"And now for something completely different!" Hello kiddies! The Meista here with the first of 3 pairings for my brother (which I will spread out over the next few weeks), who requested pairings of some artisan German brews with David Bowie's "Berlin Trilogy" albums from the late 1970s. Tonight I'm pairing Bowie's "Low" with a Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier Dunkel (also called a Dunkelweizen) from Bayerische Staatsbrauerei Weihenstephan! This one is for you Dain-o (aka Jasper Johnson)!! Cheers bro!!
"Low" is the 11th studio album released by the ever-evolving David Bowie. It was released on January 14th, 1977 and was the 1st album of the so-called "Berlin Trilogy", a minimalist series of collaborations with Brian Eno, which produced "Low", "Heroes", and "Lodger". (Note: interestingly enough, the majority of songs from these 3 albums were actually recorded in France, and only mixed in Germany.... however, the album was influenced by the work of Kraftwerk and Neu! respectively.) Written during and slightly after the same time as the brilliant "Station To Station", the music was intended for the soundtrack to the film The Man Who Fell to Earth, but was rejected by the film's producer. (Subsequently, the albums cover is a still photo from the film.) As indicated with the albums title, the songs are rather dark and deal with Bowie's attempt to kick his cocaine habit. Of the album, Bowie once describe it as follows: "There's oodles of pain in the Low album. That was my first attempt to kick cocaine, so that was an awful lot of pain. And I moved to Berlin to do it." Adventurous, experimental, avant-garde, and utterly original, "Low" is a testament to the artistic integrity and vision to the artist known as David Bowie. Musically, the album is mesmerizing, breathtaking, and hauntingly beautiful. The genius of this album lies in both the writing and execution. Along with Bowie on lead vocals, guitars, pump bass, saxophones, xylophones, vibraphones, harmonic, percussion, keyboards/electronics, piano and Chamberline (phew!), he is joined by Brian Eno (vocals, splinter Minimoog, report ARP, guitar treatments, piano, keyboards, synthetics, Chamberlin, other synthesizers, production), Carlos Alomar (rhythm guitar), Dennis Davis (percussion), George Murray (bass guitar), Ricky Gardiner (guitar), and Roy Young (piano, Farfisa organ). I won't bore you with my assessment of the track list, but a few very notable and influential tracks for me include "Breaking Glass", "Sound And Vision", "Always Crashing In The Same Car", "Be My Wife", and "Subterraneans". (And yes folks, that is a cassette tape in the photo... I'm an old bastard!) :)
The Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier Dunkel from "the world's oldest brewery", Bayerische Staatsbrauerei Weihenstephan is a wonderfully dark and rich Hefeweissbier. Dunkel literally means "dark" in German. It pours a very cloudy clover honey gold with thick, frothy head that dissipate rather quickly. The nose if full of fruit ester and spice. There are notes of German yeast, spiced plantain, soft banana, clove, cinnamon bread, and wheat germ. The mouthfeel is smooth and creamy with a nice bit of froth... similar to a dark Belgian. Like Bowie's "Low" the flavor is simple, and yet completely compelling and totally engrossing. Very low in bitterness, there are strong plantain notes, notes of cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, honey-wheat bread, bread pudding, and banana bread. And those clove notes become much more prevalent as the beer warms. The Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier Dunkel has a nice, clean finish but those spice notes linger for a good long time. I would say this beer (like "Low") is as close to perfection as you can get!
Zum Wohl!!
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