All Saints - Collected Intrumentals 1977-99

Originally compiled by Bowie himself back in 1993 – as a Christmas present for his close friends – this collection of instrumentals finally receives a full release, with the addition of a couple of extra tracks.

Drawing heavily on his Berlin, post Thin White Duke period and the albums Heroes and Low in particular, All Saints is something of a mixed bag. It starts out magnificently with ‘A New Career In A New Town’ (clearly an influence on New Order’s ‘Blue Monday’ which it predates by a good six years). Not unlike the more familiar ‘Sound & Vision’ from the same album, the contrasting metronomic beats, garage band guitars and bluesy harmonica works surprisingly well.

Also from Low the bleak foreboding textures of ‘Warzawa’ paint a grim aural picture of the Polish capital as Bowie intended while on ‘Weeping Wall’ a Philip Glass inspired piece, Bowie plays all of the instrumentation including vibraphone and xylophone.

Teutonic military beats and cold war aesthetics underpin tracks like ‘V-2 Schneider’ from Heroes and the segued trio of ‘Sense Of Doubt’, ‘Moss Garden’ and ‘Neukoln’, all Eno collaborations and also incorporating Bowie’s then fascination with Far Eastern music.

More recent material includes a couple of tracks – ’The Mysteries’ and ‘Ian Fish UK Heir’ from the early ’90s TV drama series Buddha Of Suburbia for which Bowie provided the soundtrack.

Occasionally brilliant, sometime tedious but never less than interesting All Saints if nothing else demonstrates Bowie’s versatility, willingness to experiment and his influence on a host of artists from Moby to Gavin Friday