David Bowie - Brilliant Adventure (1992-2001) and Toy Box Sets

[MechaGodzilla]

Press release:

Parlophone Records/ISO Records are proud to announce two David Bowie landmarks: 26th November 2021 will see the release of DAVID BOWIE 5. BRILLIANT ADVENTURE (1992 – 2001), the fifth in a series of box sets chronicling his career from 1969 to the 21st century. Then on 7th January 2022, the day before David’s birthday, TOY (TOY:BOX) will receive its long awaited official release, finally making the legendary previously unreleased album available in three CD / six 10” vinyl versions.

The latest in an award-winning and critically acclaimed series of box sets including DAVID BOWIE 1. FIVE YEARS (1969 – 1973), DAVID BOWIE 2. WHO CAN I BE NOW? (1974 – 1976), DAVID BOWIE 3. A NEW CAREER IN A NEW TOWN (1977 – 1982) and DAVID BOWIE 4. LOVING THE ALIEN (1983-1988), DAVID BOWIE 5. BRILLIANT ADVENTURE (1992 – 2001) is an eleven CD box, eighteen-piece vinyl set and standard digital download box set. The collection is named after the Koto led instrumental penultimate track from the ‘hours...’ album. The box sets include newly remastered versions, with input from the original producers and collaborators, of some of Bowie’s most underrated and experimental material: BLACK TIE WHITE NOISE, THE BUDDHA OF SUBURBIA (available on vinyl for the first time in nearly 30 years), 1.OUTSIDE, EARTHLING and ‘hours…’ along with the expanded live album BBC RADIO THEATRE, LONDON, JUNE 27, 2000, the non-album / alternative version / B-sides and soundtrack music compilation RE:CALL 5 and the legendary previously unreleased TOY.

TOY was recorded following David's triumphant Glastonbury 2000 performance. Bowie entered the studio with his band, Mark Plati, Sterling Campbell, Gail Ann Dorsey, Earl Slick, Mike Garson, Holly Palmer and Emm Gryner, to record new interpretations of songs he’d first recorded from 1964-1971. David planned to record the album ‘old school’ with the band playing live, choose the best takes and then release it as soon as humanly possible in a remarkably prescient manner. Unfortunately, in 2001 the concept of the ‘surprise drop’ album release and the technology to support it were still quite a few years off, making it impossible to release TOY, as the album was now named, out to fans as instantly as David wanted. In the interim, David did what he did best; he moved on to something new, which began with a handful of new songs from the same sessions and ultimately became the album HEATHEN, released in 2002 and now acknowledged as one of his finest moments.

Now twenty years after its originally planned release, David’s co-producer Mark Plati says, "Toy is like a moment in time captured in an amber of joy, fire and energy. It’s the sound of people happy to be playing music. David revisited and re-examined his work from decades prior through prisms of experience and fresh perspective - a parallel not lost on me as I now revisit it twenty years later. From time to time, he used to say ‘Mark, this is our album’ - I think because he knew I was so deeply in the trenches with him on that journey. I’m happy to finally be able to say it now belongs to all of us”.

Available in 3CD or 6x10” vinyl formats, TOY (TOY:BOX) is a special edition of the TOY album. The ‘capture the moment’ approach of the recording sessions are extended to the sleeve artwork designed by Bowie featuring a photo of him as a baby with a contemporary face. The package also contains a 16-page full-colour book featuring previously unseen photographs by Frank Ockenfels 3.

The seeds of TOY were first sown in 1999 during the making of an episode of VH-1 Storytellers. David wanted to perform something from his pre-‘Space Oddity’ career, so he reached back to 1966 and dusted off ‘Can’t Help Thinking About Me’ for the first time in thirty years. The song remained in the setlist for the short promotional tour for the ‘hours…’ album, and in early 2000 David and producer Mark Plati compiled a list of some of Bowie’s earliest songs to re-record.

TOY finishes with a new song from which the album takes its title, 'Toy (Your Turn To Drive)’ was constructed from a jam at the end of one of the live takes of ‘I Dig Everything’. The track is based around rearranged sections of Sterling Campbell's drums, Gail Ann Dorsey's bass and sections of Mike Garson’s piano were looped along with a guitar line of Earl Slick’s that was sampled, time stretched and used as a repeating figure. Lastly, some of Holly and Emm’s backing vocals from the body of ‘Dig Everything’ were cut up and reassembled. Producer Mark Plati "As it was culled from ‘I Dig Everything’ it makes sense to bookend the album with this track - it’s also a fitting postscript to the TOY era”.

