The Martian from Earth

There is always one artist that stands out for everyone of us and, more than often, I find myself truly fascinated by the work of David Bowie. I use the word "work" because his contributions are not limited to music but, nonetheless, that's what we will be (mostly) focusing on. Needless to say, this little article is about to get very nerdy, very fast.

After a thorough yet not exhaustible analysis of his most salient work in order to isolate his peculiar aesthetic choices, I did my best to put into a personal composition a few of my favourite Bowie shenanigans.

There is a certain consistency in using the second degree of a major scale as a false tonic. The verse in “Starman” starts with a ii – I – V – V7 which resolves back to the ii, giving the impression that we are hearing a plagal cadence in Gm, instead of the original progression in the key of F. Moreover, in “Heroes”, Bowie maintains the usage of a major II degree, creating an almost Lydian impression. Returning to “Starman”, the chorus captures a few of Bowie’s most fundamental elements that make his harmonic progressions so unique. In Figure 01 we can identify and follow these prominent features: a vi – iii is a common choice which we can also observe in the chorus of “Heroes”; the use of the minor iv (Bb – Bbm), a highly important choice throughout his work (chorus of “Space Oddity”, chorus of “The Man Who Sold The World” etc.); the use of secondary dominants (D7 – Gm) which distract from the main tonal centre.

Figure 01 (Ultimate Guitar, 2019)

Just as important as the minor fourth, the major third used in a major scale is one of Bowie’s most recognisable harmonic choices. It is present in famous songs such as “Space Oddity”, in the beginning of “Moonage Daydream” (D – F#); “The Man Who Sold The World” starts on that very III degree; in “Blackstar”, it is constantly used to the extent that it starts to act as a tonal centre as if in a Phrygian Dominant scale. Similar to “Starman”, “Space Oddity” captures these salient elements in the verse section, easily making it one of the most symbolic songs of his repertoire. The I – III – IV – iv progression can be also identified in Radiohead’s “Creep” which captures that same essence of alienation and otherworldliness. Parallelism is explored throughout Bowie’s work and, besides parallel chords, there is a persistent borrowing from the parallel key as well. In the chorus from “Lazarus”, the Eb is taken from the parallel key of C minor. Bowie’s harmonic choices can be explained by using a graphical representation of the Tonnetz (Cohn, 1997 and Capuzzo, 2004) applied on the verse of “Space Oddity” (Figure 02).

Figure 02

There is, of course, more to David Bowie’s contribution than just harmonic choices but many of these rely on social and cultural aspects (Doggett, 2011) which I could not portray in my piece. Similarly, the vocals and lyrics play a crucial role in all of these facets and it is worth mentioning the suggested messages from the last album, Blackstar. Bowie invokes the Biblical character, Lazarus, who rose from the dead, as a metaphor and an interpretation of life after death as well as his losing battle with cancer. As my piece lacks both vocal melodies and lyrics, an attempt at symbolism is displayed through the title of the song (“The Martian from Earth”) which depicts Bowie as one of his most important persona, Ziggy Stardust, and separates him as a creative genius who could not possibly had had the same origins as the rest of us.

Having covered these key aspects of Bowie’s music, I will have to expand our pseudo-research as I will showcase the choices made in my composition as well as highlight a few other important influences that have contributed to finalising my piece.

Based on Lou Reed’s experiments for Metal Machine Music by using only electric guitars and amp feedback (Levy, 2015), the intro of my piece was conceived in a similar way but also aided by heavy compression and fuzz pedals. Moreover, inspiration was drawn from Beatles’ “Revolution 9” and techniques from musique concrète (Dwyer, 1971 and Chion, 1993) as I sliced, looped, panned, slowed and further edited audio from an interview with David Bowie (BBC, 2016). Building on that technique, a part of the interview was put into Ableton’s Simpler and, using the Slice feature, I was able to randomly generate a sequence of audio segments reminiscent of Conlon Nancarrow’s rhythmically complex work (Carlsen, 1988), as we can see in Figure 03 and Figure 04.

