All Saints: Collected Instrumentals 1977-1999
価格: ¥1,417
All Saints collects some of David Bowie's best instrumental work from his previous albums. And his timing couldn't be better: Embarrassing drum & bass excursions, a dalliance with pantomime Goths Placebo, stock-market flotations, Tin Machine--all have meant that loving the alien has not been easy during the last 17 years or so. Which helps explain why this collection of instrumentals verges on an epiphany, offering a stark reminder of the sheer mind-boggling scope of Bowie's sound and vision. Most of these 16 brooding soundscapes are plucked from Bowie's hugely influential 1977 albums Low and Heroes. Taking his cue from Kraftwerk, Bowie enlisted Brian Eno--ex-Roxy Music boffin and ambient pioneer--and decamped to Berlin. It's no exaggeration to say that the resulting albums were integral in defining the future path of modern music. Throughout, there's a palpable sense of foreboding, perhaps best exemplified by "Sense of Doubt", a truly unsettling mesh of booming piano and spookily spiralling synths. That the Thin White Duke's Berlin material still dazzles is no surprise. However, it's the remarkable revelation--provided by a clutch of slightly more recent tracks--that he can still cut it--that'll hearten disillusioned Bowie fans everywhere. --Chris King