ROME REMAINS ROME AND EXCERPTS FROM DER OSTEN IST ROT

This is a somewhat weird collection, as is appears that either the label felt that "Rome Remains Rome" was too short to release on it's own, and had to add filler, or they wanted to release two albums on one disk, but the limitations of the CD back in 1987 didn't allow for it.

Either way, these are two uneven albums from Holger Czukay. There are some very good tracks, such as "Blessed Easter", where Czukay takes some recorded pieces of a choir of nuns and the Pope from the Vatican and mixes and drops them onto a rhythm track. The result is beautiful and strange at the same time, sometimes reminding me a bit of Zappa's "Ya Hozna". "Sudetenland" is similar, but using African chants as the basis for the song.

Other good songs are "Perfect World", featuring Sheldon Ancel's urban-cool vocals, and "Michy", an eerie pice featuring Michy.

Where this album misses are the fluffy pop songs like "Hey Baba Rebop" and "Hit Hit Flop Flop", that try to be euro-dance tunes but both flop flop. "Das Massenmedium" sounds like a Kraftwerk wannabe. And any song with Czukay's hideous french horn is worth skipping over. In particular, "Der Osten Ist Rot (The East Is Red)", sounds like a march played by a poor high school band.

So there are a few listenable tracks, a few not so bad tracks, and some really bad tracks. Two stars.