CONRAD SCHNITZLER

Like Steve Reich goes wrong for good.

Originally released in 1987 for a lucky few on Birdo'Pray Records, cassette only Conrad Schnitzler: Conditions Of The Gas Giant (reissue 2019), is now available in a more contemporary fashion.

As lazy as it may seem it will turn out extremely informative to copy paste the history of this undercovered masterpiece in its label´s reissue advertisement.-

""Bureau B present a reissue of Conrad Schnitzler's Conditions of the Gas Giant, originally released on cassette in 1988. The Berlin artist first released these recordings on a small American cassette label. Admirers of the seminal artist Conrad Schnitzler can be found all over the planet, including the USA, of course. Matt Howarth, illustrator and independent comic artist, is one of them. He has been following Schnitzler's music since the early 1970s whilst drawing offbeat science fiction stories. One day Howarth came up with the idea of making Schnitzler a member of a notorious band -- The Bulldaggers -- who featured in one of his comic series. Not wanting to go ahead without permission, he got in touch with Schnitzler who readily embraced the idea. In fact, he posted a pile of photos by return so that the graphic artist could draw him properly. The Bulldaggers popped up repeatedly in the comics and Schnitzler was (repeatedly) delighted. A friendship soon developed between him and Howarth. In 1986, Howarth designed his first cover for a Schnitzler album (Concert) and the following year Schnitzler entrusted him with tapes which Howarth was able to bring to the notice of the small American label Bird O' Pray. Considering the label's predominantly punk and early garage leanings, Howarth and Schnitzler were as surprised as each other to see the album successfully released on cassette."

Yep! Those were the days when the world wide web still was a military only communications system.

Anyway, I could not be more than enthusiastic about the whole thing in a year of so few really surprising Progressive Electronic releases, so far, and yes I know this is not a 2019 album, but thank the Gods it is a timeless masterpiece.

Well as what you reader may wonder if you have not yet dwelled into this electronic: noise/glitch/experimental/minimalist/pre-industrial Master musician´s work, expect 12 independent tracks beyond their respective title context which travel the minimalist music roads but do not suspect long gone Mr. Schnitzler to behave like a common thief, opposite to that he returns the double of what he takes.

By then, as commented before, the kings of the hill of the newly found minimalist way of music expression in all kind of contemporary fields, as this PA´s sub-genre´s detailed preface explains, were La Mont Young pre- minimalist works (one of Brian Eno´s confessed influences), Harry Partch´s pre-drone works, Terry Riley´s daring "In C" (1964) inspiring young composers as Phillip Glass´ slow motion opera "Einstein On The Beach" (1975) and Steve Reich´s flaming "Music for 18 Musicians" (1978) which ten years later, give and take, touched the restless mind of the low profile by choice and key player in the development and evolution of the famous Berlin School of electronic music Conrad Schnitzler.

So, an independent, counter culture and true to himsellf artist will never dare to rip off nobody´s idiom, less have no fun placing in his hands such a valued treasure to repeat other musicians glories, opposite to that and knowingly forecasting his own language composition possibilities in this music mode, he explores and bursts his experimental music potential to the point of adding up new colors to the already rich palette and establishing his very own, raw and unsophisticated sequencing textures to work as an integral part of this contemporary style of music composition, whose branches still grow up to today in all kinds of music genres, electronic and not & high and Pop.

Mr. Schnitzler at the time of this cassette´s release had already consolidated his own, self acquired and distinctive electronic music language therefore this work is his personal understanding of minimalism.

And that my friend is exactly what he does all through this work´s 12 tracks, one by one.

Between thrilling and sublime masterwork.

*****

I've heard around 25 Schnitzler albums and this is one of the few tuneful entries in his entire catalogue. The 'Neue Deutsche Welle' style which was all the rage with bands like D.A.F. is what's on offer here, and it's none the worse for it.

'Con 3' is as close as old Conrad ever reached to a mainstream audience. That's to say - he had no chance of accumulating a captive audience whatsoever. Not a snowball's chance in hell.

