David Bowie's Low
An analysis by James O'Callaghan
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| | Album Details
RCA Victor PL. 12030, January 1977
Personnel:
David Bowie (vocals, guitar, pump bass, arp, tape cellos, tape horn and brass-synthetic strings, saxophones, harmonica, piano, pre-arranged percussion, synthetic strings, vibraphones, xylophones)
Brian Eno (vocals, splinter mini-moog, report arp, rimmer E.M.I., guitar treatments, chamberlain, piano, synthetics)
Carlos Alomar (rhythm guitar)
Ricky Gardener (guitar)
George Murray (bass)
Roy Young (piano, farsifa organ)
Dennis Davis (percussion)
Mary Visconti, Iggy Pop (backing vocals)
Eduard Meyer (cellos)
Peter and Paul (pianos, arp)
Produced by David Bowie and Tony Visconti
Recorded at the Château d'Hérouville, France and Hansa by the Wall, Berlin
Mixed at Hansa by the Wall[1]
Track Listing:
SIDE A:
1. Speed of Life (Bowie) (2:47)
2. Breaking Glass (Bowie/Davis/Murray) (1:52)
3. What In The World (Bowie) (2:23)
4. Sound and Vision (Bowie) (3:03)
5. Always Crashing In The Same Car (Bowie) (3:33)
6. Be My Wife (Bowie) (2:56)
7. A New Career In A New Town (Bowie) (2:55)
SIDE B
8. Warszawa (Bowie/Eno) (6:23)
9. Art Decade (Bowie) (3:47)
10. Weeping Wall (Bowie) (3:28)
11. Subterraneans (Bowie) (5:42)
The Album Cover for Low
Photography by Steve Schapiro, from The Man Who Fell To Earth
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| | History
Low, in its infancy, was concieved from David Bowie's unreleased soundtrack for Nicolas Roeg's 1976 film,
The Man Who Fell To Earth in which Bowie starred. Unfortunately,
due to short deadlines and other complications, it was not completed
in time for its release and John Phillips was called in to do the score instead.[2]
In various statements in interviews, different claims have been made
as to how much of Bowie's sountrack to The Man Who Fell To Earth was
recycled for Low. For instance, Brian Eno once mentioned that
"Weeping Wall" was borne out of one of the songs for the soundtrack,
but Bowie has said that only the reverse bass part on Subterraneans
was taken from the score.[3]
Because the original recordings of the sountrack remain unreleased, there is no way of knowing for sure how much of Low is carved from
Bowie's soundtrack for the film. Nonetheless, six months after The Man Who Fell To Earth was released,
Bowie sent Roeg a copy of the album, claiming that it was what he wanted to do for the soundtack. Roeg has commented that "It would have been a wonderful score."[4]
The film had a large effect on Bowie, which is apparent in his use of stills from the film as the album cover on Low and his previous album, 1976's Station to Station.
Though Low is often considered to be a "new beginning" in Bowie's musical direction[5], inklings of its character can be seen on Station to Station.
While Station to Station is, for the most part, by no means as experimental or avant-garde as Low[6],
it marks the beginning of Bowie exploring more electronic elements in his music.[7]
It does not, however, at any time discard the basic pop trappings as in his previous work, or the funk/soul influence germinated in 1975's Young Americans.
That is not to say that Bowie's work had not been experimental until this time; indeed, Bowie has always been an experimenter, freely exploring any and every genre and sound, but it had always previously been in a pop-music setting.[8]
In Station to Station, though, one can see the influence of experimental german electronic acts such as Kraftwerk, Neu! and Tangerine Dream, an influence which was more fully explored in Low. [9]
'Kraut-Rock' had not been the only influence on Station to Station: the album was recorded during the climax of Bowie's cocaine addiction. Bowie has confessed that he was so dazed that he scarcely remembers making the album.[10]
Largely because of this addiction, after the album, Bowie moved to Berlin with his friend Iggy Pop to get clean and start anew. With its tanks rolling down the streets, old buildings devestated from the bombings of the second world war juxtaposed against brand new ones, the divide between East and West, Berlin in 1976 provided a perfect setting for the dark atmospheres and schizophrenic anxieties of Low. Beginning with Low, Bowie would record three albums in Berlin, famously referred to as "The Berlin Trilogy" and often hailed as a high point of his career, producing some of his most groundbreaking and influential work.
