard Ghosts" you need to hear that one, it's a much more tonally compatible album (in that, I feel like much of No-Man is a bit electronica heavy; that album, however, is not).

that barbieri-hogarth album is good too.

hogarth is an unabashed hollis fanboy

I did these two mixes pretty much seeking this feeling--maybe equal parts Talk Talk and Blue Nile as the inspiration:

https://musicophilia.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/musicophilia_00_various_-_the-dawning_1981-1989_cover.jpg?w=600

Various – ‘The Dawning’
(1981-1989)

Part I

01 [00:00] The Blue Nile – “Over the Hillside” (Hats, 1989)
02 [05:00] Heaven 17 – “Let Me Go” (The Luxury Gap, 1983)
03 [09:16] Hot Gossip – “Morale” (Geisha Boys and Temple Girls, 1981)
04 [12:18] Dif Juz – “The Last Day” (Extractions, 1985)
05 [16:13] Tears for Fears – “Start of the Breakdown” (The Hurting, 1983)
06 [21:03] Mick Karn – “Tribal Dawn” (Titles, 1982)
07 [25:12] Thomas Dolby – “The Flat Earth” (The Flat Earth, 1984)
08 [31:34] Peter Gabriel – “Zaar” (Passions, 1989)
09 [35:56] Nona Hendryx – “Off the Coast of Love” (Skin Diver, 1989)
10 [40:23] Cocteau Twins – “Lazy Calm” (Victorialand, 1986)
11 [44:34] Talk Talk – “I Believe In You” (Spirit of Eden, 1988)

Part II

12 [50:40] Comsat Angels – “After the Rain” (Fiction, 1982)
13 [54:31] King Crimson – “Two Hands” (Beat, 1982)
14 [57:48] Bel Canto – “Without You” (White Out Conditions, 1987)
15 [61:43] Scott Walker – “Dealer” (Climate of Hunter, 1984)
16 [66:33] Scritti Politti – “Absolute” (Cupid & Psyche ’85, 1985)
17 [70:53] Arthur Russell – “This Is How We Walk On the Moon” (Another Thought, 1984)
18 [75:34] David Sylvian – “Orpheus” (Secrets of the Beehive, 1987)
19 [80:20] Durutti Column – “Love No More” (Vini Reilly, 1989)
20 [83:06] Kate Bush – “Never Be Mine” (The Sensual World, 1989)
21 [86:42] David Byrne – “Ghosts” (The Knee Plays, 1985)
22 [89:54] Colin Newman – “I Can Hear You” (Commercial Suicide, 1986)
23 [94:16] This Mortal Coil – “Ivy and Neet” (Filigree & Shadow, 1986)
24 [99:04] Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark – “Of All The Things We’ve Made” (Dazzle Ships, 1983)

[Total Time: 1:42:27]

Download or Stream

https://musicophilia.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/musicophilia_00_various_-_evensong_1985-1995_2017_cover.jpg?w=600

Various – ‘Evensong’
(1985-1995)

Part I

01 [00:00] It’s Immaterial – New Brighton” (Song, 1990)
02 [05:31] Tears for Fears – “The Working Hour” (Songs From the Big Chair, 1985)
03 [12:06] Tortoise – “His Second Story Island” (Tortoise, 1994)
04 [14:14] Michael Brook & Pieter Nooten – “Searching” (Sleeps With the Fishes, 1987)
05 [17:07] Shelleyan Orphan – “One Hundred Hands” (Helleborine, 1987)
06 [21:29] Stina Nordenstam – “A Walk In the Park” (Memories of a Color, 1991)
07 [24:54] Sade – “Pearls” (Love Deluxe, 1992)
08 [29:38] Massive Attack – “Protection” (Protection, 1994)
09 [37:26] The Cure – “The Same Deep Water As You” (Disintegration, 1989)
10 [46:19] Depche Mode- “Waiting For the Night” (Violator, 1990)