Luckily I'm one of those guys who loves hearing Europeans singing in their mother tongue. It's far more convincing and puts you in the alien environment of Europe in 1981 from a British point of view. In that era we had Adam and the Ants (Woo Hoo!), Duran Duran and a host of New Romantic outfits. 'Con 3' is as cold and opposite to those bands as you could possibly imagine. Analogue synths are sliced and diced like a chef chopping onions. It's SO German. The icily treated vocals are very similar to the Stranglers 'Meninblack' from 'The Raven' released during the same year.

The drum programming is appealing in it's Kraftwerk-like style. I have to admit though, that Conrad sounds like he's the last guy standing at a party at 4.00am and has suddenly switched on all the electronics, with eyes lit up, and just for a laugh decides to record everything from that point on. Personally I love that kind of stuff. His ramblings of 'Coca-Cola and no water' on 'Coca' are almost easy listening with a (rub your eyes in disbelief) a tuneful dub bass and marimba played Jamaican style!

There's squelchy keyboard sounds and bendy bass tremblings throughout. A lot of it sounds quite tinny and amateurish but 'Con 3' captures that German electronic 'chill' from '81. It's without the production values of a Kraftwerk or Tangerine Dream but hits all the right buttons in 2017 due to its inherently German coldness.

It's all shoddy robotic nonsense of course, and for that reason itself, makes it enjoyable. If I was listening to this in 1981 I would have smashed the vinyl into pieces in a rage of anger. Now, over 30 years later, I have a feeling of nostalgia and appreciation for a time where music was purely analogue and genuine.

Conrad Schnitzler had already established a decent electronic krautrock pedigree prior to this, due to his involvement in the early careers of Kluster/Cluster and Tangerine Dream, but this solo album - its title varying between "Con" and "Ballet Statique" depending on which issue you are looking at - is a striking effort in its own right, offering a progressive electronic soundscape highly reminiscent of a middle ground between the sort of direction his former bandmates in Tangerine Dream had taken in mid-1970s albums like Rubicon and would soon take in their late- 1970s/early 1980s work like Thief or Tangram.

This sort of cyberpunk electronic mood music is not for everyone, but for those who like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they will like very much indeed, and somehow manages both to provide a precedent for much of the work in this vein that would emerge in the 1980s and seems less dated than many of its imitators.

Uneven experience

"Blue Glow",1994, Conrad Schnitzler's No.1 cassette concert series album, first tracks made me wonder why such good stuff was rated so low, unfortunately as it progresses it is easy to understand why.

Very good compositions buried alongside mediocre ones and a fair share of expendables. Not quiet the record you will want to take to a desert island, less consider it essential nor good enough.

In praise of those compositions which are very good, ask some CON fan to lend it to you and make your own 20 minute selection of this hour long release. Uneven, even to pair it with other PA's 3 stars releases by him or others, therefore a couple of sad PA stars.

1989's 'Constellations' is unlikely to be hailed as one of Schnitzler's more substantial achievements.

It's basically a bunch of squiggly, tuneless synthesiser doodles laden with echo and huge decay. It's also similar to a many of 1960's electro-acoustic artists as heard on the Icelandic 'Creel Pone' label.

'Constellations' has no real intention of pleasing anyone but good old Conrad himself. He simply didn't give a monkeys about stardom and fame. Instead he played exactly what he wanted on his own terms. He was 'Heap Um Big Chief Boss Man' ready to shoot arrows at any cowboy in sight.

The liner notes reveal a bald Conrad looking like a doppelganger of ambient egg-head Brian Eno. Both being instrumental electronic wizards, Schnitzler's approach was entirely different and is a lot more difficult to absorb. There's a certain scatter-gun approach that won't endear many first time listeners. Those bleeps, squeaks and discordant piano keys will try the durability of the most open minded of listeners. It's all very confusing, holds no meaning and presents no message. Just a barrage of electronic stabs played at ninety degrees awkwardness to one another.

The intriguing sleeve depicts that infamous 'face on Mars' pyramid that many people went hysterical over in the belief that it was created by an intelligent civilisation millennia ago. Conspiracy theories abound and poor old NASA scientists were left scratching their scrawny beards at how absurd the whole thing was. Unfortunately human beings create patterns in their minds and see faces everywhere - particularly in cloud formations. It's difficult however, trying to create patterns in this recording.