But before Bowie would explore this in his own work, he produced and co-wrote most of Iggy Pop's album, The Idiot. For Bowie, the album served as a sort of dry run for Low. The two albums were recorded in the same studio, with much of the same personnel, and explored many of the same themes and musical elements. (Some of the tracks, such as 'What in the World', recorded for The Idiot
ended up as reworked versions on Low.) Bowie is quoted as saying, "Poor Jim [Iggy's real name], in a way, became a guinea pig for what I wanted to do with sound."[11]
Iggy Pop confirms this: "[Bowie] has a work pattern that recurs again and again. If he has an idea about an area of work that he wants to enter, as a first step, he'll use side projects or work for other people to gain experience and gain a little taste of water before he goes in and does his... and I think he used working with me that way also."[12]
There are many sonic similarities between The Idiot and Low: The deadpan delivery of vocals, the aggressive sounds of crashing drums with distorted synthesizers and guitars (which appear throughout on The Idiot, but are limited to the first half of Low), the experimentations with electronics (most poignant on The Idiot in its final track, 'Mass Production'), and the overall sombre and 'low' sound which permeates both works.
There are many differences, as well, however. Perhaps the most pronounced of which are the use of unconventional song structures (which The Idiot barely dabbled in) and the 'ambient' style of music which appears on the second half of Low. These changes can largely be credited to Bowie's collaboration with Brian Eno, often called 'The Father of Ambient Music'.
While Eno's contributions to the album have often been overblown (he only shares writing credits on one song), his importance to it can not be understated. Where he has not directly created the material, he has largely influenced it. (Bowie recalls constantly listening to Eno's Discreet Music and Another Green World)[13]
They had met several times before; Eno's old band, Roxy Music had opened for Bowie in 1972, but it wasn't until Bowie's 1976 tour for Station to Station that the two met up and began to seriously discuss collaborating. After one performance at Wembly which Eno attended, the two met backstage and talked into the night.
Eno had also been an admirer of Bowie's recent work; he called Station to Station "one of the great records of all time ... I thought it was very strong, a real successful joining of that American urban funk scene with the kinds of things we had been doing in the early seventies."[14]
Eno also brought with him some unconventional working methods (not that Bowie didn't have his own share of them) with his Oblique Strategies cards which he had developed with Peter Schmidt in 1975.[15] These cards were used whenever musicians were stuck or in need of inspiration and contained suggestions such as "Do Something Boring", "Make an exhaustive list of everything you might do and do the last thing on the list", "Emphasize the Flaws", and "Remove Specifics and convert to Ambiguities".[16]
Some of the more conventional musicians working on the album, such as rhythm guitarist Carlos Alomar, at first strongly objected to these bizarre working methods, but later grew to appreciate them. Alomar is quoted as saying, "I fought it for a second, but respecting his curiosity and his innovativeness, I said, 'Well, let me try this, maybe something will come of it.' And I'll tell you one thing — it was the best of all that I've ever done with David Bowie. I love [The Berlin Trilogy] more than anything else."[17]
Low seemed to have that effect on many people. While certainly controversial, and not nearly as commercially successful as Bowie's previous two albums, Low is cited by many as one of the most enduringly influential albums. [18]
Minimalist composer Philip Glass, in his introduction to his 1992 symphonic orchestration of Low[19], writes, "The record consisted of a number of songs and instrumentals and used techniques which were similar to procedures used by composers working in new and experimental music.
As such, this record was widely appreciated by musicians working both in the field of "pop" music and in experimental music and was a landmark work of that period."[20]
Glass has nicely summed up the common sentiment that Low elegantly skirts the line between "Art" music and "Pop" music. Music Critic David Buckley has called the album "the defining work of Art Rock."[21]
The term 'Art Rock' itself suggests a kind of dualism or divide which Low embraces entirely. In the two opposing sides of the album, the balance between art and pop, experimental instrumentals and verse-chorus-verse song fragments, between the organic and the electronic, the personal and the public.[22]
Conscious of this divide, the album's working title was New Music: Day and Night, but was discarded because it "sounded rather pompously like the work of a minimalist composer."[23]
It may be too rash, however, to say that the divide between pop and art is expressed distinctly between the two sides of the album. A close analysis of the songs will show that all of the tracks on the album contain elements of 'art music'.
Poster for The Man Who Fell To Earth
Album Cover for Station to Station
Iggy Pop's The Idiot, produced by Bowie
Brian Eno in 2006
Side 1 of the Low LP
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The Songs
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01 - Speed of Life
A rough graph of the song structure of "Speed of Life"[24]
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1. The rapid fade-in opening of "Speed of Life" and the grungy synth line
2. The punchy snare drums put through an Eventide Harmonizer
3. The Kraftwerk-esque "chorus" of the song
| Low begins with "Speed of Life" rapidly fading in a distorted synth line (See audio clip 1 on the left), startling the listener, as though walking in on something already started.
