Brian Eno is MORE DARK THAN SHARK

INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS & RELATED ARTICLES

Beat Instrumental APRIL 1977 - by Peter Douglas

DAVID BOWIE: LOW

By a rather disturbing coincidence I came across these lines in a book whilst listening to Low for the first time: "Because his consciousness has evolved too fast, man has lost contact with his real identity. When his inner pressure is low - when he is in a state of boredom or aimlessness - he is aware only of the most superficial level of his identity." The italics are mine, but this snippet says a lot about David's obsessions. He is a frightening figure because he regards the exteriors of people as meaningless. His joke is constantly to change his appearance and to watch the resultant confusion of others, and the way that his admirers change with him. Having decided that the exterior is an illusion - that we have innumerable facets to ourselves which we normally never show, even to ourselves - he reaches no further conclusion. It is merely depressing. His feeling seems to be that we are no more than a miserable stew - a combination of heredity and experience; this is the feeling of his admirers too (though presumably not the ones who just like his fashions).

The film The Man Who Fell To Earth hinted at something else, but was ultimately a pessimistic comment; it hinted that we might once have had a greater purpose, but have been corrupted and forgotten it. Hence the barrenness and sterility of our existence. David can see no way out.

It is necessary to set the stage in this way before talking about the music of Low. Bowie is the only rock musician currently involved in philosophizing about the present age; everyone else is encouraging us to git up, git down, uh uh, shake a tail feather, etc. Do anything but think, which was something we almost began to do in the '60s. On the other hand, perhaps I'm just playing for time. The music evokes impressions and memories - the sort of music to be used in film soundtracks. But it's hard to talk about. It rivets the attention - it almost demands that you think. But what can you say when your mind is full of images of despair and desolation?

Curiously enough, the desolation is beautiful without being melancholy. It is something less sentimental than that. Part of this effect is achieved by means of synthesizers, which are used more skilfully on Low than on any other album I can remember. Brian Eno, of course, plays on all but four of the tracks. The other musicians are Carlos Alomar (guitar), Dennis Davis (percussion), George Murray (bass) and Roy Young (piano), plus guest appearances by various people, including Iggy.

Side one is basically the 'song' side. It centres around the futility of our activities: e.g. lust (What In The World), marriage (Be My Wife)and work (A New Career In A New Town - which appropriately has no words). The atmosphere is subtly dehumanized with electronic effects, but the songs drive on relentlessly. "Sometimes you get so lonely, sometimes you get nowhere..." he sings on Be My Wife in a stupid flat cockney voice. A New Career, the instrumental which closes the first side, paves the way for the really important part of Low, the four masterpieces of emptiness on the other side.

Warszawa is a truly miserable affair. Music to commit suicide by, the ultimate in negativity. David sings, but the words are those of a foreign language. Is he trying to tell us something? Art Decade is a little faster in rhythm, and Weeping Wall a little faster still. But it all culminates in Subterraneans with its slow ghostly voices, no longer human.