'Constellations' sounds willy-nilly and random with no thread of continuity whatsoever. The main problem is that it sounds digital and therefore loses that weird, dark malevolent sound that Schnitzler masterminded during the 70's. It's just a random gaggle of electronic warblings which, whilst sounding pleasant to my ears, doesn't have any real direction or motive.

If you keep 'Kluster' in mind while listening it actually solves a lot of the problems, as it then sounds like a logical progression from those early 70's recordings.

This just scrapes a three star rating by a nanometer. I much prefer the dark and noisy 'Kluster' recordings from '71. 'Constellations' is ok in itself but doesn't have a single sequence of musical harmony throughout its 68 minute duration.

Unorthodox electronic industrial meditations.

I suppose, this is as close as Conrad Schnitzler, will get to the so visited "New Age" kind of electronic music. But this musician has always kept a safe distance, even from the average "space progressive/electronics", due to his preference for "raw" experimentation, rather than sweetly over-detailed and over-produced recordings. This "trademark" sound, has always distinguished him aside from ALL his Prog/Electronic peers.

In this particular 1981 "CONAL" release, he presents two long timed compositions (around 20 minutes each), in the true manner of TD or K. Schulze famous works. But the resembles stop there. Mr. Schnitzler well aquainted in those years with the ups and downs of technology, never ceased to explore the most "primitive' side of electronics, in the same spirit as the 1930's electronic music pioneers who did not wanted electronic "sounds" to resemble already existing instruments, but be seen and heard as "new" musical instruments. Inevitably, industry and technology developed simultaneously, and so their "sounds".

Conrad Schnitzler music, always stood close to that 1930's ideal. "CONAL" as such is a "minimalistic/epic" effort in this tenor and a perfect excuse to display his talents, merged into two single, long sized compositions, which he fills to the brim with non-musical "sequenced" noises and "atmospheric-like" sounds. The result is astounding as it is dynamic and inviting.... As it leaves you wanting for more. More of this kind of Conrad Schnitzler's electronic "meditations".

****4 PA stars. "Essential" for those who follow this Prog sub-genre!

Dirty drum boxes, imaginative synth riffs and noises, plus a subtle pre- "punk" attitude, add up for great electronics!

Another Conrad Schnitzler work, with a low-profile "artwork" cover. Probably as ground breaking as his "Ballet Statique" (1978), which is also a personal favorite. "Gelb" meaning yellow, as the flat yellow color of your edition, depending on its date of re/issue. Schnitzler's albums usually go through a lot of re-editions, this one was originally released as "The Black Cassette", way back in 1974 & re-issued in 1981, as the "Gelb" album, I am reviewing.

The best of this project is its diversity of directions, without the endless experimental repetitions, (which he, more than once can be accused of releasing). Each piece has a unique identity, purpose and goal. Each song sounds like the result of experimentation, not the process of it. As usual, his electronics are "raw to the bone", yet his notion of musical composition and personal daring sense of performance, outweights again the limitations of the recording techniques and the "low-tech" electronic gadgets, available at the time. In fact its "roughness", sets it quiet close to today's electronic noise experimentations, without the emphasis on noise solely, of course.

Creative pieces of early prog-electronics, which are as simple sounding, as daring as timeless. The "world" each song suggests, is still something to rave on, even though its technical limitations, his songwriting skills make up for a very good electronic album.

****4 PA stars

Welcome to the roots of dreamy industrial electronic prog.

Prog/electronic pioneer, Conrad Schnitzler, always had the knack of taking the less traveled routes to develop his personal musical language. That alone has led to a quiet vast experimentation within the borderlines of the prog/electronic sub-genre. But at the same time his "productions" rarely by themselves, are over produced or over worked. This up front way of performing and recording has its benefits and drawbacks.

GRUN a 1981 album (remastered in 2006), is inclined to the benefits and less to the wrongs. The first 32 minute long piece "Der Riese Und Seine Frau" is full of pre-noise/industrial, "african-like" drumming, that conjures up for a very ritualistic electronic journey. There is no subtle intention in the use of intense non-stop rhythmical progressions to either set you off or in. On the other hand the synth's flowing melody lines and atmospheres are truly inviting and a relief from the intense hypnotic trance, one eventually is trapped into.

