In 1995, so the story goes, David Bowie was so confident that his dark, industrial-tinged album Outside would be a commercial success that he'd already developed a title for the sequel: Contamination. Well, Outside was greeted with mixed reviews, and the Contamination title was wasted — until tiny Failure To Communicate Records decided to give it new life with 33 exclusive Bowie covers. The label's previous releases include tributes to The Cure, Joy Division and New Order, and .2 Contamination picks up where those oddities left off. This is loaded with dark, industrial-tinged versions of songs famous ("Heroes," "Golden Years") and not-so-famous ("John, I'm Only Dancing," "Cracked Actor") by artists renowned (The Dresden Dolls, Voltaire) and unknown (Revue Noir, The Milk of Korova). Atmospheric, abrasive and bizarre, many of them don't sound anything at all like the originals, making this exercise more of an exploration of Bowie's work, rather than an actual tribute to it. A cool booklet allows the artists to have their say about Bowie's influence on them, which actually makes for entertaining and thought-provoking reading. That said, given the nature of the contributors' music, suffice to say that if you didn't enjoy Outside, you won't care too much for its faux sequel. And if you weren't a Bowie fan before, you still won't be after hearing this.
Track Listing
Disc One:
1) Within You-Lying Delilah
2) Life on Mars-The Dresden Dolls
3) John, I'm Only Dancing-The Brides
4) Rock 'n' Roll Suicide-Revue Noir
5) I'm Afraid of Americans-Fashion Bomb
6) Andy Warhol-The Metrosexuals
7) Boys Keep Swinging-Mr. Russia
8) Look Back in Anger-Kaligare
9) Savior Machine-Sheriff Scabs
10) Warszawa-Emulsion
11) The Man Who Sold the World-Hearts Fail
12) Hang On To Yourself-The Danger
13) Fashion-High Blue Star
14) You Belong in Rock 'n' Roll-Lyon Smith
15) Fame-Egostatic
16) Little Wonder-Haitian Hate Gods
17) Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)-Tides of Mars
Disc Two:
1) China Girl-Voltaire
2) Heroes-Meg Lee Chin
3) Time-David J's Cabaret Oscura
4) Modern Love-Starlit
5) As the World Falls Down-Flutter
6) Space Oddity-Jupiter Blue
7) Sound and Vision-Press
8) Golden Years-Count Zero
9) I'm Deranged-Sibyl Vane
10) The Heart's Filthy Lesson-Ahab Rex
11) Rebel Rebel-Terminal Bliss
12) Quicksand-Abbeyvein
13) Ashes to Ashes-Museum
14) Be My Wife-The Milk of Korova
15) Oh You Pretty Things-Amorette
16) Cracked Actor-Schlectes Mord-Bumsen
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