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

"Obscured by Klaus"

7th episode in the Dark Side Of The Moog series and they've finally come up with a good pun. But it's not only the title that indicates this is their most inspired offering. Throughout this project, Namlook's rhythmic sensibilities and his occasionally catchy tunes compensate excellently for Schulze's limitations in those particular areas. This album has it all, excellent sequencing, heavenly Schulze-soundscapes combined with some good tunes and scarce but indispensable beat driven parts.

This Dark Side chapter is slightly shorter then the previous ones but this time there is not one minute wasted. Right from the moody Schulze moogs of the opening track up until the dramatic orchestral atmospheres at the end, this is an amazing journey through all things electronic, featuring divine synths from Schulze, the techno/dub/synth pop masterpiece Part II (and its reprise Part IV), the 19 stellar minutes of breathtaking watery sounds on Part III and the mellotron highlight Part V.

All music is created on warm analogue synths and that is a big relief after the rather cold and sometimes sterile sounds that Klaus had used in the 80's and the first half of the 90's. Obscured by Klaus is the most consistent of the entire is The Dark Side Of The Moog series, so if you want to check out some of the strongest electronic music since the 70's that bears the name Schulze on the album cover, then here is an album to start with. Highly recommended.

As usual, the play on words with Floyd music is quite effective and original. These "Obscured By Klaus" are the seventh work of this "Moog" series. Overall pleasant so far. Not great but pleasant.

Still, along this long path, some parts of all these albums are quite remarkable. And this one definitely holds another jewel in the form of "Part I", that transported me into the golden TD years. Harmony, beauty, sculptural art or metaphysical song. You name it! A great opening by all means.

The musical experience here ranges from heavenly beautiful to simply good. But if you have read some of my previous reviews from this great man's work (or from TD), you know that some dance beats are not completely of my liking (like during "Part II"). Still, Klaus is able to perform and touch his audience even when not reaching the heights of his gigantic works from the seventies. But this is evolution. Not always meaning reason.

This opus is quality wise quite in line with its predecessors (except the weaker Moog IV). A good album with some passionate moments. Like some great spacey feeling during the long "Part III". Some sublime passages fully reminiscent of the good old Floyd. But isn't it what's all about this series? I share the same feeling about the fourth part as well. After all, this might well be one of my favourite "Moog" album (with a couple of other ones?).

Inspiration, beauty, grandeur, emotion. I don't need anything else to tell you the truth. The short "Part VI" is another example of this feel. If this rating would be available on PA, I would definitely use seven out of ten to depict this album. Since it is impossible (unfortunately), I am upgrading this to four stars.

I decided to check out The Dark Side Of The Moog VII after being left kind of cold with Pete Namlook's other material, hoping that the presence of the wonderful Klaus Schulze would warm up the sound. It turns out that I was right. This album is mostly trance-like ambient, not unlike Namlook's other releases that I've heard, but with spacey sounds and synthesizer melodies that sound uniquely Schulze-esque. Still, though, I'm not entirely convinced. The dancy, upbeat portions of this album just isn't something that I have any interest in, personally. Fortunately, only about 14 minutes of this album consists of said danciness, and the rest is dreamy, spacey, airy, floating ambience with synthesized space sounds and an atmosphere full of beautifully light drones. Unfortunately, this album sounds more like Namlook's best than Schulze's best. I'm not really convinced that this is an entirely great album, but considering that Schulze's solo material released at about the same time period as this isn't very satisfying at all, this served as great filler material before Schulze later released the fantastic Kontinuum.

This definitely sounds like a collaboration between Pete Namlook and Klaus Schulze, but seems most of all to be a Pete Namlook album. If you're a big Namlook fan, then this should be on your list of albums to own. If you're a big Schulze fan, you should just listen to Mirage again.