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Verdict: * * * *
What makes this Bowie tribute album so interesting is that there's not a bog-standard version of any of his songs - even if electro-pop kid and avid Ziggy Stardust fan Leo Minor does a good job of butchering Ashes To Ashes with his jumped-up carry on.
While this collection includes obvious tracks like Golden Years it also has obscurities like dance producer Kelley Polar's oddball reworking of Magic Dance from the Labyrinth soundtrack. Then there's Detroit techno-god Carl Craig with experimentalists Zoos for a throbbing take on Looking For Water, from Reality in 2003.
Record label Rapster assembled this album to celebrate Bowie's 60th, inviting contributions from a diverse bunch.
It starts off minimal, and funereal with New York Trio Au Revoir Simone's version of Hunky Dory's Oh! You Pretty Things then Heartbreak's electric disco lash with toothsome Freddie Mercury vocals take over Loving The Alien, from his little-fancied 80s album Tonight and midway through we get the jittery lo-fi acoustic take on Diamond Dogs' Sweet Thing by Californian singer/songwriter Brew Brown.
The standout is producer/DJ Matthew Dear's impressive restyling of Sound & Vision. It's a hypnotic and paranoid song to start with but 20 years on, Dear's spiralling and spooky synth, and Oompa-Loompa "bom bom" chants give new meaning to the word warped.
This lot, as odd as they are, have done Bowie proud.
Scott Kara
