BBE Music continues to unveil more of Modern Love: A David Bowie Tribute Album with Helado Negro’s cover of “Sound and Vision.” It follows the compilation’s first single, We Are KING’s cosmic, open and airy cover of “Space Oddity.” The album is set to release on May 28.
Negro’s take on the track is substantially strays in quite a few places in comparison to the original. It employs entirely different instrumentation, which makes for a definitively alternative mood. The iconic guitar riff that serves as the backbone of the song is present in theory on Negro’s version but is now played with an electronic synth. There is a lot more atmosphere present on Negro’s cover, and a lugubrious one at that. While the original Bowie version was less imperative, it was substantial for its magical appeal to a range of feelings, most often feelings of exuberance.
Modern Love: A David Bowie Tribute Album was curated by music executive and DJ Drew McFadden, alongside BBE Music founder Peter Adarkwah. “I felt that the connection between Bowie and R&B, jazz, funk, gospel and all things soulful, had never really been explored before — at least not so much in covers, which tend to lean more towards rock and pop,” says McFadden via a press release. “Certainly, there’s been plenty of Bowie covers over the years, but none that have really tapped into what seems to have been a big part of his core musical style and direction.”
Within the gargantuan Bowie canon, “Sound and Vision” is one of his deeper cuts. It was first featured on the 1977 album Low, which was at the time Bowies eleventh full length release. For more on David Bowie and his legacy, take A Look Back: David Bowie Questions MTV VJ About Fledgling Network’s Lack Of Diversity.
Photo Credit: Stephen Hoffmeister