I have called it a 'pickup' in the above graph, but really this brief fade-in suggests a missing piece to the song, rather than establishing an introduction.
What this immediately suggests is that the song is more of a 'fragment' rather than a completed work. Thematically, it establishes a sense of distance and disjunction, providing a context for the album.
The grungy sound of the synthesizer promptly announces the dissonant atmosphere to come. It most likely comes from Eno's EMS AKS Briefcase synth, a saw wave with heavy filtering and frequency modulation used with a noise oscillator.
It likely comes from this piece of equipment and not another because it lacks any distinct traditional melodic relationships, which would suggest a synthesizer with a keyboard, such as the Minimoog also used on the album. (The AKS Briefcase synth didn't have one. Its primary control was a joystick.)
The next noteworthy sound that grips the listener is the violent, 'punchy' snare sound. (See audio clip 2 on the left.)
The revolutionary processing involved in creating this signature sound, which, according to Rolling Stone Critic Rob Scheffield, is "one of rock's all-time most imitated drum sounds,"[25]
came from producer Tony Visconti's inventive use of an Eventide Harmonizer. The Harmonizer was the first piece of music hardware on the market capable of altering pitch while maintaining tempo.
The snare was sent to the Harmonizer, dropping the pitch, and was fed back to drummer Dennis Davis live, so that he could hear the distortion as he played and interact with it. The influence of this technique was magnificent. Visconti recalls,
"When the album came out the Harmonizer still wasn't widely available. I had loads of producers phoning me and asking what I had done, but I wouldn't tell them. I asked, instead, how they thought I did it and I got some great answers that
I found inspirational. One producer insisted I compressed the drum tracks three separate times and slowed the tape down every time, or something like that."[26]
While Low was a very influential album, it also had its share of very apparent influences. In "Speed of Life" in particular, one can hear a distince influence from the synthpop of German groups like Kraftwerk. (See audio clip 3 on the left.)
The Lead synth melody in the 'chorus' could have been taken right from a Kraftwerk song, though Bowie morphs that element into his own style. The visceral, organic crashing of the drums very much differs from Kraftwek's 'Machine Music', and the rock sensibilites that ooze their way in remain from Bowie's traditional work.
The 'rock' elements present on Low are not, however, of a traditional variety. Most all of the instruments on the album are heavily processed in one way or another. One can hear Eno's hand in treating the guitar sound in this section of the song. It appears to have been put through a high-pass filter, and possibly a light chorus effect.
The lead synth melody here probably comes from Eno's Moog. The first melody is played with a low-pass filter, and the second repeats the melody with a high-pass filter.
By this point, it becomes apparent that the track is an instrumental. It is important to note that until this point, Bowie had never released a single instrumental track. This development in Bowie's willingness to explore new musical territory faces the listener with the fact that this album will be different.
It is important to note, though, that while the latter half of the album was planned to be all instrumental, two tracks on the first half, this and "A New Career and a New Town", were planned to have vocals, but Bowie could not come up with suitable lyrics.[26]
This is evident in the song structure of "Speed of Life", as it still maintains a relatively typical pop structure with repeated sections and a sort of vocal-less "chorus". The repetition is effective, however, and gives the song a sense of movement and speed, but of a cyclical variety.
The song also subverts the basic pop structure in its 'fragmented' status. Just as it faded in rapidly, the song fades out without any real warning or sign of slowing down. This creates the sense that the song is in an eternal cyclical loop, one of which we only get a brief glimpse.
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An EMS AKS Briefcase Synthesizer
An Eventide Harmonizer;
probably a newer model than the one
Visconti used on Low.
The influential German Synthpop group Kraftwerk
Low's producer, Tony Visconti in the 70's
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02 - Breaking Glass
A rough graph of the song structure of "Breaking Glass"
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1. The interesting use of panning on the shrill synth sound
| The second track on the album, "Breaking Glass", comes off at first as one of the more 'traditional' pop songs of the album. It is largely focussed on rhythm, as the shared credits to drummer Davis and bassist Murray suggests.
This focus on rhythm is enhanced on all the tracks on Low's first side by foregrounding the drums and bass in the mix. In so doing, Bowie and Visconti sought to really explore what lay at the heart of pop music. If Low is a pop album, it is at least a self-conscious one.
The song also has a more conventional pop song structure, with a very distinct verse-chorus-verse pattern. This structure is surprisingly and jarringly subverted, however, when the song fades out just under two minutes in, before the chorus can even be repeated.
This was reportedly because of Bowie's writer's block; he couldn't come up for many verses to most of the songs or any lyrics to some of them, but Eno encouraged him to take advantage of this apparent 'flaw'. [27]
The result is a self-conscious exploration of the structures of pop music which allows the song to end up coming off as, in fact, rather experimental. It is a pop song, but it is so only in its experimentation with pop as a medium.
