Customer Reviews

The Buddha Of Suburbia (1993 Television Mini-Series)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The other reviewers here really have it right. This album, incredibly not released in the US, has been delighting UK fans for many years.

Written and recorded in just ten days (according to reports I've read), and mixed in just a few more, Bowie sounds like he's having fun for a change - and the music is the fresher for it. Almost all the instruments are played by Bowie himself and by Erdal Kizilcay, his Turkish multi-instrumentalist sidekick. (Lenny Kravitz obliges with a guitar contribution on the title track). The songs are obviously the results of spontaneous jam sessions. Many tracks are instrumental; only a couple are recognisable as traditional songs - notably Buddha and Strangers When we Meet (later reworked on Outside).

Fans will love the many references to the old hits. Best of all is the repeat of the five-chord Space Oddity riff, closely followed by Mike Garson's piano playing.

To set the record straight for US afficionados: the album is ostensibly the soundtrack to the eponymous BBC TV series, itself an adaptation of the acclaimed novel about London life in the 1970s by author Haneif Kureishi (all available on Amazon). In fact the series uses Bowie's work of the period (Rebel Rebel etc) as incidental music; this album is "inspired" by the movie.

The music is intriguing for Bowie scholars, giving a hint of what might have been had he carried on the Eno trajectory - which ironically he did try to do on Outside.

In any case, a strong buy. I just save my five stars for Heroes and Hunky Dory...

Back in 1993, this album was originally conceived as a straight soundtrack for the BBC TV dramatisation of the Hanif Kureishi novel, 'The Buddha of Suburbia'. It eventually became more than a series of instrumental passages recorded for the film due to Bowie's refound creativity and was rebuilt into a bona fide 10-track solo album. Unfortunately the album was marketed at the time as a mere soundtrack and consequently it was unfairly overlooked as a "real" Bowie album, especially when it followed shortly after Bowie's first solo effort in 5 years; 1993's jazzy 'Black Tie, White Noise'.

'The Buddha of Suburbia' is performed mainly by Bowie and multi-instrumentalist Erdal Kizilcay and begins with the title track (incidently, the only song to appear in the film); a slow-tempo accoustic piece which slowly builds with further instrumentation. Listen for the riff from Space Oddity - 3 and a half minutes into the song and quotes from The Man Who Sold the World's 'All the Madmen'. Aside from the album's instrumental pieces, these are the only salutes to his past as Bowie was then to provide a glimpse into the future, particularly the next phase which was to be the remarkable alternative-rock of the 'Outside' album, along with the odd jazz number from 'Black Tie, White Noise'.

Track 2 'Sex and the Church' (a quasi-techno piece with computer-filtered vocals and soothing sax) and track 3, the instrumental 'South Horizon' wouldn't sound out of place during Bowie's late 70's Berlin period, but with Mike Garson's piano over the top of Vangelis' Blade Runner theme. Garson would go onto provide the motif for Outside - that strange, jangling piano. Track 4 'The Mysteries' is also instrumental and in the same vein.

Track 5 'Bleed Like a Craze, Dad' provides more 'Black Tie' funk while the standout track follows in 'Strangers When We Meet'. This, although the same tempo as the re-recorded version on Outside, is significantly different and well worth a listen. For those uninitiated, this is one of Bowie's best songs since the 80's - uplifting and compassionate.

Track 7 'Dead Against It' is a melodic up-tempo song which was to give an incite into the way Bowie would sing his vocals in later albums like 'Hours': that rasp in the higher register. Track 8 'Untitled' is straight out of the 'Black Tie' sessions, while Track 9 'Ian Fish, UK Heir' is another moody instrumental piece similar to 'Moss Garden' and 'Subterraneans'. The album concludes with a remix of the title track.

What is appealing is that the instrumental tracks fit neatly into the album mixed with the vocal tracks, showing that Bowie was reconnecting with his experimental spirit. This was to be the key to the layers and textures of his next album, 95's 'Outside' - which contains some of his best material ever. Buddha is definately the forerunner to Outside. But its beauty is that it is one of those linking albums, like Young Americans - in this case, a halfway house between the jazz inflections and club beats of 'Black Tie, White Noise' and the dark tension and jangly piano of 'Outside'. So it fits perfectly within the Bowie canon, and now is finally recognised as such.

Buy it if you are curious, you'll be rewarded, especially if you are a Bowie fan and you like the Outside, Low and Heroes albums. If you are thinking of buying this for someone else, do so; it is accessible enough that they won't be disappointed. After all, Buddha is not a soundtrack, but a real Bowie album. And now it has finally been recognised and remastered as such.

