Ground Control to Major Tom

  The 40^th anniversary of the first moon landings has been great for so many reasons – chiefly an excuse for the media to dig up all kinds of fascinating material about this extraordinary human endeavour. But also, it’s brought a re-release for David Bowie’s Space Oddity. Nothing much to get excited about in itself – it’s hard to imagine a Bowie fan who wouldn’t have this in their collection somewhere. But what makes this particularly interesting is the inclusion of the original stems for the song as bonus tracks.

  As I’m sure anyone reading this will be aware, most records are compiled from a number of different tracks, containing different instruments or vocals. It’s not often that you see these tracks, or ‘stems’ as they’re usually referred to, officially released – they’re mainly the preserve of bootlegs, although sometimes they make their way into the public domain. Radiohead ran a remix competition last year, inviting fans to create their own mixes of their song Reckoner. And of course, the appearance of games such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band has made these stems widely available, even if only a handful of users have the know-how or ability to obtain them for their own remixing and listening purposes.

  Put simply, listening to Space Oddity in its constituent parts, rather than as a whole, is like discovering the song all over again – once you’re able to hear, for instance, the string section on its own, or David Bowie’s lead vocal without even the slightest hint of instrumental accompaniment, you gain a whole new appreciation of the whole. When everything is blended together, the little things get lost – a bit of instrumentation here, a vocal harmony there – but this way, you can pick up on all those details. Even Bowie singing, very quietly, what appears to be ‘little mouse fart’ near the start of the lead vocal track (about four seconds in).

  Anyway, it’s a brilliant idea, and I sincerely hope more artists will follow suit. Whether you want to listen to all the stems individually, or use software such as GarageBand to remix them into something almost unrecognisable - or even make yourself a ‘karaoke version’ to sing along to – it’s a brilliant idea, and I sincerely hope more artists will follow suit. In the meantime, David – can we have the same treatment for Life on Mars? Please?

You can buy the Space Oddity - 40th Anniversary Digital EP at most good download retailers, or listen to it via Spotify here.