BRIAN ENO & DAVID BYRNE – My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts – CD+ – 094633134126

The sampled speech from various, mainly religious, sources ties the album into a long and prestigious history of artists who used found sound, which David Toop capably outlines in the liner notes. It’s still the secret sauce that provokes a reaction from the listener. But what reaction you have lies outside of Byrne’s, Eno’s, or your control. On the first half, where the voices are least chopped up, it’s difficult to divorce them from their origins. A couple of tracks read as satire– “America Is Waiting” sounds like Negativland with a way better rhythm section– and others as kitsch. “Help Me Somebody” pulls a neat trick by turning a preacher into an r&b; singer, but the exorcist on “The Jezebel Spirit” doesn’t raise as many hairs on the back of my neck now that taping a crazy evangelist has become the art music equivalent of broadcasting crank phone calls.

Chris Dahlen / Pitchfork