Bowie Style

Back home, Suede invoked the spectre of Glam
Rock, and invited Bowie to join the press party. The
Industrial/Metal interface, best represented by the
punishing drive of Nine Inch Nails, found its way into
elements of Bowie’s 1995 album, Outside, most
notably on ‘Hallo Spaceboy’, probably his most
dramatic recording in 20 years. Then, on 1997’s
Earthling, he appropriated the distorted, contorted
rhythms of dance contemporaries like drum & bass
star Goldie on a handful of cuts. Oddly, while
Bowie’s cut-and-paste working method has a
lengthy pedigree, and the emergence of the DJ as
musical creator has depended largely on creative
plagiarism, this seemed to bypass most reviewers
who claimed that the move was that of a desperate
man. That was a pity, for Earthling is surely Bowie’s
most vibrant, surprise-filled album since 1977’s Low.