"Bis Die Blaue Blume Blüht" the second composition, lowers the intensity of the drumming, in favour of a more joyful hypnotic trip. Its beauty resides mainly in its apparent melodic simplicity and the myriad of synth "effects" that detail the whole atmosphere of the song.

"Bonus" third track, "Bis Die Blaue Blume Blüht / 45", as its title implies, is a faster version of the preceding composition. Works as "bonus" nothing else beyond that.

Intense, minimalistic, intriguing and daring. Yet, its informal approach saves it from becoming something else but a straight forward step into the electronic-world of this musician's quest.

****4 "daring and unpretentious" PA stars. (Not really for everybody, but essential for those who dig this sub-genre).

I have never been too fond of this kind of Boxed Compilations, I have acquired some by many artists and they are almost by rule uneven. Most of the times they have some rare value, but usually out-balanced with minor efforts.

I will not have gotten this "Silber", if it was not by mere chance. BUT luckiIy was proven wrong. This compilation is far more thrilling than his "Container" (which is just way too much) or even the very good "Trigger Triology" and its predecessor "Gold".

I come to think, that somehow, Mr Schnitzler had been holding his best for this 2nd part of a continuous compilation. To be honest, I could even compare this work, to his best experienced later music.

"Silber", compiles his works after his departure from Tangerine Dream in search for an own identity in the music world. These compositions (1973-1975) were first released in 2009, in the form of an LP, this re-release in CD format adds 3 new "bonus" tracks and they turn to be the highlights alongside tracks 1,2,3 and 5, while track 4 is just good, a bit too "raw" by comparisson.

The best in this compilation in fact is his better structured music composition. Maybe his quest, at the time these works came upon, was more towards experimental electronic music, therefore I suppose these works were archived.

Anyway, if you want to sense all what was behind his "monolithic" musical structures, like "Zug", "Rot" and all, this is your best guide, and somehow it is even better in some ways than those albums.

**** "For electronic music followers". PA stars.

The "missing link" appears at last. This 2010, 54 minutes/3-sided, 2 LPs album, was composed in 1972 as a "soundtrack", for an unreleased movie that same year. The same year as "Rot" was composed (released in 1973), one of his most favoured works. Why Conrad Schnitzler waited so long for this re-release, and making it almost impossible to aquire, in comparisson to other 'minor" works in his catalogue? That is the question. I do not know why.

Anyway, this work stands masterfully alongside, forget "Rot" or "Zug" even "Blau", this is the "missing link" from those to his excellent "Ballet Statique". Maybe because it was written for a film, his musical language travels through his most common "Dark/Bright" minimal tones, but eventually it turns out closer to the "dynamics" of "Ballet Statique", BUT without the "drum box" effect of it. Rhythm, when used, is supplied by "noise/like" electronic pulses, that being unmelodic, never resemble the "trademark" pulses of TD, of which he was once a member in their first incarnation "Electronic Meditations". (Therefore no "drum/box" or "tinker-bells", rhythmical silly melodic lines or "riffs" ).

That is just for starters, the song writing never loses the sense of being experimental, but everything sounds perfectly structured, composition wise. So, it makes me think, that being composed for 'images", the music was more a focused composition, than a mere electronic music "experiment" (there are no gaps or "silences" between songs) . Because of the same, the project travels through single short -timed songs( 3 to 6 minutes, more or less), in a variety of "different" electronic related styles, that convey to a greater musical effort, due to its "un-minimalistic" approach in the long run. This by turn, offers, in these works, a wide scope of "moods" in comparisson to his most known "minimal' musical structures. Opening the door of his own and others, eventual future works, composition wise.

Innovative, daring, emotional, unique, excellent compositions, compressed in a 3-sided album, that is a "must", for any "Electronic" music audiophile or creator, Prog or not.

Essential Masterpiece of the sub-genre and of "Prog" in general. *****5 PA stars!!

The wait is over.