Part II

11 [52:41] Evelyn Glennie – “Light in Darkness” (Light In Darkness, 1991)
12 [55:59] R.E.M. – “Sweetness Follows” (Automatic For the People, 1992)
13 [60:21] The Innocence Mission – “Medjugorje” (The Innocence Mission, 1989)
14 [61:53] Disco Inferno – “Second Language” (Second Language EP, 1994)
15 [66:52] Slowdive – “Rutti” (Pygmalion, 1995)
16 [76:53] Rain Tree Crow – “Cries and Whispers” (Rain Tree Crow, 1991)
17 [79:26] Bark Psychosis – “Pendulum Man” (Hex, 1994)
18 [82:37] Peter Gabriel – “Mercy Street” (So, 1986)
19 [88:27] Low – “Sunshine” (I Could Live In Hope, 1994)
20 [91:35] Portishead – “Roads” (Dummy, 1994)
21 [96:44] Hector Zazou & Bjork – “Visur Vatnsenda-Rosu” (Songs From the Cold Seas, 1994)

[Total Time: 1:40:43]

Download or Stream

Those look great. (getting a 'permission denied' on the Evensong download btw)

It bothers me that The Colour Of Spring gets overlooked because of these two albums. They're great and everything but COS is up there too (and the songs are catchier)

Very otm

Soundslike - those comps look fantastic

Does Lucio Battisti - 'Abbracciala Abbracciali Abbracciati' go here? I think it does. Maybe a slightly oblique similarity, though the opening bars are strikingly prescient of Talk Talk (maybe some point just before SOE,) or even Bark Psychosis. So good anyway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wROsW8vjXjI

Also Gigi Masin - again maybe slightly obliquely related by mood but a few tracks on Wind conjur a similar thing in an ambient jazz way. 'Swallows Tempest' maybe not the closest example but it's the one I want to post.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwSEl3pcs_k

uh how have we not mentioned These New Puritans - Field Of Reeds yet? it's easily the closest anyone's gotten IMO

Crosspost--if you get a "permission denied" on Mediafire, it usually works if you close the tab and try again...

06 [21:29] Stina Nordenstam – “A Walk In the Park” (Memories of a Color, 1991)
07 [24:54] Sade – “Pearls” (Love Deluxe, 1992)

This is such a great one-two.

Like a charm, Soundslike, thanks!

soundslike - I listen to the the dawning all the time, brilliant stuff

yeah, I love your mixes. listen to most of the ones i've gathered a lot

That Lucio Battisti track is great but it sounds even closer to the Apartments than Talk Talk

What say you

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoYQn86CL9I

That Battisti track is fantastic, and so is the Gigi Masin, whether or not they sound like Talk Talk : )

And thanks guys, re: my mixes--those two just seemed relevant to the discussion. (Don't want to derail the thread, but worth taking a look at the site generally--put up 29 new mixes in 2017, plus collections of a lot of previous series, including the 'Sensory Replication Series' ones that I think fans of Talk Talk would probably really like, even if they don't always sound like Talk Talk. This one is probably the best mix I've ever done.)

Listening to Sensory Replication Series now. Very good so far. Thanks for the mixes. I've just followed you on Mixcloud too, so i'm looking forward to catching new mixes soon.

I too have done some mixes, though perhaps not quite as nice as yours, but they do fit with the vibe here. Horizontal Street Fighting is perhaps the closest: https://www.mixcloud.com/biznotic/horizontal-street-fighting/, but Ambient Excursions, Reflections on the Edge of Summer, and Ancient Heavenly Connection also tread this line. They stray into modern classical and the atmospheric side of balaeric, but they include lots of space between the noises and quiet moments.

https://www.mixcloud.com/biznotic/horizontal-street-fighting/
https://www.mixcloud.com/biznotic/ancient-heavenly-connection/

the last track of the new bitchin bajas hits this zone for me

That Khan Jamal is nice, too. It's 'Spirit of Eden' mostly in the same sense that 'In A Silent Way' is clearly an influence, but the dubby quality and occasional bursts of louder sound are definitely in the right zone.

