Various - Life BeyondMars: David Bowie Covered

Wed 13th Aug, 2008 in Music Reviews

Berlin record label Rapster have released a couple of intriguing albums in the last few years that see highly influential and important artists re-interpreted by contemporary and cutting edge electronic musicians. Firstly Exit Music saw Sa Ra and Mark Ronson add some style and sheen to the Radiohead catalogue. Next cab off the rank was a Prince tribute, that saw Soulwax and Peaches don the raspberry beret and take the little red corvette for a spin.

The occasion of David Bowie’s 60th birthday brought his weighty back catalog into consideration to be – œcovered’ by a handpicked selection of artists given an open brief to lay pillage to any Bowie song they wish. As a result the range of songs appearing on the album is quite diverse, spanning a goodly slice of Bowie’s career, taking in the highs and the Lows, the hits and the misses.

Taking on David Bowie’s songs is a bit like challenging Picasso to a drawing contest. Sure you may both be able to apply a few dabs of paint to a canvas to create a picture, but there’s every chance your end result may come up short, lacking that creative and artistic genius required to come up with something truly memorable. Great cover versions of songs really work well when performers try and soak up the original inspiration and intention of the artist, then distil it through their own attitudes and attributes to really make it their own.

The thing about David Bowie was that he was a trailblazer – not only musically, but also in social, sexual and cultural terms. Some of his songs and albums are considered high watermarks of music because they were so unique – flying in the face of musical convention and not afraid to deviate away from the familiarity of what had come before them. They blazed headlong and uncompromisingly into unknown and un-chartered sonic waters.

Admittedly, I come at this flying the Bowie fan flag as opposed to sitting on the – œcutting edge, emerging electronic music talent’ side of the fence. However, my biggest gripe with the Life Beyond Mars: David Bowie Covered project is that some of the songs just seem to have been detachedly fed through a few tame electro beats to produce some horrifically vapid versions of what are pretty weighty songs.

This could have been a dignified nod to the deep and profound influence Bowie’s music and persona has had and that can still be seen soaking through the myriad of modern musical genres. It just comes across a bit too often that some haven’t really extended themselves too far or pushed any new boundaries, traits which are synonymous with the man born David Jones.

They’ve barely brought their own persona to honour a man who had about five of them. I’m looking at you Kelley Polar, with your nauseating narrative and horrid cheap electro trinket and gadget-filled interpretation of Magic Dance.

The songs that do veer into adventurous territory do so with great success and stand alone as compelling pieces of music on their own, rising above being mere covers. The best examples include Californian singer Drew Brown producing a haunting, stripped back reading of Sweet Thing, which partners a sparse and gritty vocal led by a plucked acoustic under a suitably apocalyptic beat sluiced throughout.

Low’s Sound & Vision naturally lends itself to musical and lyrical intrigue; Matthew Dear has created a stirringly adept mix keeping the compelling riff running through hypnotic instrumentals that successfully capture the song’s inherent paranoia. Golden Years’ life as a song had what could be described as a troubled childhood.

Bowie states he originally wrote the song for Elvis to perform; yet he refused. The song then was launched with a TV appearance on Soul Train which rivals Stevie Wonder’s Superstitious for its sheer funkiness and soulfully smooth dancing audience. The combined talents of Tokyo’s Susumu Yokota, Casper Calusen and Anna Bronsted take the song’s recognizable groove and add a tasty array of pulses and bounding glitches, with Bronsted’s divine vocals adding the sheen.

For mine this seems to be a major determinant in the success of the songs within Life Beyond Mars. Bowie’s is a voice that is not easily replicated, those that don’t try and add their own vocal intrigue stand up on their own as individual songs in their own right. Much like David Bowie’s career, there are a jagged mix of styles and substance on display ranging from great to grating – you can ride the rise and fall or just think “let’s dance”. It is indeed a noble gift for David, knowing his influence is still reverberating four decades later right through to the forefront of modern music.