Included in TOY:BOX is a second CD/set of 10”s of alternative mixes and versions including proposed B-Sides (versions of David’s debut single ‘Liza Jane’ and 1967’s ‘In The Heat Of The Morning’), later mixes by Tony Visconti and the ‘Tibet Version’ of ‘Silly Boy Blue’ recorded at The Looking Glass Studio time at the of the 2001 Tibet House show in New York featuring Philip Glass on piano and Moby on guitar.

The third CD/set of 10”s features 'Unplugged & Somewhat Slightly Electric’ mixes of thirteen TOY tracks. Producer Mark Plati "While we were recording the basic tracks Earl Slick suggested that he and I overdub acoustic guitars on all the songs. He said this was a Keith Richards’ trick, sometimes these guitars would be a featured part of the track, and at other times they’d be more subliminal. Later while mixing, David heard one of the songs broken down to just vocals and acoustic guitars; this gave him the idea that we ought to do some stripped-down mixes like that and that maybe one day they'd be useful. Once we put a couple of other elements in the pot, it felt like it could be a completely different record. I was only too happy to finish that thought some two decades after the fact”.

Exclusive to DAVID BOWIE 5. BRILLIANT ADVENTURE (1992 – 2001) box set are BBC RADIO THEATRE, LONDON, JUNE 27, 2000 and RE:CALL 5. The former was recorded two days after the famous Glastonbury performance in front of 500 lucky fans at the BBC’s art deco theatre in central London. Selections from the show were available as the third CD in a very limited 3CD edition of BOWIE AT THE BEEB in September 2000 but the full concert has never before been available on vinyl. RE:CALL 5 features 39 non-album / alternative version / b-sides and soundtrack songs over 3CDs and 4LPs.

The physical box set’s accompanying book, 84 pages in the CD box and 128 in the vinyl set, will feature rarely seen and previously unpublished photos by photographers including Frank W. Ockenfels 3, Nick Knight, John Scarisbrick and Nina Schultz Terner and others, as well as memorabilia, technical notes about the albums from producers/engineers Brian Eno, Nile Rodgers, Reeves Gabrels and Mark Plati as well as a new an interview with THE BUDDHA OF SUBURBIA collaborator Erdal Kizilçay.

The CD box set will include faithfully reproduced mini-vinyl versions of the original albums where applicable, and the CDs will be gold coloured rather than the usual silver. The vinyl box set has the same content as the CD set and is pressed on audiophile quality 180g vinyl.

DAVID BOWIE 5. BRILLIANT ADVENTURE (1992 – 2001)

LP Box Set:

• 84 Page hardback book
• Black Tie White Noise (remastered) (2LP)
• The Buddha of Suburbia (a very limited release on vinyl previously, remastered) (2LP)
• 1.Outside (remastered) (2LP)
• Earthling (remastered) (3 sided - 2LP)
• ‘hours...' (remastered) (1LP)
• BBC Radio Theatre, London, June 27, 2000 (remastered and expanded 20 track version, previously unreleased on vinyl) (3LP)*
• Toy (previously unreleased) (3 sided - 2LP)
• Re:Call 5 (non-album singles, edits, single versions, b-sides and soundtrack music) (remastered) (4LP)*

* Exclusive to BRILLIANT ADVENTURE LP box

CD Box Set:

• 128 Page hardback book
• Black Tie White Noise (remastered) (1CD)
• The Buddha of Suburbia (remastered) (1CD)
• 1.Outside (remastered) (1CD)
• Earthling (remastered) (1CD)
• ‘hours...' (remastered) (1CD)
• BBC Radio Theatre, London, June 27th, 2000 (remastered and expanded 20 track version) (2CD)*
• Toy (previously unreleased) (1CD)
• Re:Call 5 (non-album singles, edits, single versions, b-sides and soundtrack music) (remastered) (3CD)*

*Exclusive to BRILLIANT ADVENTURE CD box

DAVID BOWIE 5. BRILLIANT ADVENTURE (1992 – 2001) RELEASED ON PARLOPHONE/ISO RECORDS 26th NOVEMBER

TOY RELEASED ON ISO RECORDS VIA PARLOPHONE 8th JANUARY 2022

Brilliant Adventure (1992-2001) tracklistings:

Black Tie White Noise

1. The Wedding
2. You've Been Around
3. I Feel Free
4. Black Tie White Noise (featuring Al B. Sure!)
5. Jump They Say
6. Nite Flights
7. Pallas Athena
8. Miracle Goodnight
9. Don't Let Me Down & Down
10. Looking for Lester
11. I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday
12. The Wedding Song

