DUNE

With a catalouge as expansive as that of Klaus Schulze it's hard to pick out an individual album. Finding a favorite Schulze album is like finding a favorite track on an album of similarly strong tracks. Dune sticks out to me for two reasons. First of all, it deals with Frank Herbert's sci-fi/philisophical masterpiece (and the music here fits it well). Second of all, it has vocals. I'm not saying that vocal music is inherintly better than instrumental but their inclusion here gives these compositions a distinct flavor. The first track is Klaus Schulze by the numbers, spacey and atmospheric and dark but not overly memorable. The second track, vocals aside, is the stronger of the two with driving rhythms and melodies as dark and mysterious as the deserts of Arrakis. The vocals add more color and variety to the proceedings and add a hypnotic element to the music instead of giving the music distinction, not unlike Kraftwerk's late 70's music. Dune is still not unlike most Klaus Schulze albums: great while you're listening to it either to zone-out or two enjoy whilest indulging in substances, but not memorable after the moment.