Figure 03

Figure 04

Moreover, the panning of the track is constantly moving, avoiding any form of monotony or anticipation. This became a pivotal point in the piece as I decided to implement the sliced vocals throughout the piece, challenging the listener’s attention and disrupting the relationship between melody and harmony. The general aesthetic for the theme and verse section is a combination of elements inspired by the music of Radiohead and Muse over a chord progression similar to that of Bowie’s “Blackstar”. Wanting to implement a more personal element into the song, one of the organ sounds is made with a sample from David Bowie’s voice, looping and tuning it so it can be used as a regular instrument (Figure 05).

Figure 05

The chorus contrasts with a richness in instruments and harmony, a clear melody line and a wide stereo field. The sound shifts from a modern production to a more 70’s/80’s electronic and synth-based music, alongside blues influences. This is meant to highlight Bowie’s reputation as a chameleon artist due to exploring a wide range of musical genres. The harmony follows a ii – I – IV – V7 and a ii – I – IV – iv chord progression, idiomatic of Bowie’s work and also evocative of his earlier aesthetic. Regarding his work with Tony Visconti in the Berlin Trilogy, I have used one extra bus send where a gated reverb mimics Visconti’s three microphone technique (Seabrook, 2008). A gain automation has been applied in order to trigger the reverb on certain notes, in order to achieve a more melodious effect, as it can be heard in the provided audio and as it can be seen in Figure 06.

Figure 06

The reverb’s pre-delay, as with all compression and other time-based processes, has been separately calculated and synced to the song’s tempo (in milliseconds), as closely as Ableton allows it, to enhance the general musicality of the song. The bridge section differentiates through a minimal approach, functioning as a breath of fresh air while still maintaining interest through the alternative-rock sound and through the chord progression. Inspired by “Lazarus”, the harmony (Am – Ab – C – Eb – Bb) uses chords from the parallel key of Cm. The ending brings an unexpected resolution as the pieces goes through a metric modulation with a 3:4 ratio (132 to 176 BPM). The transition is eased through a sustained note that carries on into a small melody, finally ending the song. The sound is more acoustic and reminiscent of “Space Oddity”, especially due to the I – III – IV – iv chord progression.

The overall structure of the song is similar to that of a pop song, but the piece breaks the general conventions by applying all of the previously covered elements. Moreover, the song is meant to represent a backward timeline of David Bowie’s artistic evolution. The piece starts with an emphasis on the aesthetic from Blackstar, the chorus depicts the Ziggy Stardust and Heroes era while the ending is a clear ode to “Space Oddity”. The purpose is to elicit a certain nostalgia to the listener, similar to involuntary memory (Proust, 2013). A particular pattern of harmonising melodies in order to avoid a monotonous repetition can be traced in Bowie’s work and implementing this concept proved quite efficient in evoking his style. Melodies or motifs are harmonised in thirds or fifths throughout the piece, alongside panning and a complementary EQ. Moreover, in the second verse, the guitars change their sound from overly-saturated fuzz to 80’s overdrive in order to emphasise the previously mentioned regressive timeframe.

The overall aim, when mixing the piece, was to achieve a sound that could accommodate all of the merged genres and styles without any obvious compromises. This objective was fully achieved (in my humble opinion) in the mastering section of the piece as I tried to mimic the equipment used by the Beatles in the 60’s. The Beatles used the famous vacuum-tubed console, the EMI REDD .37, and the Studer J37 tape recorder (Miller, 2018) in the Abbey Roads studio sessions and, by using the appropriate Waves plugins (Figure 07), I managed to give an “analog” feel to my piece.

Figure 07

Researching these several artists, with an easily noticeable emphasis on David Bowie’s work, has proven fruitful in more than one aspect. Understanding David’s chord choices has encouraged me to implement different aesthetics while the endless possibilities derived from production techniques challenged my creativity in a more effective way. Using the computer to write this piece has been as important as understanding the music theory behind the researched songs while concepts such as bastardisation (Richards, 2016) have paved the way to a more creative and professional production etiquette. Moreover, an interest to research individual artists has kindled with this exercise which I consider to be the greatest reward that I could have hoped for. After the longest drumroll in human history, I hope you will enjoy my humble homage.