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Klaus Schulze - Cyborg CD (album) cover

CYBORG

Klaus Schulze

 

Progressive Electronic

3.69 | 182 ratings

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patrickq
Prog Reviewer
4 stars Note: Ignore this review if you're thinking of buying any CD version of Cyborg without the bonus track "But Beautiful."

If you're going to compare Cyborg to any other Schulze LP, Irrlicht would be the obvious choice. These are Schulze's two pre-synthesizer albums, and both use similar instrumentation. There are two major differences, in my opinion, the first being the quality of the bonus tracks. Ordinarily I wouldn't consider bonus material in a review, but since 2006, all issues of both albums contain the same bonus tracks: "Dungeon" on Irrlicht and "But Beautiful" on Cyborg. "Dungeon" is a piece which fits well with the original three tracks, despite being recorded four years later. However, "But Beautiful" is one of the best two pieces of Schulze's career. I have to assume that its length (50+ minutes) kept it off any vinyl album; in any event, it too was recorded four years after the original album. At any rate, following the original tracks of Cyborg with "But Beautiful" somehow, magically completes the album.

The second improvement of Cyborg over Irrlicht is in composition. Whereas Cyborg maintains some of its predecessor's experimentation, its individual tracks just make better use of sound as art. Or, to put it in different, but equally obscure terms, Cyborg is of a higher compositional quality. When it comes to electronic music like Schulze's, "more musical" doesn't always mean "better." But it does in the case of comparing Cyborg and Irrlicht.

Cyborg is not quite at the level of Mirage, X, or Picture Music, but it's still a very good album.

patrickq | 4/5 |

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