PETE NAMLOOK & K. SCHULZE: THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOOG XI

"The Heart Of Our Nearest Star Part"

Now what is this? After 3 albums of declining sound tapestries, this Dark Side of the Moog album returns to form and starts with the most ominous piece of scary moog you have ever heard!

As usual it begins with a repetitive drone that doesn't seem to get anywhere but gradually it develops, an awesome moog lead starts building up in the background and grows louder and higher and wilder till it turns your cosy living room into a desolate piece of dark moon desert. Only play this at maximum volume. A cliché, but here it is really indispensable to ensure the devestating effect of this ominous track. Yes, we're using big expensive words here!

The second piece is even better, simply superb. It sounds very Ashra, with guitar sounds improvising on a synth sequence right out of the golden age of Ashra and old Schulze. There's some filler at the end of the album but even that can't destroy the crushing effect of the first two masterpieces.

This is the eleventh and final installment in the DSOTM series. It has dark, ominous grooves and wild soloing on (electric guitar- sounding) synth and what sounds like actual electric guitar. The soloing is something I associate with Klaus Schulze and his role in the Dark Side of the Moog series, but actually I don't know who's playing what. Are the grooves by Namlook and the non-repetitive stuff by Schulze? It's actually fine not knowing, as much as there is virtuosity in this set, it's not about the spotlight, it's about the mood(s). There are only four pieces on this album (only three tracks on the CD, the surround version splits the music into four tracks) ? the first three pieces are fairly extended, two being close to 20 minutes, but they are actually quite engaging, slowly shifting but becoming quite intense in places. Part IV contains some bird sounds and sounds like a field recording from outside the studio during a break - a peaceful ending to an album that would turn out to be the last due to Namlook's untimely death at age 51 in 2012. Definitely an excellent representative of the series - if you've heard others this one shouldn't disappoint, and if you're not familiar then this would be a fine place to start.