Dylan Howe

“Subterranean”

(Motorik Recordings MR1004)

The impending American release of this acclaimed recording by drummer and band-leader Dylan Howe seems like a good prompt for me to take a rather belated look at this album which first came out in the UK in July 2014.

Subtitled “New Designs On Bowie’s Berlin” it’s a project that Howe has been nurturing for many years. I remember him telling me about his plans for his David Bowie project at a gig at Ludlow Assembly Rooms by his hard bop style quintet many moons ago and indeed his 2007 release “Translation 2” included a version of Bowie’s “Warszawa”, a tune that emerges again here.

Perhaps the reason for the delay is the fact that Howe is a very busy boy. The son of Yes guitarist Steve Howe he has always moved easily between the worlds of jazz and rock and besides leading his own groups he has also been a long term member of the Blockheads and of the Wilko Johnson Band. There has been prolific pop and rock session work, a stint with his dad’s organ trio featuring keyboard player Ross Stanley, and a collaboration with pianist Will Butterworth as the Stravinsky Duo, a project that saw the intrepid pair tackling “The Rite of Spring”.

“Subterranean” is Howe’s highly personalised response to the influential mid/late 70’s albums of David Bowie, the transitional “Station to Station” and the so called “Berlin Trilogy” of “Low”, “Heroes” and “Lodger”. The album features arrangements by Howe and his bandmates of nine songs from this period of Bowie’s past, transforming some of them into a kind of modal jazz for the 21st century - “think John Coltrane Quartet produced by Neu! and mixed by Brian Eno in an air raid shelter”  offers Howe as a way of describing the project.

Part funded by a Kickstarter campaign the album is lavishly packaged and includes Victoria Harley’s evocative black and white photographs of various Berlin railway stations. There are also pictures of an impressive cast of musicians with the core of Howe’s Subterraneans group consisting of right hand man Ross Stanley on piano and synthesiser, Mark Hodgson on double bass and the twin tenor saxes of Brandon Allen and Julian Siegel. Nick Pini replaces Hodgson on two cuts and there are also contributions from Portishead’s Adrian Utley on guitar and by Steve Howe on koto.

The material on Howe’s album is largely sourced from the classic “Low” and “Heroes” albums and begins with “Subterraneans”, effectively the title track.  Howe’s arrangement is based on a circling eleven bar loop and utilises the rich textures of Stanley’s synthesisers to give the music a cinematic, noirish feel. Both saxophonists play on the track but it’s Allen who takes the solo, his pensive brooding very different to his usual buccaneering hard bop style. Stanley mixes electric and acoustic keyboard sounds and contributes some beautifully lyrical piano.

Howe’s drums introduce “Weeping Wall” which is played in 3/4 and features the same electro-acoustic mix of instruments with co-arranger Stanley soloing effectively on acoustic piano. Howe enjoys a series of drum breaks which are skilfully stitched into the fabric of the tune . Like its predecessor the piece conveys a subtle sense of foreboding, much in keeping with the spirit of Bowie’s original recordings.

Hodgson’s unaccompanied bass ushers in “All Saints” before pounding rhythms and and heavy synths evoke some kind of future dystopia. Yet the music turns on a pfennig and suddenly we’re enjoying an Allen solo above a propulsive bass walk. The mood varies throughout the course of the piece with brief, doomy statements of the theme punctuating joyful, unfettered jazz solos. Stanley serves up an exuberantly swinging piano solo and there’s more from Allen plus a feature for Howe’s drums as these jazz musicians turn Bowie’s song into an extended instrumental showcase.

Howe describes “Some Are” as a “post apocalyptic ballad” and the wonders of overdubbing allow Stanley to wrap his rhapsodic piano solo in a swirling blanket of synths. Allen is again the featured tenor soloist, cutting an incisive swathe through the mist.

The David Bowie / Brian Eno composition “Neukoln” is addressed twice by the trio of Howe, Stanley and double bassist Nick Pini. Howe plays synthesiser as well as drums on “Neukoln - Night”, a depiction of the city at night, perhaps seen through the windows of a speeding car. Skittering drums and needling synths accompany Stanley’s mercurially darting piano motifs, the whole underpinned by Pini’s almost subliminal bass. Howe’s synths seem to approximate traffic noises on a closing section that must be the most atmospheric evocative “drum feature” ever. 

“Art Decade” becomes a futuristic jazz ballad with Stanley’s piano solo and Hodgson’s bass feature played out against a backwash of synths. Siegel is the sole saxophonist but fulfils an essentially textural role. Howe’s drumming is subtle and intelligent, qualities he exhibits throughout the album.

Next up is “Warszawa”, the piece that initiated the whole project. Howe says of this re-recorded version “I wanted to find a way to sound like the John Coltrane Quartet playing in a space ship”.What’s amazing is that the the band pulls it off, Adrian Utley’s spacey, spooky guitar intro sets the scene on an arrangement by Howe, Stanley and Allen. Thanks to Stanley’s synths and the imaginative arrangement that other worldly feeling never quite goes away even as the band move deeper into more orthodox modal jazz territory. Allen contributes a series of inspired Coltrane / Pharoah Sanders spiritual jazz styled tenor solos and Stanley does his best McCoy Tyner impression with a sparkling passage of acoustic piano. Howe’s drums are also featured at the close of one of the album’s stand out tracks.

“Neukoln -  Day” features the trio of Howe, Stanley and Pini, Howe again playing synths on an evocative portrait of the city on a grey, rainy day. The existential gloom suggested by Howe’s synthesiser motifs is offset by Stanley’s lightly lyrical touch at the piano.

Finally we hear “Moss Garden” by a new trio featuring Howe on drums and synths, Stanley on piano and a guesting Steve Howe on the Japanese koto. There’s a meditative calmness about this piece with its serene acoustic piano, synth washes and delicate cymbal touches. Steve Howe’s koto adds to the air of mysticism as the album ends on an elegiac note.

Seven years in the planning “Subterranean” has proved to be a terrific success with glowing reviews in both the jazz and the rock press. The acclaim has been matched by very healthy CD and vinyl sales and a string of sold out British gigs. It’s an album that has managed to appeal to both jazz and rock audiences, although in this day and age surely many listeners must happily be part of both.

The album is a carefully crafted blend of precise and imaginative arrangements with the improvisational freedoms of jazz. Rich in colour and texture it remains true to the spirit of Bowie and Eno’s original recordings yet comes across as a very personal statement. Every musician plays well and Howe’s superlative production brings out the best in himself and his colleagues.

“Subterranean” has even won the approval of Bowie himself who messaged Howe to declare;
“That’s a top notch album you’ve got there. Really”.

Agreed. Way to go, Dave.

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