By curtailing the song short, Bowie has essentially subverted the expectations of a popular music audience. In this manner, he has taken a basic pop song and turned it into a track which "epitomizes the experimental nature of the Low project."[28]
A final important note on "Breaking Glass" is the jarring crooning Moog which comes in at the end of each line in the verse. (See audio clip 1 on the left.) This sound takes us out of the comfortable space of listening to the song as a pop song and reminds us of our status as a listener. It does so through its pronounced
use of panning, in which the synth pans from right to centre to left (left to centre to right on the second verse) matched up with each 'note'. This explores an unnatural relationship between melody and stereo space and demands listener attention.
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Low Drummer, Dennis Davis
A Minimoog Synthesizer
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03 - What In The World
A rough graph of the song structure of "What In The World"
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1. The insistent synthesizer 'blips' and dissonant guitar melody
| While "Breaking Glass" explored and enhanced rhythm in a pop-music setting, "What In The World" explores a more complicated and irregular rhythm with its steady stream of
synthesizer blips that don't quite line up with the rhythm section. (See audio clip 1 on the left.) Probably another product of Eno's AKS Briefcase synth, these 'bubbly', 'glitchy' synth sounds
assault the senses and distract from comfortable listening. Their regularity suggests being set up on a sequencer, as they stream in to the music and battle the predominant rhythm of the song.
Another element which contributes to this song's 'uncomfortable' sound is the wailing dissonant guitar, which hits on even beats but confuses the melody as much as the synthesizer confuses the rhythm.
"What In The World" is unconventional in its rhythms and melodies, but the basic structure is the most pop-like on the album yet. The sections are repeated, with the occasional addition of another layer
of vocals or synthesizer. This structure is possibly because it was carried over from recordings of Iggy Pop's Album, The Idiot earlier that year.
Pop's only presence in the Low recording, though, is in the backing vocals on this track.
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Iggy Pop, who contributed backing vocals to "What In The World"
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04 - Sound and Vision
A rough graph of the song structure of "Sound and Vision"[29]
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1. The puzzling gated snare sound
2. The dominating high-frequency synthetic string melody
3. The heavily processed saxophone
| 'Sound And Vision' was the first single from the album, and surprisingly, Bowie's biggest commercial hit in Britain since 1973. This was aided largely by BBC's use of the song's intro in backing its programme trailers, as Bowie himself did nothing to promote the song or the album.[30]
The song is structured fairly closely to a standard pop song, and it is the perfect length for a pop music single, but it is by no means a conventional pop song. Firstly, the intro to the song is longer than the body of the song.
As author Hugo Wilcken comments, "It's almost like an instrumental with a lyric fragment tacked on at the end as an afterthought."[31]
The first new sound which really establishes itself in the song is a high hissing sound in the left channel (See audio clip 1 on the left) which I had described in the above graph as a "Noise Sweep", assuming it was generated by a noise oscillator, but others have shown differing accounts. Music Critic Nicholas Pegg describes the sound as an "insistent plish of cymbals,"[32]
but Wilcken's account of it as a "heavily gated snare"[33] seems to hold more water upon listening.
As the song progresses, a high synth stringlike melody, probably played on Bowie's ARP dominates the focus. There seems to be a high-pass filter on it, and delay processing as well. The undertones of notes seem to carry on well beyond their successors, until the last note in the melody, before which the remains of previous notes are abruptly cut short, and the last note is faded in. (See audio clip 2 on the left.)
The effect of this is not altogether too jarring, but it remains an interesting choice and suggests that the effects are not a part of the synthesizer playing itself, but were instead processed with studio equipment afterward.
Some heavy 'post-production' processing seems to have been placed on the saxophone as well. (Or perhaps it was done live with Visconti's Harmonizer.) It is difficult to make out exactly what sort of processing was put on the saxophone, but there is definitely something alien about it. The subtle 'warping' sound it is given suggest a phase shift, which would probably have been done with tape loops. (See Audio Clip 3 on the left.)
It would not be in the least bit surprising, given Eno's experiments with them in his solo work.
The song plays on pop sensibilities in a jaunty manner, half committing to them, and half mocking them. The cheesy "doo-doos" of the backing vocals suggest pastiche, and the song fades out unfinished like most of the tracks on the first half, establishing the track as another instance of 'self-aware pop'.
