Experimental music is a funny thing. If you are exposed to it enough, it tends to creep up on you and make you listen. Initially you listen out of the morbid curiosity of someone watching a freak show. After a while, a question pops in your head; who on earth would listen to something like this?. You begin to listen more intently in a vain attempt to find an answer to that question, to get inside the head of that mystery listener...

Before you know it, you've answered your own question - the listeners are people like me, people wondering who on earth would listen to something like this! By then, you're probably hooked. Sorry.

My initial encounters with strange auditory creatures came via the strangest radio show I know. And as all strange radio shows tend to, it went on air at strange, late hours of the night, times when only the PepsiMax-and-cold-pizza-fuelled nerds are awake, tapping at their keyboards, with their ear-phones blasting away.... space junk. That was the name of the radio-show: "Space Junk", and it featured all sorts of sound-scapes each one odder than odd itself.

Even though I've heard stranger (I think), "My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts" would definitely make the playlist of that show.

Two big names of alternative, experimental music, Brian Eno and David Byrne collaborate on this album to produce.... sound sculptures. That's the best way to describe them. Brian Eno made name for himself in originally Roxy Music later going solo, and Byrne is best known as the figurehead of Talking Heads, the guy in a way too big suit, and a way of dancing that makes you want to call 911 to save the poor guy having a seizure.

The album, released in -81, features some groundbreaking ideas when it comes to integrating samples of various kinds to the music. Revered by critics, apparently this album has left it's mark in music influencing a lot of more mainstream works that followed it. I guess that is what really distinguishes a notable experimental album.

But are the album's merits to be found only in the music that adapted it's ideas to mainstream, to make food for the ears of the average Joe? Is it listenable on it's own?

Well, yes, if you were the nerd listening to Space Junk at 1:00 a.m. on Saturdays as a kid. Or if you too harbour that morbid curiosity towards the freaks of sound... if you feel that strange attraction towards that which others shy away from.


Well get on with it already! What's the music like?

It's mix of ambient, pop, rock, exotic world music, bird sounds, strange percussion patterns, "found objects", samples of a fire-and-brimstone sermon, an exorcism, and an unidentified indignant radio host. Overall it's very percussion dominated, and equally well saturated with synthesizer-sounds. Fine plaster for sound sculpting, wouldn't you say?

Let's examine the tracks.


America Is Waiting

Very quirky synthesizer backgrounds that are immediately recognisable as the work of Byrne. Features samples of an "Indignant Radio Host" (San Francisco, April 1980) repeated throughout the song - nice percussion work, and a guitar riff that acts very percussion-like itself.


Mea Culpa

This one features samples of "and inflamed caller and smooth politician replying, both unidentified". Various kinds of drums, and... noise making things, create strange tribal patterns in the soundscape in between the caller and the politician. The synth adds a bit of extra oddity to the background. Very "Space Junk" indeed.


Regiment

My favourite track on the album. Starts out sounding almost normal - might even get into daytime radio... well, maybe not. Bass line dominating the beginning, then the voice of Dunya Yusin, a Lebanese mountain singer brings in a distinctly exotic flavour - the synthesizer follows with equally exotic patterns - all the while the percussion and drums of various kind play captivatingly on the background.


Help Me Somebody

Sort of a strange catchy beat to this one, with the sample from Reverend Paul Morton's sermon. Guitars play along with the percussions, and construct a simple tune that plays on the front. There definitely are some "found things" making their appearances here, whatever those are.


The Jezebel Spirit

Again, a very beat-dominated piece, with the guitars acting very percussion-like. Samples again, this time from an unidentified exorcist just doing his job. The synthesizer comes out later on with a hypnotic repetition of sounds slightly reminiscent of a xylophone... but not quite. By the time the song fades off, the synthesizer has taken over the whole sound-scape, and you find yourself staring in the distance with blank eyes.


Very, Very Hungry

An interesting guitar riff making it's mark on the percussion background, with bits of the voice of a woman sampled in. Builds up slowly. Very, very experimental, and oddly captivating...


Moonlight In Glory

Contains samples from "The Moving Star Hall Singers". Sounds like a mix of alternative and 70's funk. A sort of lazy but still somehow enthusiastic preacher-like voice speaking. There's also singing reminiscent of some sort of a fusion of African and Arabian styles. A voice imparts a story of some sort to the listener in appropriate openings in the music.


The Carrier

Dunya Yusin (the Lebanese mountain singer) is sampled again here - in this one she sings in shorter syllables, and the music with the percussion on the background manages to sound slightly like traditional Indian music, only with synthesizer effects.


A Secret Life

Exotic world-music flavours continue with samples from the Egyptian singer Samira Tewfik coming in and out in the music - notably this song feels sort of empty compared to the ones before, because of a distinct lack of percussion. Works to grab your attention, if you managed to lose it somewhere before this track.


Come With Us

A very, very "space junk" song. Various kinds of noises combine to form a sort of a complex beat, if you can call it that. A male voice (an "unidentified radio evangelist") interfeares at points with fragments of speach. Picks up speed slightly as it goes along, just before fading away.


Mountain Of Needles

The album finishes off with an ambient, spaced-out synthesizer mood. A slow traquil piece.


Conclusion

An interesting experimental album, which requires a certain late-night surreal mood from the listener. Of course it also requires a certain kind of a listener - this album is far from mainstream. Wonderful world music influences at points. All in all, makes for a nice break from more "normal" music at times though this is not the sort of music I would listen to on a daily basis.

The good thing about the album is that it doesn't indulge in 20 minute odd-repetitive-sound-stretches as some (bad) experimental music does, but rather let's the music die off when it has worn out it's welcome. Still, whereas alternative and experimental music goes, I personally prefer stuff that relies less on the synthesizer.

Recommended for weird people.

Recommended: Yes