The Buddha of Suburbia

1. Buddha of Suburbia
2. Sex and the Church
3. South Horizon
4. The Mysteries
5. Bleed Like a Craze, Dad
6. Strangers When We Meet
7. Dead Against It
8. Untitled No. 1
9. Ian Fish, U.K. Heir
10. Buddha of Suburbia (featuring Lenny Kravitz on guitar)

1. Outside

1. Leon Takes Us Outside
2. Outside
3. The Hearts Filthy Lesson
4. A Small Plot of Land
5. Baby Grace (A Horrid Cassette) (segue)
6. Hallo Spaceboy
7. The Motel
8. I Have Not Been to Oxford Town
9. No Control
10. Algeria Touchshriek (segue)
11. The Voyeur of Utter Destruction (as Beauty)
12. Ramona A. Stone/I Am with Name (segue)
13. Wishful Beginnings
14. We Prick You
15. Nathan Adler (segue)
16. I'm Deranged
17. Thru' These Architects Eyes
18. Nathan Adler (segue)
19. Strangers When We Meet

Earthling

1. Little Wonder
2. Looking for Satellites
3. Battle for Britain (The Letter)
4. Seven Years in Tibet
5. Dead Man Walking
6. Telling Lies
7. The Last Thing You Should Do
8. I'm Afraid of Americans
9. Law (Earthlings on Fire)

‘hours…'

1. Thursday's Child
2. Something in the Air
3. Survive
4. If I'm Dreaming My Life
5. Seven
6. What's Really Happening?
7. The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell
8. New Angels of Promise
9. Brilliant Adventure
10. The Dreamers

BBC Radio Theatre, London, June 27, 2000 2xCD

CD1

1. Wild Is the Wind
2. Ashes to Ashes
3. Seven
4. This Is Not America
5. Absolute Beginners
6. Always Crashing in the Same Car
7. Survive
8. The London Boys
9. I Dig Everything
10. Little Wonder

CD2

1. The Man Who Sold the World
2. Fame
3. Stay
4. Hallo Spaceboy
5. Cracked Actor
6. I'm Afraid of Americans
7. All the Young Dudes
8. Starman
9. "Heroes"
10. Let's Dance

Toy

1. I Dig Everything
2. You've Got a Habit of Leaving
3. The London Boys
4. Karma Man
5. Conversation Piece
6. Shadow Man
7. Let Me Sleep Beside You
8. Hole in the Ground
9. Baby Loves That Way
10. Can't Help Thinking About Me
11. Silly Boy Blue
12. Toy (Your Turn to Drive)

Re:Call 5 3xCD

CD1

1. Real Cool World (Sounds from the Cool World Soundtrack Version)
2. Jump They Say (7” Version)
3. Lucy Can’t Dance
4. Black Tie White Noise (feat. Al B. Sure!) (Radio Edit)
5. Don’t Let Me Down & Down (Indonesian Vocal Version)
6. Buddha of Suburbia (Single Version) (featuring Lenny Kravitz on guitar)
7. The Hearts Filthy Lesson (Radio Edit)
8. Nothing to Be Desired
9. Strangers When We Meet (Edit)
10. Get Real
11. The Man Who Sold the World (Live Eno Mix)
12. I’m Afraid of Americans (Showgirls Soundtrack Version)
13. Hallo Spaceboy (Remix)
14. I Am with Name (Alternative Version)
15. A Small Plot of Land (Long Basquiat Soundtrack Version)

CD2

1. Little Wonder (Edit)
2. A Fleeting Moment (aka Seven Years in Tibet - Mandarin Version)
3. Dead Man Walking (Edit)
4. Seven Years in Tibet (Edit)
5. Planet of Dreams - David Bowie and Gail Ann Dorsey
6. I’m Afraid of Americans (V1 - Edit)
7. I Can’t Read (The Ice Storm Long Version)
8. A Foggy Day in London Town - David Bowie and Angelo Badalamenti
9. Fun (BowieNet Mix)
10. The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell (Stigmata Soundtrack Version)
11. Thursday’s Child (Radio Edit)
12. We All Go Through
13. No One Calls

CD3

1. We Shall Go to Town
2. 1917
3. The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell (Edit)
4. Thursday’s Child (Omikron: The Nomad Soul Version)
5. New Angels of Promise (Omikron: The Nomad Soul Version)
6. The Dreamers (Omikron: The Nomad Soul Version)
7. Seven (Demo)
8. Survive (Marius de Vries Mix)
9. Something in the Air (American Psycho Remix)
10. Seven (Marius de Vries Mix)
11. Pictures of Lily

Toy (Toy:Box) tracklistings:

