A pioneering work for countless styles connected to electronics, ambience, and Third World music,
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
expands on the fourth-world concepts of
Hassell
/
Eno
work with a whirlwind 45 minutes of
worldbeat
funk
-
rock
(with the combined talents of several percussionists and bassists, including
Bill Laswell
,
Tim Wright
David van Tieghem
, and
Talking Heads
'
Chris Frantz
) that's also heavy on the samples -- from radio talk-show hosts, Lebanese mountain singers, preachers, exorcism ceremonies, Muslim chanting, and Egyptian
pop
, among others. It's also light years away from the respectful, preservationist angles of previous generations' field recorders and
folk song
gatherers. The songs on
present myriad elements from around the world in the same jumbled stew, without regard for race, creed, or color. As such, it's a tremendously prescient record for the future development of music during the 1980s and '90s. ~ John Bush