Wilcken describes the effect as a "pop song with quotation marks, not quite sure if it's a part of the genre or merely referencing it."[34]
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The cover of the "Sound and Vision" single
A tape delay setup similar to one that might have been used on Low
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05 - Always Crashing in the Same Car
A rough graph of the song structure of "Always Crashing in the Same Car"
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1. The processed guitar and the bubbly synth
| "Always Crashing In The Same Car" begins with precisely one second of almost-silence; there is an incredibly faint snare hit at the beginning. This tiny pause has always generated incredible tension for me as a listener.
The tiny whisper of a snare rattles the nerves and one second is the perfect amount of time to generate enough suspense to make what comes next shocking.
Several Instruments start at once; the one which most grabs the listener's attention are the guitars, both put on a phase shift to very interesting effect. (See Audio Clip 1 on the left)
The guitar oozes down and warps in and out of prominence, creating a very effective evolving timbre. The drums at this point are very subtle. They are still being processed through the harmonizer, but they do not have the same 'punchy' quality because of their low level in the mix, and Davis' hitting the snare with less force.
A synthesizer, probably the AKS Briefcase again, slowly phases in, put on a low frequency oscillator, likely controlled live by Eno. The frequency being controlled by an LFO gives the synth a very 'bubbly' effect, and is an interesting addition the collective of timbres presented thus far.
A light melody repeats in the background, possibly horn samples from the chamberlain mentioned in the liner notes.
In terms of structure, "Always Crashing In The Same Car" is rather conventional again; it is the first track, also, to have a proper ending, instead of just fading out. However, it is also perhaps the most interesting track in terms of timbre on the first half of the album.
The heavy use of phase shifting and interesting synthesis makes this track memorable above all else.
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A chamberlain keyboard instrument like the one used on Low
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06 - Be My Wife
A rough graph of the song structure of "Be My Wife"
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"Be My Wife" is the one unabashedly pop song on Low. It still has some occasionally interesting processing, but most of it is subtle or irrelevant to the song. It is structured completely like a pop song, with a clearly definable vocal chorus for the first time on the album. It has features a very musically interesting guitar solo, but it does not exactly cover any new ground.
The song also prominently features the piano, played in a pastiche to the cabaret style of playing. The entire song seems to be a pastiche; the lyrics in particular are so straightforward and bogus that it is hard to take them in earnest.
The second single from the album, "Be My Wife" was the first Bowie single to fail to chart since his pre-Ziggy Stardust days. Still a very decent and catchy song, it is probably the weakest on the album.
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"Be My Wife" recalls the honky-tonk style of cabaret pianists
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07 - A New Career In A New Town
A rough graph of the song structure of "A New Career In A New Town"
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1. The mechanical 'European' opening
2. The rock-oriented 'American' 'chorus'
3. The synth line with delay processing
| "A New Career In A New Town" is the perfect end to the first half of the album. Another 'instrumental', this one is still more like a song without words in the same way that "Speed of Life" is.
It presents the divide between the two halves of the album perfectly, and expresses in itself many dualities. Rather than thinking of it in a traditional verse-chorus-verse structure without words, it can be seen
as two modes or two structures competing, as they do throughout the whole album. The beginning of the song has a very synthetic, mechanical feel. The delicate minimalist drumming is nothing more than a low pass filtered kick drum repeating with little variation,
reminiscent of the machine music of Kraftwerk. (See Audio Clip 1 on the left.) So too is the synth line, which, given its pace and consistency, was probably sequenced.
There are some very interesting timbres in this track; in the opening a light, soft synth pad with low-pass filtering gives the piece a strong sense
of atmosphere (of which we shall see more later on the second side of the album.)
The mechanical-sounding, delicate synthetic opening is jarringly contrasted with the
aggressive, emotional crashing of drums and prominent playing of harmonica once the song reaches the "chorus". (See Audio Clip 2 on the left.) This difference presents a direct juxtaposition of traditional American music and cutting-edge European electronic music.
Buckley calls it a "kind of battle between the European (specifically German) tradition of calculated metronomic synth music and the wholesome authenticity of the Yankee harmonica."[35]
Still, it would be unfair to say that the one section is electronic and the other is organic. There is heavy phase shift processing on the guitars again in the "chorus", as well as the distorted snare that has by now become so iconic.
The "outro" of the song, though, is by far the most interesting part: it combines the two competing sections. The result is an incredible wall of sound full of rich timbres and textures. The sequenced synth line, previously only quiet in the background,
comes to the forefront here and acquires some interesting tape delay processing courtesy of Brian Eno. (See Audio Clip 3 on the left.) Altogether the track sums up the two sides of the album and provides an elegant transition from the first half to the second.
It still contains many of the pop sensibilities explored in the first half, but also takes on the synthetic, smooth and sombre ambient timbres of the second.
