BLACKDANCE

Thirty five years ago, I loved this style of music. Sitting in a dimly lit, smoky room, the pulsing synthesizers were a perfect backdrop to the teenage counterculture lifestyle. And Klaus Schulze, at least the few albums I heard back then, were some of my favorites. His choice of sometimes jarring synth patches (back in the days when a synthesist had to design their own sounds) made him stand out from his peers.

These days I find that, while I still enjoy the music occasionally, particularly as background for late night drives, it just doesn't strike me the same way.

The first two of the three tracks on this album are the style I remember. Swirling synth sounds coming in from a ll points in the stereo spectrum. It's somewhat entrancing. The compositions, if you can call them such, are loose, sounding like sound collage experimentation. But very listenable.

The third, and longest piece, Voices Of Syn, begins with some operatic style vocals by Ernst Walter Siemon (not Chris Squire?). Personally, I find that sort of vocal slightly annoying. But about halfway through, the track segues into a Tangerine Dream style rhythmic synth track, which somewhat redeems the track.

I hear that later reissues have some bonus tracks, but, alas, I do not have any of those.