CYBORG

Man, is this a difficult listen! A double LP set that really takes it to the extremes, by making sure nothing is under 22 minutes long (25 minutes is the lengthiest). This simply takes the ideas of Irrlicht to the next level. "Synphära", for example, has this lengthy droning organ with lots of synth effects that go throughout this piece. "Conphära" is a bit more like Irrlicht, featuring strange droning sound, and that same distorted orchestra that sounds more like a Mellotron (Schulze never used a real Mellotron until late 1976, and when he did, he preferred choirs). "Chromengel" is simply a bunch of strange space electronic effect, but more is going on in the next piece, "Neuronengesang" has more going on, but still lots of tripped out sci-fi sounds.

As strange as it seems, I have little trouble sitting through all four sides of Tangerine Dream's Zeit (that album can be a very difficult egg to crack, but it only took me a few listens to get it), but I do have that problem with Cyborg, but I do like the ideas found on this album, but I think sometimes it goes on for just far too long at times. I know a Schulze album is usually never an easy listen, but this is one of his more difficult ones. No wonder he did change his approach to something more accessible (but still not as accessible as 1970s Tangerine Dream at their more accessible). Three stars it is.