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An old sequencer. Some of the melodies on Low were probably sequenced.
In contrast to the mechanical electronic element poised by sequencers, "A New Career In A New Town" prominently features a Harmonica, harkening back to old-timey American sensibilities.
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08 - Warszawa
A rough graph of the song structure of "Warszawa"[36]
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1. The 'pulse'
2. The vocal 'chanting'
3. The main melody
4. The melody evolution
4. Resonance
| "Warszawa" open up the second half of the album with a quiet, dark pulse of treated piano and synthesizer. (See Audio Track 1 on the left.) Instead of a standard time signature, "Warszawa" is guided by
this steady pulse, reminiscent of the "groove" of minimalist composers. This instrumental is likely as far from pop music as Bowie has ever got, which likely has something to do with the shared writing
credit Eno recieves on the track. Bowie's work on the track often has been understated, though. It is unlikely it would have as large a focus on melody and harmony were it a purely Eno work.
Nonetheless, Eno shines through on this track and aids it in creating an ambient atmosphere particular to his work. The two working together (Along with Visconti) have created a unique sound foreign to pop music.
As such, "Warszawa" establishes the album's second side as 'different' from the first and firmly places Bowie's feet in the ground as a genuine 'Art' musician for the first time.
The track had its genesis in Bowie telling Eno that he wanted to compose an "emotive, almost religious" instrumental; Eno suggested they lay down a track of random finger clicks, signalling chord changes.[37]
Bowie and Visconti had to leave for a court session, and rather than waste studio time, Eno began work on the track alone. Babysitting Visconti's son Delany, Eno overheard him tinkering on the piano, repeating the notes, A, B, C over and over again. Eno sat down next to him and completed the melody. Eno and Visconti returned and added further melodies, and to Eno's surprise, vocals.[38]
Bowie added several tracks of vocals over top of each other to create a chorus, with each layer made distinct by panning. The final layer of vocals added is sped up about three semitones, making Bowie's voice sound like that of a young boy's. (See Audio Clip 2 on the left.) The vocals are in a made-up language, recalling Dadaist 'sound poetry', suggesting something vaguely foreign and 'ethnic'.
The song itself evokes a strong sense of setting, like all the songs on Low's second half, this one references Warsaw, where Bowie was inspired after briefly changing trains in the city. [39]
"Warszawa" is most interesting, though, in its timbre, which evolves over the course of the whole song. The rhythmic 'pulse' becomes more or less prominence by openening and closing filters on the synthesizer element, or through processing on the piano. The melody also evolves strongly in terms of timbre by adding layers and through synthesis techniques. Modulating the frequency on the cut-off filter of the synthesizers provides evolution, as
does the addition of sampled woodwind instruments from the Chamberlain. (Compare Audio Clips 3 and 4 on the left) The synth pads which provide a 'sonic bed' for the track evolve by modulating the resonance on the filters. (See Audio Clip 5 on the left) All in all, the evolution of sound that this song explores makes it one of Bowie's most interesting.
The complex evolving timbres of "Warszawa" seemed out of place in a rock album (not that Low is your typical rock album) and inspired other rock artists to explore similar territory. For instance, the band Joy Division was originally named "Warsaw" as an homage to this song.
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Modern day Warsaw.
Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis, on whom Low had a profound impact.[40]
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09 - Art Decade
A rough graph of the song structure of "Art Decade"[41]
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1. The intro
2. The electric-sounding flourish and elephant sound
3. The long synthesized 'dripping' sound
| "Art Decade" is another instrumental in which Eno had more than a hand. It first started with Bowie and Eno writing a song on Piano (both playing; it required four hands), but was neglected as Bowie didn't like it. Eno reworked some of the material after doing initial work on "Warszawa" while Bowie and Visconti were away, adding more instruments on top.
When Bowie returned and listened to what Eno had done with it, he liked it and began to add his own layers to it. The result is what Eno calls his favourite track on the album.[42]
Its creation also involved the same process of laying down random click tracks to signal section changes, though this
process is more evident in "Art Decade": The main motif begins at startling odd occasions, which are almost jarring, but never unpleasant to listen to. The effect is one
which demands listener attention. The track lacks a proper time signature just like "Warszawa", and similarly rests on a minimalist pulse. "Art Decade", though, is perhaps the most
characteristically minimalist-influence song on the album, as the entire song is structured on two repeating chords. The change in timbre and overlay of melody and samples makes it still interesting to listen to,
though the song retains provocatively repetitive structure.
It opens with light percussion, a higher frequency tambourine-like sound (that almost sounds like crickets) starts the piece off, and continues throughout, establishing the 'groove'.
