Various Artists Life Beyond Mars: Bowie Covered

• Words: Cameron Macdonald
• Label: Rapster
• XLR8R Rating: /10

“Do you want more absinthe?” Kelley Polar asks his date before he drunkenly jigs to a French electro-pop version of David Bowie’s “Magic Dance” (originally found on the Labyrinth soundtrack). It’s too bad that few folks on this Bowie tribute share Polar’s diabolical yet humorous spirit. However, some interpretations pay big returns: Matthew Dear’s cover of “Sound and Vision” captures the cocaine-laced damage and skin-shedding of Bowie’s Berlin period, while The Emperor Machine translates “Repetition” into a lost ZE Records mutant-disco jaunt. Elsewhere, The Thin White Duke gets butchered by Leo Minor’s graceless cover of “Ashes to Ashes” and Susumu Yokota’s drowsy rendition of the blue-eyed funk classic, “Golden Years.” Pour me another round of absinthe.