Byrne/Eno

Crooks and Liars, one of my daily stops on the blogroll, features a Late Night Music club, with regular contributions from Howie Klein (super influential founder of 415 records, music producer, DJ, music chronicler,and blog host of Down with Tyranny!). He posted a cut from Brian Eno and David Byrne's 1981 collaboration My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. This album was absolutely ground-breaking in its use of sampling, in the pre-digital era, especially in its use of sounds produced with objects and voices found on the radio. Like many others, I played it over and over: it was hypnotic, rhythmic, like tuning in to the radio late at night and hearing several stations at once. It's right up there with Eno's Another Green World as one of my favorite musical events of all time.

In 2006, Byrne and Eno released a new version of the record, with added tracks. The also have put up a site where the entire album and assoicated videos, interviews and press are all available through a Creative Commons license for download, remixing, and sharing. What generosity!