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

For the fourth episode of the collaboration between Schulze and Pete Namlook, the project becomes temporarily a trio with the addition of some Bill Laswell. This is particularily evident in the opening track, which semms to be made of three different acts, from three different composers all mixed together.

Anyway, as for the previous chapters, also now the tracks are named just "part 1" to "part 9", despite the fact that they aren't so continuous that I can't consider them part of a single suite.

Part 1 has good moments, espcially in the most spacey segments, when only keyboard chords, background voices and very few electronic effects send the listener to the cosmos. The orchestral accents by surrogate strings sound a bit outplaced to me, but apart of that, it's quite my pot.

Part 2 is the longest track, scoring over 20 minutes. It seems that a time machine has sent it here directly from the 80s. It reminds to the Tangerine Dream of the Virgin period, even if Schulze was already out of TD at that time. There's some melody in background. It requires some attention. The first sudden change arrives around minute 8, when the chord progression turns to minors, while the foreground bass/drums loop has still no variations. After 4 more minutes, more percussions are added to enrich the basic loop with melodic whistles behind and electronic noises including unintelligible voices. As a Tangerine Dream addict as I am, of course I like this track, including its unexpected closure.

Electronic birds resounding full of reverb into a sort of cave have an Ummagumma feel without a Pict but with distorted voices like an astronaut falling into a black hole, later turned into a Tibetan guttural sound. I think Part 3 can be called "psychedelic". It's less than 5 minutes long but I would have liked it doubled at least. It fades seamlessly into part 4 which is a short interstellar travel.

At this point it's like we are effectively into a suite. Part 5 is based again on a percussive loop. Unfortunately, half of this two minutes track is nothing more that music in 4/4 ideal for a rave party. Listenable but unnecessary.

Another smooth transition and part 6 surprises us with a kind of spanish guitar over a floydian base reminding of the intro of Shine on you crazy diamond. It's the first time since the beginning of this project that I find something floydian other than the album title. Well it's not David Gilmour, but listen and let me know...It's likely Laswell who is known for being also a guitarist.

Part 7 is just two minutes of reverbed deadly bells transitioned into part 8 that's...the kind of track that makes me change station when I hear something of that kind on the radio. Are you on ecstasy, dancing and sweating like a monkey? If not, just skip it, even if what seems to be a guitar in the background is not completely bad.

Part 9 is just a minute of midi joke with some drone snare.

2.5 stars rounded up for track 6, where in my opinion they should have closed the album.