Life on Mars

Whether or not his album title and its namesake cut were a tongue-in-cheek riposte to David Bowie taking up residence at Sigma Sound Studios the year before, longtime knob-tweaking synth wizard Dexter Wansel — still in his mid-twenties — leaped on the first opportunity he was given to turn his own studio engineering chops for MFSB and Billy Paul into a showcase for the more experimental side of Philly soul. Fusion-fueled soloing and jazz-funk inflections made this a treasure trove of spacey jams: the frenetic big-band futurism of “A Prophet Named K.G.,”  planetarium smoke-out “Theme From the Planets,” and halogen noir of “Rings Of Saturn” beckon a tomorrow that the bicentennial wasn’t quite ready for — but a successive generation of hip-hop sample-spotters made it a must-have even if you didn’t plan on feeding it into an MPC.