Four seconds in is a light synth sound which occasionally graces the song, adding variation. It is possibly put through ring modulation, though it is difficult to say at such a low volume. A light melody plays in the background which is not heard again in the song.
It is placed very much in the background in the mix, and the addition of reverb makes it seem very distant and 'outside' the body of the song. Then the main motif enters loudly and surprisingly, signalled at a random point by Eno's click-track. (See Audio Clip 1 on the left)
Sprinkled on top of the song, as well as the very electronic light synth 'flourish', are samples of what sounds unmistakably like an elephant's trumpet. (See Audio Clip 2)
This sample (the first 'true' sample on the album, outside of the sampled instruments from the Chamberlain) provides an interesting garnish to the song. It is heavily processed, in different ways throughout the song, allowing the listener to even forget that it is an elephant they are hearing.
Some of the prominent processing used on this sample involves transposition of pitch (both higher and lower throughout the song), filtering, and reverb.
As in Musique Concrète, the sample is used in terms of its sonic quality, and not through any reference to the sound's semantic association. (Indeed, an elephant would sound quite out of place in Berlin, the 'landscape' which this track conjures.)
The final, most interesting 'garnish' in this piece is a long synthesizer sound, probably from the AKS Briefcase again. The filter sharply opens and closes quickly, providing little bursts of resonance, as the pitch is slowly lowered until it becomes obscured in the background.
There is some apparent reverb added on this synth as well, giving it a distant quality that maintains its status as an embellishment to the piece, without distracting wildly from the main repeating melody. (See Audio Clip 3 on the left.)
The piece closes by repeating the main motif again, giving it a solid close common to romantic music. This decision was probably Bowie's, as Eno is known for avoiding such compositional strategies.
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Low, particularly its second side, was influenced by minimalist composers such as Philip Glass. Glass himself was an appreciator of the album and created a symphonic tribute to it in 1992.
"Art Decade" features a sample of an elephant's trumpet divorced from its semantics through processing.
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10 - Weeping Wall
A rough graph of the song structure of "Weeping Wall"
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1. The intro and synth melody
2. A more processed synth melody
3. Heavy use of low frequency oscillators to control frequency
| If there were any doubts to Bowie's capacity they are quelled in this track. The innovation presented in the other tracks have sometimes (and not without justification) been credited to Eno alone, but "Weeping Wall" was written entirely by Bowie, and he plays all instruments in the track as well.
It is not the best track on the album, but it is powerful and interesting nonetheless. Eno still haunts this track from afar, as methods he introduced to Bowie have been put in place. (Such as the random click track being used to guide section changes, which is used again on this piece.)
It continues the minimalist influence of this side of the album, setting up a flowing synth pulse which guides the song. (This one seems sequenced) The rhythm of the song is also carried by Bowie's playing of Xylophone and Vibraphone (The 'mallet line' of the above graph), which provide an interesting interaction with the synth sounds dominating
the rest of the track. (See Audio Clip 1 on the left.) The lead synth melody at the beginning appears to be from a triangle wave with a low pass filter on it. The frequency of this synth is often modulated by a low-frequency oscillator. (Though not that low, the frequency oscillates rather quickly, giving it an almost theremin-like sound.)
The melody later appears in a much sharper sound, processed with reverb, giving it an air of distance. (See Audio Clip 2 on the left.) Near the end, the reverb is removed and the low frequency oscillator modulation is used even more wildly. (See Audio Clip 3 on the left.) Bowie has added in a lyricless vocal track accompanying the synthesizers; it seems he is even imitating them at some points.
Like "Art Decade", "Weeping Wall" is another piece about Berlin, with its wailing timbres reflecting the anxieties shrouding the Berlin Wall. There is an air of lightheartedness to the song, though, that gives it a rather peculiar quality, an almost manic desperateness.
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Bowie implements a xylophone on "Weeping Wall" which provides an interesting interaction in timbre in a predominantly synth-based work.
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11 - Subterraneans
A rough graph of the song structure of "Subterraneans"
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1. The opening
2. The reversed clicks and soft wailing synth melody
| "Subterraneans", the final track on Low, is my personal favourite. It is a moody ambient piece "about the people who got caught in East Berlin after the seperation."[43]
This is reportedly the one track which was carried over in part from Bowie's abandoned sountrack for The Man Who Fell To Earth. The melodies in the piece are laid against an ambient 'bed' of reversed sounds. There is a light
pulse which continues throughout the song in a less obvious manner than the "groove" of the previous three tracks. Coming in over top of this is a low, 'fat' saw wave bass line which repeats throughout the song, almost always present, but not at perfectly regular intervals.
