8. & 9. “Weeping Wall,” Low (1977) / “Sense Of Doubt,” Heroes (1977)

8. & 9. “Weeping Wall,” Low (1977) / “Sense Of Doubt,” Heroes (1977)

The first two chapters of the so-called “Berlin trilogy” immediately set themselves apart by restricting the use of Bowie’s most powerful instrument: His voice. Low opens with the wordless mutant disco of “Speed Of Life”; Heroes gives over most of its second side to a suite of atmospheric compositions aided by ambient pioneer and Berlin trilogy collaborator Brian Eno. Yet even as they pay tribute to their predecessors in the field, Bowie’s particular set of skills shows through: The avant-garde pulse of “Weeping Wall” owes a debt to Steve Reich, but the track’s interpolation of “Scarborough Fair” is the mark of David Bowie, chart-topping melody maker. He still had a way of establishing place and character without the assistance of a lyric sheet, too: “Sense Of Doubt” paints a noirish picture of Cold War-era Berlin, its piano-synth back-and-forth playing like two spies trading secrets in code. It’s a miniature movie that wound up going cinematic a few years later, when it turned up on the Bowie-curated soundtrack of Uli Edel’s junkie chronicle Christiane F. [Erik Adams]