Ascension Day
The most violent thing Talk Talk recorded: a jazz combo overrun by noise, cut dead by a tape splice at exactly six minutes.
Talk Talk, from Laughing Stock (1991)
- Written by
- Mark Hollis, Tim Friese-Greene
- Released
- 1991
- Producer
- Tim Friese-Greene
- Length
- 6:00
- Album
- Laughing Stock
Ascension Day is the second track on Laughing Stock and the album's most chaotic piece. Pitchfork described it as a small jazz group being elbowed aside by a noise-rock band, climaxing in a barrage of drumming before an audible tape splice cuts it off. Hollis explained the structure in 1998: three verses, each with fewer cycles than the last, and constant vocals, an experiment in changing song form. The lyric is usually read as being about judgment day, though Hollis described his religious imagery as humanist rather than belonging to any faith. It was listed as a single in November 1991 and reached 111 in Britain; the band never played it live. Turin Brakes covered it for the 2012 tribute album.
Covers and versions
- Turin Brakes (2012) Spirit of Talk Talk
More songs by Talk Talk
It's My Life, Life's What You Make It, I Don't Believe in You, I Believe in You, Myrrhman
Sources
- Laughing Stock / Mark Hollis review, Pitchfork (2011-10-21)
- Mark Hollis 1998 interviews, Snow in Berlin
- Laughing Stock, Wikipedia