My Life in the Bush of Ghosts

I bought the latest reissue of My Life in the Bush of Ghosts a couple of weeks back. It was one of the first LPs I ever bought that wasn't just straight up punk or rock, back then. It really opened up a floodgate of perception where music was concerned with me. Not only did it spark a fascination with world music and ethnomusicology, but it was also the first place I'd heard of Bill Laswell. I was already a big Eno fan, despite not owning much of his work (it helped that he got lots of spin-time over at KBOO). My life is on my desert island list of music, right alongside Material's Hallucination Engine and a few others.
I'm pretty happy with the reissue. The mix seems crisper and deeper than the subsequent CD reissue. This seems to be a modern Eno trademark; I find the bottom end of his mixes to be huge lately- his last album, despite not having a lot of percussion, really moves a lot of air.
And the added outtakes are quite nice indeed. Theres a nifty video for Mea Culpa by Bruce Conner, as well.
Lots of discussion was made about the decision not to replace the track Qu'ran back into the album. It was dropped after some early vinyl runs due to the possibility of offending Muslims as it includes chanting of Surahs of the Qu'ran accompanied with music - a no no in the Islamic world. It was replaced by another song in all subsequent reissues. Lots of blogs have been making the song available for those curious.
Here's my rip from my 1st pressing:

Qu'ran.mp3

Curiously, no one that I know of is offering this one:

Garbage Disco.mp3

It's an early draft of America is Waiting, appearing in a stripped down, accapella mode that Eno was playing for people as My Life was in the demo stage.
The album site promises a remix/download site wherein crafty fans can download mix tracks and create their own mixes under a Creative Commons license, but it hasn't been put up yet.
I really recommend that you buy My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, as the packaging, text and extra material are all top shelf.

Short Cuts

Hi 'yall.
I've been stinking busy, and the acquisition of DSL has meant that I'm doing a lot of playing (mainly YouTube crap) rather than reading, noting and posting. I'm lucky that I remember to sock stuff away at my Del.icio.us page from time to time.
Here's a few cool music related entries that I deem worthy of your attention:

• Dust to Dust: You thought Nice Guy Eddie died in a warehouse shootout, but he didn't. He hosts a cool MP3 blog, offering lots of soundtracks (horror, Italian, Giallo, etc.) as well as Hip-Hop and assorted ephemera. He's got a couple of soundtracks that augment previously released ones, the most notable being Dawn of the Dead The Original & Unreleased, and a Ghost Dog soundtrack that has the rest of the music heard on that movie, as well as additional dialogue. Check him out.
• One Of The Lists is Bending Up: In addition to offering lots of noise and avant-skronk, is a documented attempt to post for download as many items from the infamous Nurse With Wound list as possible. Stroll on over to get the musical education of a lifetime, or become as twisted as Stephen Stapleton - whichever comes first.
• Insects and Individuals is the more famous place for the aforementioned NWW List.
• White Noise is (an aptly named) blog that is in the same vein as the above two, but includes lots of pure noise/experimental stuff. Some notable offerings: No New York, Smegma, Robert Ashley and some early Eugene Chadbourne and John Zorn.
• An open dex filled with what sounds like an audio recording of a Shia Qu'ran.
  
• A treasure trove of found cassette tapes with audio downloads and pictures of the actual cassette that the audio comes from. I have several giant boxes of tapes, so I really appreciate and understand this site. My brother and I were cheap tape connoisseurs and we knew exactly which brands were crap and which would last. Many name brands couldn't hold up to the same standard as some inexpensive, generic brands. To me, Memorex is synonymous with crappy sound and a short shelf life.
  

I don't remember how I found most of this stuff. If it was from you, props and appy-polly-loggies for no props.