BODY LOVE - VOL. 2

The leftovers from the Body Love soundtrack compiled together in this album which is slightly more compelling than its predecessor.

Body Love Vol. 2 is one of my favorite Klaus Schulze albums for its supremely progressive composition, beautiful cover art, and exceptionally dark atmosphere. As always, Schulze displays his mastery of electronic grandiosity and epic soundscapes.

"Nowhere - Now Here" is a great way to start off the album, featuring slow moody moog melodies and sifting waves before eventually settling into a rather downtempo groove backed by choral washes that border on medieval sounding. Things speed up significantly about half-way through, moving at an anxious pace to the end of the track which features an almost Mid-Eastern synth noodling section that maintains this track's dark and mysterious atmosphere. Of course much progression in packed into this track, which is very important to keep the listener's interest considering that it is nearly 30 minutes long.

"Stardancer II" is an apparent sequel to "Stardancer" that was on the previous album, and follows in the same darkened vein as the previous track on this Body Love Vol. 2. Very active and sincere sounding moog melodies take the forefront for the majority of this track while simple but light hi-hat and snare percussion propel throughout its duration, giving the impression of a building urgency that may result in eruption at any moment.

"Moogetique" is my favorite track here, and it's an absolute monster. This track is defined by deep, cosmic groans and muddy ambient drones that drift and consume for its whole duration - definitely the darkest epic on this album. Many listeners may think of this track as being too boring, but if it's given the time it deserves then the gloomy beauty will definitely shine through.

Body Love Vol. 2, when compared to its predecessor, is definitely the darker and more interesting of the two, but I do believe that they also do work very well together as a whole. A lot of the gloominess and disparate sounds of this album remind me of two famously dark Schulze albums Cyborg and Irrlicht, but here the profound dark mysteriousness is melded perfectly with his more classic-era sound.