Diamond Dogs is often cited as the beginning of Bowie's cocaine psychosis period. In fact, it was recorded before he started giving Hitler salutes at railway stations and aggravating Eastern European customs officers with the books on Goebbels he carried in his rucksack, and now presents something of a field day for hindsight-lovers.
Emerging in 2001 with "Circle", a collaboration with Doseone of the oddball cLOUDDEAD collective, Boom Bip was an onomatopoeically perfect alias for the creator of glitchy, goofy-footed hip hop. Now, it's doubtful Bryan "Boom Bip" Hollon would describe what he does as hip hop in any way. Corymb (it's botanical) is a giddily gorgeous collection of remixes (Boards Of Canada, Four Tet and others) and new tracks.
The Vietnam war had been over for three years by the time Hal Ashby made Coming Home in 1978. Those who'd survived the combat zones of South-East Asia had returned to find themselves shunned and quarantined, like lepers in their home towns; a living, breathing reminder of a shameful war many back home would rather forget had ever happened. Some of those who came back perhaps wished they'd died out there in the jungles—the paraplegics, the traumatised, forever dreading the nameless, shapeless things that whispered to them in the night.
