Word: warszawas
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...influence of Eno is immediately obvious. The crown prince of electronic rock plays on 7 of the 11 tracks, and collaborates with Bowie on the most successful of the instrumental pieces, "Warszawa." Using piano, mini-Moog, Chamberlain and E.M.I. (don't even ask), Eno creates a work of majesty and spirituality. Medieval in feeling, with a bass drone borrowed from Russian liturgy, it is punctuated by Bowie's decent imitation of the sharp, nasal song style of Eastern Europe. You have the sense of sunlight glowing through the windows of a cathedral; gloomy, but at the same time gloriously transcendant...
...THIS quality for which Bowie unsuccessfully strives in the other instrumental tracks of the album. The sustained and simple melody that succeed in "Warszawa" only make the other compositions simplistic and monotonous. Though they vary in the instruments used and in the general tone of each, none of the others have the thrust or commitment that could take them beyond the level of experimentation. Bowie hauls in a cartload of interesting effects--but his electronic toys weigh him down. He is too reliant on the variety of synthesized sounds he can achieve, and neglects the compositional structure necessary to unite...