Hedwig : New York Times : 07/20/01 From a review of the film : One way of looking at this clever, funny, wildly innovative film tricked out with surreal pop embellishments and Day-Glo colors is to see it as the kind of movie David Bowie might have made had he pushed his early- 70’s gender-bending persona to its logical limit…….Mr. Mitchell also sings in a voice whose lofty elocution and frosty, slightly inhuman tone echo Mr. Bowie‘s as spiked with a tiny whiff of helium. Fleshing out the story is a meaty rock score by Stephen Trask whose reaching-for-the-heavens anthems brilliantly parody Mr. Bowie‘s songwriting in the Ziggy Stardust era without lapsing into caricature…….More than simply telling Hedwig’s story, the songs, like Mr. Bowie‘s early-70’s output, sketch an overarching pop philosophy whose conceptual grandiosity harks back to the days when stentorian proclamations about rock ‘n’ roll saving the world still had some currency. (Hedwig and The Angry Inch is now on limited release throughout the USA)
All Saints : Dot Music : 07/20/01 From a review of the album. It all adds up to some of the least chilled-out ambient music ever. ‘Sense Of Doubt’ really must be one of the most ominous pieces of music anywhere, all crashing piano chords and swirling synthesised wind effects. Several of the tracks here are oddly moving because they feature tentative, fragile melodies set against grim electronic washes of sound – bits of broken beauty seemingly struggling to survive in a hostile environment. Marvellous mood music for moods you might hope never to experience.
Bowie’s backing vocals : Uncut : Aug 2001 From an interview with Brian Eno : “I like singing. It’s one thing that makes me really happy. I particularly love backing vocals. I’ve got a great voice for stacking. It’s very thin. You can’t stack Bono.. His voice occupies too much space. A good singer can’t do backing vocals. Bowie is the exception. He knows how to thin out his voice.”
Plastic Soul : The Independent : 07/23/01 From an interview with Super Furry Animals, on the release of Rings Around The World. “Juxtapozed With U”, the absurdly catchy current single, is the most radio-friendly thing SFA have ever done, a piece of summery disco with a production straight out of 1975. They mention Marvin Gaye and Caetano Veloso as inspirations for the song, although they nod in agreement at the mention of Philadelphia soul, and David Bowie‘s “plastic soul” approximation of it on Young Americans. “It was important that it should sound as plastic as possible. If we’d tried to make it sound authentic, it would have been awful.”
(contributors : susans, spaceface)
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