Also fading in is a richly-timbred pad moving ever so slowly, giving the song further texture. (See Audio Clip 1 on the left) The reversed sounds continue, filling the song out and providing constant interest; the more pronounced reversed 'clicks' occur irregularly and complement the foreground melodies interestingly. (See Audio Clip 2 on the left.)
Bowie provides some lyricless vocals, giving variation and fullness in timbre. Next is a particular poignant and expressive saxophone solo which further establishing the song's melancholy tone. Surprisingly, Bowie adds lyrics to the song, the only present on Low's second side. They are, however, jumbled cut-up sentences, such as "share bride failing star", reminiscent of William S. Burroughs' infamous style,
giving no narrative to the song. They express a final failed communication and collapse, matching the desperately sombre atmosphere of the song. The rich synthetic timbres on this track are the most interesting that the album presents, making it the perfect end to a wonderful album.
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"Subterraneans" features a beautifully sombre saxophone solo.
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| | Final Thoughts
Low is a very innovative and complex blend of minimalism, German experimental music, R&B pop and funk, and grungy rock and roll. An eclectic blend, to be sure, the schizophrenic seperation of Low's two distinct sides vividly depicts the divide betwen Art and Pop music, but manages to leak enough from each side to the other to suggest a compatability that makes Low an enjoyable and interesting listen.
I had always known David Bowie as a relatively common pop artist, and at times some of his music even used to irritate me. Two summers ago I watched David Lynch's film, Lost Highway for the first time, and was captivated by the music playing on the opening credits. I looked it up and discovered it was a song called "I'm Deranged" by David Bowie and Brian Eno. It was an interesting blend of Industrial Electronic music and Jazz and really caught my interest.
I began to question my first impression of Bowie, and bought the album the song was from, 1. Outside. 1. Outside is another amazing piece of art rock that took me by surprise and it quickly became my favourite album. I gave other Bowie songs another try and found a lot of subtleties I hadn't noticed and really began to appreciate his work. I did more research on 1. Outside and discovered that Eno had worked with Bowie before in the 70's on a mysterious,
critically acclaimed (but difficult to find) 'Berlin Trilogy'. I eventually heard Low, the first in the series, and was even more impressed than I was with 1. Outside. Low really surprised me in its exploration of experimental song structures and fascinating synthetic timbres. It instantly replaced 1. Outside as my favourite and I hunted down my own copy. Now after hearing literally every album Bowie has made, Low remains my favourite.
It still contains some pop sensibilities which make it an enjoyable and catchy listen; it can be used as 'background' music. But it is so amazingly complex and rich that it deserves close analysis. This dualism is what Brian Eno has always purported in his 'Ambient' music; it can be listened to perfectly as either background or foreground music. The most compelling part of Low for me is its interesting synth timbres. I have listened to it hundreds of times (this assignment alone has probably doubled the amount) and I am still finding new things.
Graphing out all the songs, in particular, was a process that really helped me understand the music more. I also have always been attracted to very rhythmic music, and Low incorporates this well in to an artistic setting, exploring it musically but also just having fun with it. I was, like many others, blown away by the powerful treated snare sound, which gave the album a powerful rhythmic edge and explored a sort of 'rough' and 'grungy' sound that also appealed to me. At the same time, the softness of the second side appealed to me; I have more and more
become appreciative of the subtleties and richness of ambient music over the years, and Low marks a keystone in this interest. It has surely guided the development of my own music and interests as an artist. Above all, I find listening to Low inspirational, because it reminds me of the scope and power of good music in a way which applies to my own aesthetic.
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Bibliography
Buckley, David. David Bowie: the Complete Guide to His Music. London: Omnibus P, 2004.
David Bowie. Low. Rec. 1976. David Bowie and Tony Visconti, 1977.
David Bowie. Station to Station. Rec. 1975. David Bowie and Harry Maslin, 1976.
Glass, Philip. "Low" Symphony by Philip Glass. From The Music of David Bowie and Brian Eno [CD liner notes]. New York: Dunvagen Music Publishers. 1992.
Iggy Pop. The Idiot. Rec. 1977. David Bowie, 1977.
Pegg, Nicholas. The Complete David Bowie. London: Reynolds & Hearn Ltd, 2004.
Scheffield, Rob. "Rolling Stone : David Bowie : Low : Music Reviews." Rolling Stone. 22 Nov. 2001. 19 Nov. 2006 http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/davidbowie/albums/album/109276/review/6067413.
The Man Who Fell to Earth. Dir. Nicolas Roeg. Perf. David Bowie, Rip Torn, and Candy Clark. DVD. Columbia Pictures, 1976.
Wilcken, Hugo. Low. New York: Continuum, 2005.
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