LAUGHING STOCK

Some people tend to say "Spirit of Eden" and "Laughing Stock" are twins. It's like saying all movies are the same because they're screened in theatres. No, they're not. "Spirit of Eden" and "Laughing Stock" are Yin and Yang. Like day and night. Like sweet and sour. Like Jackyll and Hide. Like hope and despare. Like God and Devil. They're NOT the same things, they're two parts of the whole. Combined together they produce pure magic.

For "Laughing Stock" I have a certain image in my head. Imagine an empty stage with a curtain. You hear some sounds, you see the curtain moving as if there's something happening behind it, but you're not sure. This is how here the TALKies sound exactly - the most interesting is on the background.

1. MYRRHMAN starts with 16-seconds long amplifier noise. Quite minimalistic, indeed. The song itself has neither certain structure nor definite rhythm - gone are structures, that already were quite blurred on "Spirit of Eden". Atmospherically opener reminds me of David Lynch and Neil Young shadows again, and winds' passage in song's end reminds of Mark Hollis solo album...the same way free playing.

2. ASCENSION DAY is the same way wicked as DESIRE from "Spirit..". But it's as cold and mechanic, as DESIRE was hot and vivid. 7/8 beat, Hollis heading the scene, and it all leads to inescapable collapse, abrupt and sudden as a knife in a spine.

3. AFTER THE FLOOD serves as a ghost of Eden here. Only a ghost, because this is obviously "Laughing Stock"'s creature - mellow but cold. Listen carefully, and maybe then you'll notice that "behind-the-curtain" effect I've told you about.

4. TAPHEAD is awesomely Lynch-like. With these crying winds, slowly building-up and then yeliing suddenly from nowhere, with loads of "behind-the-curtain" sounds again, with desperate Mark's voice and whispering guitar...this is possibly the weirdest song here, but the most striking.

5. NEW GRASS strikes as the most emotional one. Again a thousand men playing from behind the curtain, but on the forefront you can see only TALKies, with straight 5/8 beat, ambient keyboard textures, guitar line and touching Hollis' chanting. If there a thing more beautiful than this, let me know.

6. RUNEII is exactly a kind of track where silence weights more than music. Hypnotic and meditative, it closes "Laughing Stock" in a perfect way. It's where equilibrium was reached, where WEALTH and RUNEII sound almost like the one song, but played through different lens - warm summer and cold winter. The circle is closed, new grass is rising through, and the new dawn is here. It's not the end, but a new beginning. The TALKies have passed away to make the world a better place to be than before. And it was 101% success in a spiritual way. Let the big record company bosses eat each other. The musc must live on, and there's no better thing than art for people, not for hit-parades, regimes or someone's wallet. The TALKies inspired the whole 90s scene, and you will hardly find a sane person that would hate them. I simply love TALK TALK. And you?