BLACKDANCE

Klaus Schulze played for the very early Tangerine Dream, and it is clearly noticeable here: this album is between the Phaedra and Alpha Centauri albums; the music here is a bit better than on the Zeit and Alpha Centauri albums, but worse than on Phaedra.

The track on side 1 starts really slowly and gradually, it becomes a bit more loaded. The acoustic string instrument of the first minutes reminds me the Vangelis' Dragon album, while the background linear texture sounds like an harmonica; after about 4 minutes, a mix of tribal and automatic beat enters, and the background linear texture consists in a mix of organ notes and strident moog, reminding the noise of running shoes on a synthetic basketball floor or even some excited chanting birds. The sound lacks of color and depth: it is hardly stereo.

The side 2 starts with vaguely operatic voices through a linear organ arrangement. Around the 6th minute, an alienating rhythmic beat starts and the still present organ has this time some strange effects.

The overall music is absolutely unmelodic, very linear and minimalist. I feel absolutely nothing while listening to this album: the music is just deadly emotionless and VERY monotonous. This is definitely not a good album: Schulze made quite better albums.

Rating: 1.5 star