Bowie's last three albums have been criminally underrated. 1997's Earthling was given modest critical fanfare, but no one bought the album. Two years earlier, Outside, over-hyped by a highly publicized tour with Nine Inch Nails and a single that was gobbled up due in huge part to Trent Reznor's remix, ultimately baffled and turned off listeners. It seems as if the music press and the general public have set in stone by now the belief that David Bowie is a dinosaur; that he isn't allowed to express himself in more progressive or experimental forms of music without sounding pretentious or even desperate. Those who know Bowie only through the pomp and circumstance of his Ziggy era and his glitzy, empty '80s efforts, may cast him off as nothing more than a good showman with a throaty baritone. Unfortunately, by the end of the '80s, this was exactly what Bowie the songwriter and musician was stripped down to. It's a shame, then, that in 1993, once no one was paying attention to him anymore, David Bowie dropped this outstanding piece of work that sounds nearly on par with his late '70s Eno trilogy. Mostly instrumental and ambient pieces, Buddha of Suburbia was written to accompany a BBC miniseries of the same name. At last Bowie found inspiration again in something. The songs are rythmic, pounding, soaring, and electrifying; abstract but accessible. The hooks, where there are hooks, are frighteningly catchy. The shifting jazz pieces, prominently featuring avant-pianist Mike Garson, are simply other-worldly. The zooming electropop of "Dead Against It" and the ethereal, floating-down-a-warm-river-on-heroin bliss of "Untitled no. 1" are highlights. This is where Bowie would have gone had he not put on his red shoes and boogied down with Stevie Ray Vauhan in 1983. This is Bowie enthralling as he hadn't done in years. Check this out and see what all the fuss isn't about. Then pay a moment of silent respect to an old-school artist who still kicks ass.

--Christian Huey

If you ever ever ever manage to put your hands onto this, don't let it go. To put it simply, this is the best record Bowie has ever done, miles ahead of Ziggy Stardust or Low, and if you miss this you'll regret the rest of your life.

The disc was released in 1993, following the sort-of-commercially-successful Black Tie White Noise, and was a total flop when it came to the sales (#87 in all-Bowie loving UK!). Moreover, Buddha was released in the US in 1995 to coincide with 1.Outide with the artwork of Bowie sitting on a metal couch. In about ten years, the US version will be priceless.

The title track contains Bowie's most compelling vocals of the decade, plus (surprise!) an actual melody, so absent in most of the Dame's work in the 90's. Sex And The Church is a complete opposite with deadpan chanting vocals, showing how minimal and still brilliant Bowie track could be. The two great instrumentals, The Mysteries and Ian Fish UK Heir, Bowie's and Kizilcay's experiment with slowed down fragments of the title track are thankfully reissued on the All Saints compilation. They are moody, ambient and sound as fresh ten years after as they did in 1993. Bleed Like A Craze, Dad is one-of-a-kind funk with crazy lyrics ("shine, shine, shine - bleed like craze dad!) fortunately enough not yet discovered by omniremixing DJs. Finally, Strangers When We Meet is the only song so far Bowie has officially issued in two studio albums (second time on 1.Outside), getting a much more plastic and electronic treatment compared to the 1995 version.

These brief descriptions of the tracks no way do justice to this album. It must be seen as a whole, and the whole is very compelling. Bowie uses at least 5 genres (classic rock, techno, soft-pop, ambient and funk), uses samples, slows tapes, plays his vocals back, does most of the instruments on the album, recycles fragments of his classics (All The Madmen, Space Oddity, Look Back in and Under Pressure most notably), writes lyrics worth William Burroughs (a deciphered version of the lyrics simply does not exist in any form), and at the same time has fun, shall we say, with no strings of high expectations attached.

This is simply a timeless record, superseding millions of better sellers. It is essential to anyone who has a basic appreciation of post-ABBA music.

Written and recorded in a matter of weeks, this little known album revisits the ambience of Bowie's Berlin trilogy, and captures the man in an unexpected creative high. The rousing title track excepted, every song is based on expansions of Bowie's incidental music from Hanif kureshi's The Buddha of suburbia, a BBC drama set in 70's south London which is from where Bowie draws his musical inspiration. Strangers when we meet makes its first appearance here and shines like a diamond liberated of the drama from its reincarnation on 1.Outside that detracted from it's slinky kookiness. In a similar mood, Untitled no 1 glides across on a wave of keyboards and jazzy bass notes whilst David sings in a new colour from his vocal pallette. One of the three instrumental tracks, South horizon gives legendary pianist Mike Garson space for juxtaposing his trademark sonic chaos against percussive order. The upbeat Dead against it boasts some of Bowie's best ever nonsense lyrics buried underneath layers of electronic momentum and advant garde harmonies. Unfortunately Sex and the church doesnt make the transition from the small screen as well and at 6 minutes plus the continually repeated riff eventually outstays its welcome. Like red money off Lodger, Bleed like a craze dad suceeds in recycling the bass from Iggy Pop's Sister midnight again and boldly gets away with it. The whole album is flanked by two versions of the same track, in this case the Bowie by numbers title, which wouldnt of sounded out of place on any of his 70's albums which isn't surprising as it borrows chord sequences from the Bewlay brothers with lyrics off All the mad men and a riff recycled from Space oddity. Colectively these tracks are experimental and atmospheric, retro yet stylishly modern, and a timely reminder of Bowie's talent.

