Martina Michèle Tina Weymouth turns 64 years of age today. Tina is best known as the bass player of Talking Heads. It was during her time with Talking Heads, in 1980 that along with Adrian Belew and her husband, Talking Heads drummer Chris Frantz, they created The Tom Tom Club. With Talking Heads she recorded 9 studio albums, 6 with Tom Tom Club and 1 with Franz and jerry Harrison under the moniker The Heads. The Heads 12 track album featured guest vocalists including Andy Partridge, Michael Hutchence, Debbie Harry and Shaun Ryder among others. (worth seeking out if you don’t know of it). Talking Heads’ album trilogy 1978-80 with Brian Eno culminated in what I believe is one of the greatest albums of all time, Remain In Light. A funky, polyrhythmic art exploration born from African & Latin American influences to create texture, rhythms and moods unlike anything about in rock music at the time. The offbeat lyrical sense of David Byrne, coupled with Eno’s sense of minimalism and uncanny arrangement with percussive tangles was now redefining the New Wave dance craze. Eno brought in that afro-jazz beat typical of Fela Kuti and Byrne was digging into Latino emotions, evident on his solo LP Rei Momo, while the rhythm section of Franz/Weymouth has never been so integral to a Heads LP, though due to studio differences with messrs Eno & Byrne Tina would like you to think otherwise as even with Adrian Belew there live & studio, she took exception to Eno being classified as a fifth member. The rekid is technically flawless layering and multi-multi tracking at it’s best. No better exemplified than on “The Great Curve”. The earlier songs of Side 1 “Burn Under Punches” & “Crosseyed & Painless” are the strongest danceable specials…I defy you not to tap your feet while listening to these…infectious! Side 2 becomes somewhat trancey after starting with the glorious “One In A Lifetime”…The mystery of “Houses In Motion” with Jon Hassell’s treated horns and Byrne talking his way through cryptic lyrics. “Seen And Not Seen”….spooky and percussively minimalist. Then possibly my favourite on the LP… “Listening Wind” sounding like an outtake from the Eno/Byrne rekid “My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts” except unlike Bush it has Byrne‘s vocals and here they sound the best they have at anytime, in background Belew wails and squeals on his geetar. The album closes with “The Overload”, an Eno composed dirge drone, swirling and temperate, letting the listener down easy from the euphoric preceding seven songs. You are lucky if you have bought this already as the remastered expanded CD has 4 additional “unfinished outtakes”. “ Fela’s Riff…where Eno pays homage to a musical idol Fela Kuti, it’s reminiscent of Philip Glass with layers of repetitive guitar and percussion. “Unison” is real Talking Heads and like something from the Naked LP, excellent layering of Byrnes voice with that ever present percussion a true foot-tapper. “Double Groove” has everyone vocalizing in rounds a la row row row ya boat in a wonderful repetitive groove, the rhythm section works overtime here through to an unproduced abrupt ending. With the final track “Right Start” you get an instrumental version of what was probably Once In A Lifetime, guitary and spacious. Just perfect. Jerry Harrison must get a mention now. His keyboard washes and textures are integral to this LP and as important as any contribution and by the way get his solo LP The Red & The Black, sensational. Remain In Light will always be in my top 10 albums of all time and one that gets played that often I can’t count. 11/10. youtube/watch?v=QhMt9V1rKdo
Posted on: Fri, 21 Nov 2014 18:49:36 +0000
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