Listening to 'Horizontal Street Fighting' now--can you post a tracklist Brotherlovesdub? Thanks for listening to mine!

1. Interference (excerpt)by Lightning in a Twilight Hour
2. Street Fight by Durutti Column
3 Cala Conta Sunset by Coyote
4 Wireless MK 2 (featuring Roger Eno) by The Orb
5 Scripted Space by Suzanne Kraft
6 Post Tenebras Lux by Bartosz Kruczyński
7 Crazy For You by Slowdive
8 Cristina And Carolina by Jonny Nash
9 Interference (excerpt) by Lighting in a Twilight Hour
10 Please Drive Carefully by Jon Brooks
11 Children On The Hill by Harold Budd
12 Newport Market by The Hardy Tree
13 Song To The Siren by This Mortal Coil

This looks like a reflection of my current listening habits so yeah, I'm on it.

Also, Jon Brooks' work is shamefully underrated.

I agree. I have his albums on Clay Pipe and they are fantastic. I have a couple Ghost Box things too, but I prefer the Clay Pipe albums.

another great mix brotherlovesdub!

Can't believe no one mentioned Cymande's "Dove." Totally reminds me of "New Grass"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcL8SvyKtE4

or really it was the other way around ... new grass reminded me of dove

another one that sounds very Talk Talk esque is that breakthrough Sebastian Tellier record

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30O92akDeJg

Totally forgot Mark Hollis co-wrote Chaos on the first UNKLE album. Fits the vibe but it would, wouldn't it? This video uploaded by a mysterious 'Mookie'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avIN3-VY6ws

There's a Trembling Blue Stars song called 'Fragile' that's a pretty obvious homage to Laughing Stock. It's great.

Not 100% sure it'll appeal to folks in this thread like with the 'Evensong' and 'The Dawning' mixes, but partly inspired by the recommendation of Gigi Masin in this thread, thought I'd share another mix that is going for spiritually/emotionally for a Talk Talk-like space.

https://musicophilia.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/nocturnes_v01a.jpg?w=800

Various - 'Nocturnes'
(A Tribute to Serpentwithfeet | 1969-2017)

01 [00:00] Arca - "Piel" (2017)
Neil Young - "Guitar Solo 1" (1996)
Jon Hassell - "Blues Nile" (1977)

02 [03:55] FKA Twigs - "Kicks" (New Energy, 2014)
J.S. Bach - "Cello Suite No. 2, BWV 1008, Sarbande" (1723)
Burning Star Core - "The Universe Is Designed To Break Your Mind" (2007)

03 [09:30] Big Star - "Holocaust (Demo)" (1976)
Peter Gabriel - "At Night" (1986)
Bhutan Tibetan Monks - "Tibetan Shawms" (1971)
Biota - "Astray" (1987)

04 [13:00] Scott Walker - "Rosary" (1995)
Michael Nyman - "1-100" (1975)

05 [15:40] Paul Buchanan - "After Dark" (2012)
The Haxan Cloak - "Mara" (2013)

06 [19:00] Nina Simone - "Dambalaa" (1974)
David Sylvian - "Approaching Silence" (1999)

07 [25:00] Bjork & The Brodsky Quartet - "The Anchor Song" (2000)

08 [28:50] Bulgarian State Television Female Vocal Choir - "Poleganala e Todora" (1975)
Rachel's - "Full On Night" (1995)

09 [32:25] Gigi Masin - "Consequences of Goodbyes" (1986)
Floating Points - "Elaenia" (2015)

10 [36:10] Buffy Sainte-Marie - "Poppies" (1969)
Michael Brook & Brian Eno - "Pond Life" (1985)

11 [38:55] Low - "Lift" (1997)
Jon Hopkins - "Abandon Window" (2013)

12 [44:15] Serpentwithfeet - "Blisters" (2016)
Arvo Part - "Tabula Rasa 1 - Ludus" (1977)

[Total Time: 52:40]

Download or stream here

looks great - thank you!

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