David Bowie
(PHILIPS, 1969)
Securing a new record contract and entering into the orbit of sometime bandmate/producer Tony Visconti for the first time, the album universally known as Space Oddity was a few notches above Bowie’s debut, even if there was far better to come, and soon.
The centrepiece, of course, was his extraordinary tale of an astronaut’s blast-off and eventual burnout: an entire sci-fi movie told in five minutes flat, still icily brilliant after all these years. Elsewhere, Bowie settles a little too often on a slight brand of psych-folk, but there are further highlights, including the gloriously chaotic seven-minute gang-chant finale, Memory Of AFree Festival, inspired by a real-life gathering in Croydon Recreation Ground.
Black Tie White Noise
(SAVAGE, 1993)
By the early 90s, any uptick was seized…
