LA VIE ELECTRONIQUE 7

CD1 starts with a concert from end 1977. A disappointment due to the inferior sound quality. The music is still ok, but the bootleg quality doesn't do Schulze's music justice. The same remark goes for the material from the 79 tour with Arthur Brown on vocals. Contrary to the 75-76 concerts that were taped directly from the mixing board, they sound like audience recordings with a muddy sound. On top, I'm not too fond of this period with Arthur Brown. It's more avant-garde that style never really did it for Schulze.

CD2 is better, a lot better, especially for the magnificent 30 minute piece 'The Future'. An abstract piece with violin synths known from the 'X' album and every bit as good as what ended up on the album. The 'Crazy Nietzche' is an alternate take of 'Friedric Nietzsche' from X.

CD3 might interest fans of Schulze's more avant-garde side. 'My Virtual Principles' is a one hour piece showing an avant-garde type of composition that we hadn't heard from Schulze so far. It's a sort of precursor to his more theatrical oriented works from the 80's and 90's. There's few sequences and none of the typical floating Schulze improvisations. Instead it's a composed piece sounding somewhere inbetween a horror movie soundtrack and avant-garde theater music.

Overall rating will have to be 2 stars for me. Apart from 'The Future' there's nothing to recommend.