Monday's Long Song

 

Mark Hollis was the mastermind behind Talk Talk and died too early three years ago. They started in the early 80's with synth-pop and new wave and became great commercial success. After the first albums Hollis moved more and more to a different kind of sound. More ambitious and intimate than before. Most of these songs are intimate reflections of his life and thriftily arranged with less instruments. And it is just this what I loved about his music. Seldom artists were able to make songs like these - one other was Nick Drake. But this is another story to be told. This version is from their live album from 1986 showing them at the peak of their creativity.

Talk Talk - Renee

Crying In The Rain

Talk Talk was played the recent days on the radio and this is always a reason to listen to their albums once again. Their mastermind was Mark Hollis who died unexpected earlier last year. Seldom a musician followed his own ideas so consequent like Hollis did. Raised with bands from the New Romantic movement like Duran Duran he stopped working with drum computers to find his own music between sound and silence. Most of his songs has a massive sentimental mood but no one wrote better fragile songs between euphoria and depression.

Mark Hollis - Crying In The Rain

Mark Hollis 1955 -2019

Very sad news I heard this evening. Mark Hollis died after a short disease at the age of 64. He was well known as the leading figure of Talk Talk a band that was well known as of of the leading artists of the so called new romantic movement in the mid 80's. For me Mark Hollis was much more than another artist in a popular band that released several chart breaking singles more than 30 years ago. We all know the songs from their first records but for me Talk Talk released their best record 1999 when they recorded their last live appearance London 1986. Hollis performed his greatest song in a very unique way, very intimate and far away from public expectations in his music. For me it is his legacy to generations that will come and for me it is one of the best live albums of every time. Songs with feelings and atmosphere played by great musicians that didn't care about success.

Rest well Mark.

Talk Talk - Give It Up
Talk Talk - Renée

Holger Czukay 1938 - 2017

Yesterday the news arrived that one more Krautrock-legend passed away. A few months ago we heard that Jaki Liebezeit, probably one of the best drummers of all time passed away and now Holger Czukay passed away as well. As far as we know yet he was found in the rooms of studio after a few days when he died. It is not necessary to talk much about him and his influences to artists like John Lydon, Jah Wobble, David Sylvain, Mark Hollis and even The Edge. He called himself the universal dilettante because he was never trained to master an instrument perfectly although he could played a lot of instruments proper. He was one of those who discovered the possibilities of samplings, adding loops together and always searching for new electronic sounds.

RIP Holger

If you have the nerve and time you can listen to a live concert from 1970 in Soest, Germany with the first appearance of Can's singer Damo Suzuki.