04-01-2018, 22:33
Happy Birthday to the elusive and enigmatic Mark Hollis who was born on this day in 1955, in Tottenham, London, England. The lead singer and driving creative force behind Talk Talk and one of contemporary music’s more mysterious characters. After the band’s fifth album which was released in 1991, and his eponymous solo album released in 1998, he retired from the music industry, resurfacing on rare occasions but never really long enough to pin down. There are the odd interviews on YT which help to shed some light, but essentially, he is an unusual person who has his very own decided mind and opinions and who appears not to be swayed or influenced by the trappings and/or particularly, the adulation afforded by fame, fortune and the like; how very refreshing!
There was a whole lot more going on in Talk Talk than your regular 80’s synthpop outfit, but they were of that time and I expect fared less well commercially than they might have, having only brought out an album every two years – very careful and fastidious about what was recorded – nothing wrong with that! A mere five, almost perfect albums later – they were gone – and ultimately, I suspect it served them well. Hollis viewed his voice as an instrument that should, in effect, have been written (notated) into the score of whatever they were working on – his aim was for the voice to sit in the mix equal to any other sound, and for the most part, I think he managed to achieve his objective. On the other hand, he had a thing about improvisation and from what I can tell, I also think he is/was a perfectionist and probably not that easy to work with – incredibly intense. Anyway - all of that is moot, and ...
there's this – from The Colour of Spring …
There was a whole lot more going on in Talk Talk than your regular 80’s synthpop outfit, but they were of that time and I expect fared less well commercially than they might have, having only brought out an album every two years – very careful and fastidious about what was recorded – nothing wrong with that! A mere five, almost perfect albums later – they were gone – and ultimately, I suspect it served them well. Hollis viewed his voice as an instrument that should, in effect, have been written (notated) into the score of whatever they were working on – his aim was for the voice to sit in the mix equal to any other sound, and for the most part, I think he managed to achieve his objective. On the other hand, he had a thing about improvisation and from what I can tell, I also think he is/was a perfectionist and probably not that easy to work with – incredibly intense. Anyway - all of that is moot, and ...
there's this – from The Colour of Spring …
"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us." ~ Bill Watterson