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Klaus Schulze - Blackdance CD (album) cover

BLACKDANCE

Klaus Schulze

 

Progressive Electronic

3.46 | 180 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Finnforest
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
3 stars Yeah, it's a trip.

I cannot give a technical review of this album because I really don't know much about the ins and outs of keyboards and electronics. So I'm not rating Schulze's use of the technology but rather my experience of listening to the album.

This is another title with a very wide range of opinions from reviewers, lambasted by some as crap and heralded as a masterpiece by others. While not a big fan of electronic music myself I must say I've always enjoyed this album on an occasional basis. This is not the kind of music I choose for cruising in the car with, but as something to have on in the background while writing or working, it works for me along with stuff by Popul Vuh.

"Way of Changes" begins with mellow synth before we get some acoustic guitar adding nice texture. There are also some hand drums and percussion. The mood of the music is mysterious and the layers of keyboards spacey and intriguing. "Some Velvet Phasing" is the short track here at 8 ½ minutes. Again I am reminded of things like Popul Vuh, Eno, Tangerine Dream. No percussion or warmth on this one, this is just very minimal synth rising and falling to trippy effects. I don't mind this at all, it's quite relaxing. "Voices of Syn" begins with some interesting operatic vocals, a very rich and warm touch to music which some consider cold and emotionless. After a minute or so Schulze joins in. The two continue to build tension until around the 6-minute mark when a pulsing beat comes from nowhere. There isn't an awful lot of variety from this point forward, it's more or less a droning landscape of neutral sound that will drive some crazy. The beats finally fall away in the last minute.

Recommended for fans of this genre and 3 stars for the wider site. Nice, otherworldly cover art suits the music well.

Finnforest | 3/5 |

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