Classic Talking Heads Given Glorious Remasterings By Rhino Records
Close listeners coming into musical consciousness in the 1980s were faced with a paradox: while past recordings that had slipped into obscurity had become available once again, the sonic quality and production values that had marked the great age of vinyl had been swept aside by record companies in order to reissue as many albums as possible. From 1997, with the long-awaited remasterings of jazz masterpieces by Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock, many notable record companies have invested significant resources into the preservation and restoration of classic albums. Listeners have turned to indie labels, such as Sundazed (classic pop), Ace (vintage R&B and country), and Blood & Fire (reggae, dub, and dancehall) to procure the priceless master tapes and hire the top-notch engineers. Rhino Records has since 1978 led the remastering pack in attention to detail and care to all presentation aspects of favorite classics and forgotten obscurities, and with their new reissue of the Talking Heads record catalog, the label's Rhinophonic reissue team has once again raised the bar.
Talking Heads create crucial postmodern danceparty music. The group might usefully be described this way both in terms of its intricate musical composition and because of lyrics that depict disorientation, ironic distance and distrust as central narratives. But it's also some of the most potent and irresistably compelling pop music obtainable. The three founding members - David Byrne (b Dumbarton, Scotland, 1952; vocals and guitar), Tina Weymouth (b Coronado, CA, b. 1950; bass) and Chris Frantz (b. Fort Campbell, KY, 8 May 1951; drums) - met at Rhode Island School of Design in the early seventies. The sense of artful play and exotic experimentation derived from such an education absolutely permeate the work of Talking Heads, and quite especially in the albums Remain In Light and Speaking In Tongues, presented by Rhino in glorious 5.1 surround sound on dual-layer discs
Artful play and eclectic musical experimentation came to fruition in Talking Heads' 1980 album Remain In Light. The idea of a global sonic laboratory played a strong role here as David Byrne and producer/composer Brian Eno integrated elements of seventies Nigerian and Ghanaian Afro-Beat and highlife, dance music practices that themselves reflected the global impact of jazz and funk. The producers weren't content to dabble passively in exoticism, but instead incorporated the musical heritage, history, and performative techniques of the referenced music into a ever-growing montage of influence and style; traces of Dark Magus-era Miles Davis and Sly Stone's 1974 masterwork There's a Riot Goin On provide a backdrop of mossy jazz-funk texture to the proceedings.
"Crosseyed and Painless" and "Houses In Motion" apply a West African design pattern, in which pulses and spots of sound interact with each other in a matrix of interrelated musical moments. A sense of temporal suspension pervades "Seen and Not Seen" and "Born Under Punches," each a rich musical tapestry comprising some of the finest uses of layered rhythm in popular dance music. Remain In Light, on every level, gives listeners the impression that secret musical messages are encoded deep within the music to reward the repeated listener. The DVD includes twin 1980 appearances on German musical program Crosseyed and Painless and Once In A Lifetime.
Talking Heads' 1983 Speaking In Tongues was this writer's first vinyl record and to this day conjures the joyous mayhem and wonder of new wave culture, in which a montage of flashing pastel lights, angular shapes, colorful hair, exuberance, affectation, and ambiguity gave way to brilliant, visual pop music. Produced at the Blank Tapes studio in New York, songs like "Making Flippy Floppy" and "Moon Rocks" contain syncopated, closely interlocked bass and drum relations while sequences of keyboards and layered beats might suddenly compel a listener to run out and trip the light fantastic. Jerry Harrison, who oversaw the 5.1 surround remix described the immersive effect of the music as follows: "When these mixes are right, I feel the music can engulf you, while still giving the image a band playing in front of you." If the optimal concert experience involves both deep focus on the band's outward performance with frenetic dance interractions on the concert hall floor, this album more than any other conveys that dual sense of interpretation.
The DVD contains an alternative mix of "Burning Down The House" in 5.1 Surround Sound, and the original music videos for that song and "This Must Be The Place". Speaking In Tongues and Remain In Light are currently available at Waterloo Records.
Links:
Rhino Records
Talking Heads [Fan Site]
David Byrne [Official Site]
