Yes, Buddha was a big turning point for me. He was definitely over his '80s doldrums. They didn't use much of the music in the BBC series as I recall.
I can't remember, apart from the title song I think Sex and the Church cropped up? And maybe South Horizon. I have the DVD but haven't seen Buddha since the TV broadcast.
I have to say that all and all, I'm really enjoying this set. I've been able to get past the issues and soak in some music I really hadn't given much of a chance. The second sides of Low and "Heroes" are great listening, almost trance like for me. This set has made me go through all three boxes, I've really been taking in his 70s/early 80s work.
In London it went from being multiple copies in a big dusty selloff pile in HMV offshoot store Fopp for either £15 or £20, to £200 after his death, the last time I saw it in what's left of the used stores. I really like the box design.
Have you got Eno's Another Green World (1975)? I reckon you'd like that if you're just getting into the drone, rock, beauty pot pourri of Low and Heroes side twos...
No I don't have any of Eno's solo work, but I've been wanting to pick up an album, so thanks a ton for the recommendation. Definitely going to check the album out.
This? Yeah, that blew me away too...especially 'Spaceboy'...The White Room performance was also great too. That band was amazing....glad I saw him around this time.
Pretty sure you'd enjoy that one and his next one, Before and After Science. The latter, made in the same period as his Low-Heroes work with Bowie, closes with the exquisite Spider and I, said to be about their time together. Even if it isn't, it's utterly beautiful: "Spider and I, Sit watching the sky. In our world without sound. We knit a web, To catch one tiny fly. In our world without sound. We sleep in the mornings. We dream of a ship, that sails away. A thousand miles away..."
Never Let Me Down. Yeah, I have this. Wasn't it actually released twice? Mind you, these had previously unreleased material with them, so the Parlophones will be completely different.
Yeah, that's the one. He got so good live after that, the TV appearance has lost some of its impact, but as first exposure of Outside, my mind was blown, just like my speakers later on. I saw / heard that come out of my TV in '95 and might IIRC even have wept a bit, I don't mind admitting. This man who already made or inspired so much brilliance, was on fire again.
I got it last year, just after he passed away. It was priced €50 or so, quite reasonable for 10 CDs I'd say. I have to say that I'm a bit disappointed with the packaging as it's not very consistent. Some sleeves mention the tracklisting of the bonus disc on the sleeve, some don't. Outside shows the LP tracklisting, but the actual tracklisting is nowhere to be found (only on the CD itself I believe). Plus, the lyric booklet is not complete as it only contains the lyrics of the tracks listed on the sleeve.
Yeah, I only like the outer box. The Outside disc art is based on the first vinyl release. It's a bit weird to do that but they were doing the vinyl replica marketing thing.
Yeah the Sony box had poor inner artwork. The books are quite lacking compared to the individual 2CD releases of each of the five albums.
Listening to the hi-res files of LOW, down-sampled for CD played through a Primare system and Proac 1SC's, and for iPod on mid-range but quite revealing Etymotics. Improved rendering of synth textures. And a great guitar sound. I sense there's more information than normal but it's not bright or harsh. I'm not listening with a slide-rule or a book of log tables, but certainly it's more revealing than the famous WG CD-master (which I my usual listen to for the album), and it has really opened up what has previously felt to be a bit of a murky mix of an album for me. Switching to some cheap AKG's over-the-ear headphones and then played through the Proacs, I can now hear the bass that people have noted . Yes, it's more pronounced than before but it's not bloated or over-extended in the way reports might have led me to believe. Anyway, I guess we already know the Visco likes bass (MWSTW) and here I think it adds extra rhythm, fullness and swing to the album's rock tracks, and increased depth to an instrumental like Warszawa. So far I'd say great. Re-invigorated my love of LOW. How this remaster will play out in the future I don't know, but on the strength of what I've heard, I'd say that if this is how Visconti always imagined it then, he's done it a good service – based on the hi-res files.
Now you are just teasing! The idea of an Outside box of 45 speed masters with Eno at the helm ... deep joy.
Absolutely. Bowie got on with Kureishi - both Bromley Boys - and respected his work so he was fully engaged in the project and it shows. I played it last week and was reminded of how good it is. And I love the moment in the video for Buddha of Suburbia where Bowie nonchalantly kicks an ornamental shrub as he passes a perfect manicured lawn. Right at the 'Sometimes I fear the whole world is queer' line. Makes me laugh every time!
Surprised to hear this has skyrocketed in price. It's a great little set, but I'd hardly pay a premium for it. Honestly, the only real weaknesses are the sequencing on the bonus discs for Outside and Earthling. How many remixes of "Heart's Filthy Lesson" or "I'm Afraid of Americans" can you listen to in a row before you're done?
My amateur theory as to how this happened (somebody with better technical knowledge than me can figure out if this is plausible or not): 1) They accessed the master tape, discovered there was the problematic 'loss of energy' passage in the middle. 2) They executed their fix for the problem section. 3) They then volume matched the entirety of the section prior to the fix to the section after the fix. You know, to make sure it was consistent throughout the song and you wouldn't notice the fix. 4) But, crucially, they ignored the fact that the song is supposed to get louder as it goes along, so matching the volume of the back half (averaged out) to the front results in a sudden drop after the fix. A pretty dumb mistake that should have been spotted as soon as anybody listened to it, but maybe a workflow that looked sensible on paper?
Yeah, but it was supposed to be part of a whole series (3?) of installments of an epic story. I am disappointed that the whole thing stopped with one album. Eno and Bowie! The best music Bowie ever made was with Eno, dammit!
Well, almost. Michael Fremer's review when it came out was just a smidge above tepid. But lots on the forum liked it, true.