CD1: Toy

1. I Dig Everything
2. You've Got a Habit of Leaving
3. The London Boys
4. Karma Man
5. Conversation Piece
6. Shadow Man
7. Let Me Sleep Beside You
8. Hole in the Ground
9. Baby Loves That Way
10. Can't Help Thinking About Me
11. Silly Boy Blue
12. Toy (Your Turn to Drive)

CD2: Toy - Alternatives & Extras

1. Liza Jane
2. You've Got a Habit of Leaving (Alternative Mix)*
3. Baby Loves That Way (Alternative Mix)*
4. Can't Help Thinking About Me (Alternative Mix)
5. I Dig Everything (Alternative Mix)
6. The London Boys (Alternative Version)
7. Silly Boy Blue (Tibet Version)
8. Let Me Sleep Beside You (Alternative Mix)*
9. In the Heat of the Morning
10. Conversation Piece (Alternative Mix)*
11. Hole in the Ground (Alternative Mix)
12. Shadow Man (Alternative Mix)*
13. Toy (Your Turn to Drive) (Alternative Mix)*

*Previously released

CD3: Toy - Unplugged & Somewhat Slightly Electric

1. In the Heat of the Morning (Unplugged & Somewhat Slightly Electric Mix)
2. I Dig Everything (Unplugged & Somewhat Slightly Electric Mix)
3. You've Got a Habit of Leaving (Unplugged & Somewhat Slightly Electric Mix)
4. The London Boys (Unplugged & Somewhat Slightly Electric Mix)
5. Karma Man (Unplugged & Somewhat Slightly Electric Mix)
6. Conversation Piece (Unplugged & Somewhat Slightly Electric Mix)
7. Shadow Man (Unplugged & Somewhat Slightly Electric Mix)
8. Let Me Sleep Beside You (Unplugged & Somewhat Slightly Electric Mix)
9. Hole in the Ground (Unplugged & Somewhat Slightly Electric Mix)
10. Baby Loves That Way (Unplugged & Somewhat Slightly Electric Mix)
11. Can't Help Thinking About Me (Unplugged & Somewhat Slightly Electric Mix)
12. Silly Boy Blue (Unplugged & Somewhat Slightly Electric Mix)
13. Toy (Your Turn to Drive) (Unplugged & Somewhat Slightly Electric Mix)

[Jr7936]

The brilliant adventures cd set is the cheapest right now at amazon.fr but they charge you asap
Comes out to $117 shipped

[dr727]

Fave Bowie Era

—former BowieNet subscriber

[MechaGodzilla]

Originally Posted by dr727

Fave Bowie Era

—former BowieNet subscriber

Mine too. I love almost everything he did, and can appreciate even the - what I consider to be - lesser works (mostly at the very beginning of his career, which any artist can be forgiven of). But above all, the '90s-early '00s is "my" Bowie. That's the Bowie I came to know and whose work I fell in love with during my teen years back in the early '00s.

It's not all about nostalgia, though. His '90s output still stands as some of the most experimental and daring of his entire body of work, and the influences he played around with on albums like Outside and Earthling are very much up my alley.

[wonkavision]

I always liked Bowie, but when I first heard Earthling, I really dug Bowie.
Picked up some of the live adventure releases last year or so.

[MechaGodzilla]

Originally Posted by wonkavision

I always liked Bowie, but when I first heard Earthling, I really dug Bowie.
Picked up some of the live adventure releases last year or so.

I skipped the Brilliant Live Adventures releases. The live albums I already get via these box sets, plus ones I've picked up on the side like VH1 Storytellers and Glastonbury 2000 - both because of the included DVDs - do me fine. I can enjoy a live album every now and then, but I prefer them in video form.

However, something I would really like to see is a "Brilliant Remix Adventures" album. One that collects the best remixes from this period on one or two discs. Re:Call 5 is a great selection, but there were some very good remixes released during these years which are absent.

[dr727]

Originally Posted by MechaGodzilla

However, something I would really like to see is a "Brilliant Remix Adventures" album. One that collects the best remixes from this period on one or two discs. Re:Call 5 is a great selection, but there were some very good remixes released during these years which are absent.

Same! I absolutely love how so many Super Deluxe Editions haven’t been shy about releasing the entire remix catalog for expanded albums. Even Fleetwood Mac “Tango in the Night” includes these incredible dub tracks that I wasn’t aware of but were created for clubs around the album’s release.

[stepeanut]

Picked this up yesterday, and I’m very impressed by the overall quality of the presentation. It’s a lovely set.

I am no longer a Bowie collector, but I had to have this for the expanded BBC Radio Theatre 2000, which I attended. My name is amongst those listed on the inner sleeve of this CD. Still a thrill, after all these years, to have my name on an official Bowie album.