The Buddha Of Suburbia probably would have gotten as much attention as Outside, if this hadn't have been a soundtrack to a mini-series. It's a shame that it didn't get the attention it deserved, because it's every bit as good as Outside. This CD sort of reminds me of Low and Heroes, because it's a combination of instrumentals, soundscapes, and songs with lyrics. The sound is completely different from those two, though. This one kind of has a jazzy/egyptian sound to it. It's hard to explain.

The soundscape "The Mysteries" really stands out from the rest, because it's the only one that doesn't have the jazz or egyptian sound. "The Mysteries" can give you this really great feeling. Imagine being alone on an island with just your girlfriend or boyfriend and watching the sun rise. It gives you that sort of feeling. Even though I really like that one, I think the title track is still my favorite. It blew me away when I first listened to it, and it still blows me away. It might be Bowie's best song of the 90's. "Buddha Of Suburbia" is right up there with the songs "Life on Mars?" "Wild Eyed Boy From Free Cloud," "Teenage Wildlife," etc. I also really like "Strangers When We Meet," and think it's just as good as the redone version on Outside. Some people would disagree with me because it doesn't have the piano playing in it, but I think Bowie sings it better on this.

I could go on and on about this CD. Every single track is either perfect, or real close to it. You should definitley try to get a copy of this, or even download the songs if you have to.

So I LOVE this album. The version of "Strangers When We Meet" on this album is far superior to the one recorded for the 1995 "Outside" album. But just so you all know - this is a 1993 album - not new, except as a domestic release. It's really fantastic. I think it's better than most of his albums from the next few years - the trilogy of Outside, Earthling and Heathen. IMHO of course.

After his overproduced bottom-out period in the late 1980s, and the mixed reception of his angry old men project "Tin Machine," Bowie came out with really creative and interesting album that wasn't even available in the US for years after its release. I brought it as an import when it came out, and instantly thought it was his best work since Scary Monsters. The whole album is just Bowie and his bass player from the Sound and Vision tour playing all the instruments, recorded in something like 12 days. You get the sense there was a lot of FUN in making this album--somehow there's a giddiness to it in its strangeness, and attempt to recapture some of the more artistic moments of Bowie's career, like the late 1970s. The ambient stuff is wonderful, but its the pop songs that make the album. It is much less polished than some of his previous and more recent stuff, and it works in favor of the music. Every Bowie fan should own it.

without the restraints of the pressure an official bowie release brings on, david bowie cuts loose offering very elegant, melodic tunes that come through where so many recent releases have failed. the opening track is pop at it's most synergistic, flowing from bowie and collaborator kizilcay effortlessly. tracks 2 and 3 are the only weak points, but 4 is a return to the instrumental brilliance exhibited confidently on low and heroes. each remaining track emerges fully formed as a music thought process, working on the subconscious through almost excesive keyboard use and opulent rhythms, while seducing the senses with subtle, yet catchy melodies. all in all, this album is a tremendous example of bowie's capacity to develop complex, innovative songs with pop aesthetics. a final warning: stay away if its heavy rock music you seek; this album is firmly ensconced in berlin territory.

As I mentioned earlier, I was able to purchase a pre-release version of "The Buddha of Suburbia" last week and, of course, I've been listening to it everyday since then! :O)

However, since many of the tracks here are quite complex, very emotional and so moving, I am still not quite able to fully appreciate and comprehend ALL of this truly excellent album: "The Buddha of Suburbia" But, honestly, the more I listen to it the more I really think that this album is just absolutely impeccable in its composition, performance and overall production. All of the tracks are outstanding in one way or another within their specific style and genre. And all of the songs are sequenced together in a very cohesive manner that brings the entire work together quite well. "The Buddha of Suburbia" is, indeed, a fully consummate and flawless work as a whole.

Also, I really feel that this is quite possibly the most genuine and sincere album ever released by David Bowie so far. There are no characters or costumes or gimmicks within this production at all. Instead, this release features a very wide, dynamic and absolutely magnificent range of musical styles that fully display Mr. Bowie's truly extensive gamut of musical production and performance, more so than any of this other albums, in my humble opinion. So in that respect, within "The Buddha of Suburbia" we get to fully appreciate more of the "real" David Bowie and really experience nearly all of his many truly unique signature styles, which make comparisons to other producers and performers impossible. Five stars. Get it NOW!!!