Frank Klare Modular Music Play Sample:   56K Dialup   Broadband   Download Sample:   500K   1.5Mb (Excerpt from track(s) 'Module One')

The album is split into five 'modules'. And it is hardly surprising with an album of this title that we start with two sequences, a simple one pulsing out whilst a faint tinkling one can just be heard in the background. Wailing effects shimmer over the top like wraiths shifting between one world and the next. A rhythm strikes up, coming over more like yet another sequence in its own right. It's all rather hypnotic and Schulzian. Indeed it would have been quite at home on Klaus' first 'Live' album.

'Module Two' uses gorgeous mellotron sounds as a backing for yet another sequence that could also have been created by the great man himself but probably from earlier, 'Timewind' come 'Mirage' perhaps. As we progress things become increasingly syncopated and comparisons move back to late seventies or early eighties such as 'X'. In the tenth minute a faster high register sequence is deployed in the middle of the mix, then yet another sequence, mimicking the first, comes and goes in waves. By the fifteenth minute my concentration was starting to wander a little. 'Module Three' is a very different kettle of fish. This time a gentle rhythm mixes with soft pads and flutey synth. It's very tranquil easy on the ear music. Ideal for laying back and listening to on some hot sunny beach.

This break from sequencer domination however only makes the mammoth Twenty-Five minute 'Module Four' seem even more ballsy. To start with we get a collage of dramatic metallic tones / stabs. These are replaced by moody organ. A slow rhythm sets up and now I am transported back to Schulze territory circa 'Dzeikuje Poland'. Things gradually become more intense, particularly in the tenth minute when rhythmically we move up a couple of gears. There is another big change three minutes later in the form of a swirling maelstrom of notes then some wonderful virtual guitar flourishes, placed just right in the mix, add to the oomph without dominating. 'Module Five' is a very short track at just over two minutes but it's still as syncopated and Schulze influenced as its longer cousins.