Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on Jan 8, 2016 15:15:46 GMT
Great album.
This album is to kind of celebrate Bowie's 69th birthday!! Looking at him, you wouldn't think he was that age.
The opening number is moody, some electronics going on and David Bowie's voice remains as always, spot on. It's slightly more 'free' sounding with a 'nod' to jazz styles but retaining his early rock roots. It's a 'dark' album but really creative with some unusual harmonies going on in there and the use of foreign scales.
If you like David Bowie, this is a return of the old feel and if you are new to his style, it's gripping with its quite unusual harmonies and lovely use of electronics within rock music.
To me, some of it is remeniscent of Arabian music. There's also a touch of early King Crimson in there if you go all the at back to something like Poseidon. It has that experimental kind of feel in places.
Compression on the recording is a bit ott on some tracks though IMO. Bass in particular has been compressed so that it sounds powerful on some of the tracks; particularly the last track.
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on Jan 11, 2016 7:03:30 GMT
David died due to cancer.
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Post by hifidez on Jan 11, 2016 7:36:48 GMT
David died due to cancer. Yes, just heard the news. Was planning on purchasing and downloading Blackstar today. Will definitely do that now.
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on Jan 11, 2016 7:49:33 GMT
The album is quite dark so I guess everyone will look at the lyrics now in hindsight. He knew that he had cancer as well but didn't tell anyone.
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Javier
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Post by Javier on Jan 11, 2016 9:06:41 GMT
Just read the news, very sad.
Sent from my GT-I9505 using proboards
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gommer
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Post by gommer on Jan 11, 2016 9:16:25 GMT
Bowie all over all radio stations this morning. Just to remind us how many classics he wrote. One of the few important influencers has gone.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 11, 2016 10:18:54 GMT
Sad news indeed.
Didn't like much of his post 70's material but have always respected him as an artist. Carved his own path and did so with integrity.
Sounds like his new album is a return to form and hopefully a fitting swan song.
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on Jan 11, 2016 11:07:00 GMT
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Post by hifidez on Jan 11, 2016 11:15:43 GMT
Great album. .... Compression on the recording is a bit ott on some tracks though IMO. Bass in particular has been compressed so that it sounds powerful on some of the tracks; particularly the last track. Juts taken a look at the first track using Adobe Audition. Compressed doesn't begin to describe it! And there's much clipping at 0dB too. Shame on you David ;-)
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on Jan 11, 2016 11:28:45 GMT
Well, shame on the production team. Believe it or not, artists don't get that much say in the end!!
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on Jan 11, 2016 11:52:35 GMT
Some may wonder what on earth the video, Blackstar is about. With David Bowie, we have to remember that he wasn't a 'pop' star and had many other interests; art being one.
Blackstar started by being over eleven minutes long actually, but he edited it down to 9:57. This was because good old iTunes won't post singles over ten minutes in length. David didn't want the confusion of different releases of it.
"Blackstar" has just a two-note tonal melody inspired by Gregorian chant and shifting time signatures. In the middle section, the song turns from a acid house-ish style to a sax solo to a bluesy slow middle section. Almost minimalist in construction.
The video shows Bowie, as a priest.
It's a surreal film showing a woman with a tail discovering a dead astronaut and taking his jewel-encrusted skull to an ancient, otherwordly town. The astronaut's bones float into an eclipse, while a circle of women perform a ritual with the skull in the town's centre.
It was made purposely to be open to interpretation.
Bowie may have been thinking about his own mortality and relevance to history while developing the video since he was aware that he was soon going to die, but the crucified scarecrows were not intended as a kind of demonic symbol.
Bowie shows three distinct characters in the video: the introverted, tormented, blind "Button Eyes", the "trickster" in the song's middle section, and the "priest" holding the book embossed with the blackstar.
Because it's was intended more as a piece of 'artwork', it's left for the viewer/listener to interpret. That's what I have often found intriguing about his work.
At first sight, the video is strange, odd and plain weird. Thinking more about artistic interpretions and ideas, it has more depth than many would think or probably ever think because they might just not get it.
Pop stars tread a line between wanting to produce pop songs for the whole of their lives or producing something more significant, hoping that companies might support them and the buying public as well. Many pop stars continue along the 'pop' path for as long as they can because in the difficult world of music, it is the safer route. If an artists veers away from that path, they can be destroyed overnight career wise but in the case of Bowie, he trod a very individual path and followed hi own artistic feelings.
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on Jan 11, 2016 17:04:23 GMT
This is just a little worrying ......
His own epitaph?
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on Jan 11, 2016 17:21:35 GMT
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Crispy
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Madrigal music is playing - Voices can faintly be heard, "Please leave this patient undisturbed."
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Post by Crispy on Jan 11, 2016 20:58:00 GMT
Great album. .... Compression on the recording is a bit ott on some tracks though IMO. Bass in particular has been compressed so that it sounds powerful on some of the tracks; particularly the last track. Juts taken a look at the first track using Adobe Audition. Compressed doesn't begin to describe it! And there's much clipping at 0dB too. Shame on you David ;-) Your spot on Derek, I have just looked at the track that Ian posted [Lazarus] and all the peaks have been well clipped off:
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Crispy
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Post by Crispy on Jan 11, 2016 21:00:57 GMT
I think this is one of my favourite bowie tracks and although it was not originally written by him I never tire of hearing it: Originally performed by THEM fronted by Van Morrison - Here Comes The Night
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