The purpose of this page is to be a central point for knowledge (facts, rumours and hoaxes) about the great lost David Bowie album, 2.Contamination. If you know anything about the Nathan Adler series that isn't on this page or its immediate links, please inform me!
You can now read the fake Contamination diary in English here!
You can now read the fake Contamination lyrics here!
On 25th September 1995, David Bowie released an album called 1.Outside. It had 19 tracks: 76 minutes of sheer brilliance. The music shifts from dark, hair-raising songs such as "A Small Plot of Land", "Wishful Beginnings" and "I Am With Name" to pieces of musical beauty such as "Thru' These Architects Eyes", "The Voyeur of Utter Destruction" and "I Have Not Been to Oxford Town", from the infectious beat of "Hallo Spaceboy" to the swirling oasis that is "The Motel". Outside is truly the greatest musical accomplishment that the human race has produced, and it's much more than just music - the inlay contained an intriguing 2000-word diary (supplemented by spoken segues on the album itself) and fascinating computer-generated images with David Bowie morphed into the various characters (Nathan Adler, Baby Grace Blue, Ramona A. Stone, Leon Blank and Algeria Touchshriek). Outside is the best album ever released!
1.Outside was the first in the Nathan Adler so-called series of albums. In 1995, it was going to be a series of five albums, with 2.Inside due to follow in 1996. In late 1996, it had apparently been reduced to a trilogy, and the second album was going to be 2.Contamination. I've been waiting for Contamination ever since. It appeared that David Bowie had become sidetracked when he released Earthling in 1997, but still the world held its breath for the continuation of the Outside saga. Sadly, when he released 'hours...' as his album for 1999, the chances of Contamination ever being released receded possibly beyond recall. So this page is a tribute to what might have been (and what still might be if David Bowie ever comes to my senses! ;-)).
In a live chat on 17th October 1999, David Bowie was asked if there will ever be a follow-up to 1.Outside. He replied: "Yes! Brian Eno and I recorded over 24 hours of material. Problem is to find the time to sift through. We workaholics always have many projects going at the same time." (special thanks to Zig Dust). In a live chat on 2nd February 2000, when asked what he was most looking forward to this year, he said the third thing was "trying to piece together '2. Contamination', the follow up to Outside." These are encouraging signs that Contamination will be released eventually. Since he's only released albums in odd-numbered years after 1984, Contamination could be out in 2001 at the earliest, but perhaps more likely in 2003, as he's currently working on an album in collaboration with Tony Visconti, which almost certainly isn't Contamination.
Zig Dust's the Outside Page has a section, the Future, which has an archive of news about Contamination. That page also has some details of the plot, which was to revolve around incurable diseases and 17th century Indonesian pirates. I remember David Bowie saying in 1997 that the diary would move backwards and forwards between the 17th and 21st centuries.
David Bowie said in 1997 that he was going to do Contamination in collaboration with Brian Eno (as on Outside) and no other musicians (unlike Outside) because the music was "going to be so avant-garde that I didn't want to lay it on my band!". So Outside would have been like a cross between Contamination and Earthling. However, in 1998 I heard that Trent Reznor had been drafted into the project, and also Goldie.
The non-release of Contamination has prompted some fans to take the project into their own hands and practically write it themselves! Perhaps they're trying to move David Bowie into releasing it himself. In March 1999, an anonymous hoaxer made up a track listing for Contamination and posted it on the Internet. Although some of them are clearly contrived, it still makes for intriguing reading:-1. segue - A Brief Inquisition (0:45) 2. Contamination (5:13) 3. Ebola Jazz (4:28) 4. A Fragmented Line (2:06) 5. The Hive Of No Desire (5:33) 6. segue - The Mad Ramblings of Long Beard (1:15) 7. Ill Refute (5:06) 8. A Tribe From The Ghost Plains (4:33) 9. Drawing A Blank (3:48) 10. Mausoleum (4:25) 11. Serengeti Song (7:34) 12. segue - The Fever Is Still (0:32) 13. Dream Child (5:52) 14. Crazed In The Hot-Zone (4:51) 15. Wiredlife (3:03) 16. Verona No More (3:55) 17. The Only Part Of My Days (4:43)
In August 2000, Tommy Lowe posted lyrics to these tracks on the message board of the Repetition site!
I have used some of the fake song-titles as room-names in my Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy games: "Contamination" in Manic Miner 4, "Ebola Jazz" in Goodnite Luddite, "The Hive of No Desire", "The Mad Ramblings of Longbeard", "Wiredlife" and "Verona No More" in Ma jolie. I plan to use the others in future games.
Zig Dust has made fake front and back covers of Contamination available at the Outside Page - the Future. These both gave me a sense of exhiliration and made me laugh! ;-)
Philip Drenth has set up a Contamination page as part of Stardust: The Unabashed David Bowie Music Guide. It includes the hoax track listing and simulated album cover art.
OVAL has written a fake Contamination diary in French. I have translated it into English and you can read it here. Mr. OVAL also has a 1.Outside website.
In October 1999, Kevin McGowin expressed on alt.fan.david-bowie an interest in getting together with some other fans and doing Contamination themselves. It will be interesting to see how this develops, although it would be no substitute for David Bowie doing it himself.
The classical artist Bridger Bell has done an album called 2.Contamination, which has the following track listing:
1. Exposition 2. Contamination 3. Passacaglia 4. Segue 5. Green Apple Turnovers 6. Construction 7. Public Offering 8. Extrapolation
A posting on the late David Bowie Message Board claimed that Contamination will be set on a pirate ship sailing to Africa, with Nathan Adler and Leon Blank. The posting also claimed that the third album would be 3.Afrikaan, and would be set in Africa, with Ramona A. Stone and her acolytes. Since the David Bowie Message Board is now defunct, you can read the full article here.