David Bowie’s ‘Aladdin Sane’ set for 50th anniversary reissue

9 January, 2023

David Bowie performs on stage on his Ziggy Stardust/Aladdin Sane tour

David Bowie‘s 1973 iconic album ‘Aladdin Sane’ is set for a special 50th anniversary reissue.

The late icon’s sixth album, and the follow-up to 1972’s ‘The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars’, was originally released in April 1973. Produced in the wake of his post-Ziggy stardom, most of the tracks were written while on the road in the US.

The reissue, which is out on April 14, will be released as a half-speed mastered LP and a picture disc LP pressed from the same master. You can pre-order it here.

According to a press release, the new pressing was “cut on a customised late Neumann VMS80 lathe with fully recapped electronics from 192kHz restored masters of the original master tapes, with no additional processing on transfer.” The half-speed record was cut by John Webber at London’s AIR Studios.

To mark the release, a 4K remastered version of ‘The Jean Genie’ music video has also been shared, which you can view below.

The album was originally co-produced by Bowie and Ken Scott and recorded at Trident Studios in London and RCA Studios in New York. It would be the last album that the line-up of Mick Ronson (guitar, piano, backing vocals), Trevor Bolder (bass) and Mick ‘Woody’ Woodmansey (drums) would appear on and featured avant-jazz pianist Mike Garson.

Last year, Bowie’s fourth studio album, ‘Hunky Dory’, was released as a deluxe reissue that included unreleased home demos, live recordings and other rarities from that era.

Meanwhile, 2ManyDJs recently told NME that the late icon was big fan of their mixes which he hailed as “dynamite combinations” and would repeatedly praise them in the press. The pair would later make a Bowie mix and accompanying film, DAVE, as Radio Soulwax.

“It’s still weird that we talk about Bowie as if we’d known him but we only met him once,” Stephen Dewaele explained. “It’s pretty crazy, even now. He was even on the forum on our little website as ‘David Bowie’ asking us questions, and we thought he was someone else!

“When we met him, Dave asked him how much time he spent on the internet and he replied, ‘Don’t you see I’m on your forum all the time?’ It seems like such a weird world now.”

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