PETE NAMLOOK & K. SCHULZE: THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOOG III

The third album in The Dark Side of The Moog series in two years. Very prolific indeed, but one would wish they had just selected the best bits and pieces from those two years in order to end up with one truly amazing album. In that case, this series might actually have reached a larger audience, which it truly deserves.

But that's not how things went, instead, for the 3rd time in a row we get treated to a number of superb tracks amidst a lot of sonic filler. Part I seems an attempt to recreate Tangerine Dream's Zeit. It's not a failure at that and I can feel this one growing on me. Part II adds low and brooding minor violin synths. This must be Schulze's work, a truly beautiful piece of music, far too rich and too lavish to be called new age. Part III breaks the flow with rhythmic experimentation with percussive sounds. It's quite a contrast with the ensuing Parts IV which is suddenly very dance, melodic and catchy, clearly representing Namlook's more techno-oriented persona.

Also Parts V really works for me, it returns to the mood that was set in Part II. Part VI in turn revisits Part I, giving this album a nice circular structure. Another step up in the growing quality of this series. 3.5 stars

For the ones who likes the early days from the man (to which I belong), I can only recommend the first section (or movement) of this long epic. It is sliced into six sections of which the long opener (eighteen minutes) seems to come out from another age.

Cold, sidereal, impressive, elegant, icy beauty, tenebrous soundscapes, brilliant atmosphere. It reminds me very much ASOS (the track) from whom you might have heard even if this third album from this series refers to "Phantom Heart Brother". I guess that some of you might find it a bit too long and monochord, but I quite like the mysterious mood that emanates from this track.

This abyssal section flows nicely into an ocean of melody that opens the second movement of this hour long epic. Again, old timers will find their way with these twelve minutes of lunar music.

If I except "In Blue" which was released the same year as this one, there has been a very long time that Klaus didn't score that high in my heart ("En=Trance" in 88 perhaps). This first half an hour is extremely pleasant to my ears, very relaxing of course and holds some melodic and enjoyable long moments.

Unfortunately, the third section (some ten minutes) breaks this splendid feel and is somewhat noisy and difficult to swallow. Purely experimental and not convincing for sure. The album would have benefited if this section could have been avoided.

Section IV, is more in line with his work from the nineties: more upbeat, almost dance. An inch commercial and somewhat Jarre oriented to a certain extent. Not too bad. The next part combines fine keyboards with average whispering during most of it. After mid-time, the beauty of the first two sections are on the forefront again. It works very well on me; but I'm biased.

The closing and short Part VI, brings us back where the first and opening track left us. To loop the loop.

This third leg of this "Moog" collection is my fave so far. Seven out of ten (but rounded down to three stars because of the weak third movement).

Part 1 is a 18 minutes suite that opens in a way that we can consider "classic" in the space rock world: no percussion of any kind, sci-fi like sounds coming and going and loops that partially point to Tangerine Dream's Zeit but also to the central movement of Saucerful of Secrets or even to the more quiet parts of Vangelis Albedo 0.39. No melody. Just a consistent succession of cinematic sounds designed to bring the listener to the deep space of Kubrick's Odyssey. Not too far from the music of Gyorgy Ligety, also thanks to the synthetic voices in the background.

Part 2 lasts 12 minutes and features the first proper chords. The same space sounds of the first part are now background to a progression of minor chords made by keyboard strings, then disappear. If before we were on a starship, now we have landed on a planet. It's a dreamy soundscape which seems to feature also an electric guitar hidden between the strings. It's the most floydian thing found up to now on this dark side of the moog, but it's still closer to Zeit than to Ummagumma. Kosmische Musik from the 70s created in the 90s.

Part 3 returns to electronics. Schulze remembers to be a drummer and creates a rhythmic base with an electronic loop . At least I suppose that in this case it's mainly his stuff. After deep space and a wild planet, it gives me the idea of a subterranean control room.

As in the previous two episodes of this serie of albums, we have a "disco" moment. Without the 4/4 drums it could be a Tangerine Dream piece from the Virgin period, but it ends to sound like a Jean Michel Jarre track of the 80s. Not bad, after all.

Part 5 starts with distorted echoed voices on a keyboard minor chord. Quite psychedelic. Then we are now back to space. It may be a keyboard, but for a while there's a sound that could be an electric guitar.

The last track is a short coming back to the initial spacey sounds that closes the suite.