Klaus Schulze Dig It (Rerelease) Please go to the Store to buy this item.

Opinions remain diverse amongst fans and critics alike over the 1980 release, 'Dig It''. Klaus took a different approach to make what is ultimately a typical Schulze album. Was it merely a technological exercise,( big issue being made of the fact that this was an entirely digital recording) or was it Klaus heading for a more contemporary style, pundits having spent more time speculating over the album than it actually took to record the darn thing!!! To the fan - love it or hate it there have only ever been good Schulze album's, albeit some stronger than others. The music from the original LP had become more muscular than cosmic which may have upset many. Flawless powerful drums and percussives featuring strongly throughout the album helping to lift the musical dynamic, but unfortunately never enough to make the album really shine. Popular music press write up's had obviously looked to pigeon hole Schulze as being a one dimensional musical character, feeling the need to point out influences from reggae to disco, jazz to classical to describe the music. I think only Klaus himself could answer the critics on that score, as to my ears,'Dig It' is none of these things, l hear strong Schulzian overtones throughout. Yes it's true, this album has never been one of my all time favourite's, but with a focus on the music and not so much on the fashion of the day l think its time at last for a balanced review, without all that subjective verbal diarrhoea!!! Either you dig it, or you don't l guess!!!

'Dig It' for this re-issue has been put together into an absolutely unmissable and now very substantial package featuring again a great deal of bonus music which never featured on the original vinyl, (which in itself is a crime because its absolutely first class stuff!!!) plus over an hours worth of music and visuals on the extra bonus DVD. Time to forget your preconceptions, as this CD set is now a real goody bag, promising something for everyone.

The album is now presented in a double gate leg card folder with all of the original artwork and more reproduced as per the 1980 vinyl version. Photographic reproduction of cover art is achieved here by the use of high quality transfers. The enclosed 20 page booklet provides photos from the era, stills from the included DVD featuring both Klaus and some of the electronic visuals used in the show. A section of interview with the great man himself in 2004, and also a two page write up about the album. On the musical front we are treated to a hefty 28.21min bonus track from the same era. Further to this, as already mentioned we are also given a live broadcast quality DVD of Schulze in concert from a show which just pre-empted the release of the album.

On to the music, and 'Death of an Analogue',(12.15) chugs along in a sombre kind of way as the albums opening cut, a piece geared more towards Klaus playing around with the sound of his vocoded voice rather than concentrating on making a musical master piece. Noticeably it is the precision drumming of Fred Severloh, (who would also feature on Robert Schroeders,'Mosaique' the following year) that takes the honours here as he plays along inventively making his presence felt.

'Weird Caravan', (5.16) again isn't exactly what we're used to from Mr. Schulze as he improvises over a tape loop of bass guitar and rhythm. All sounding a little awkward with the unusual bass and off key back beat of the drums, Klaus improvises away. If this is what reviewers had previously passed off as disco, l'd love to know what clubs they'd been going too!! A caravan it ain't, but weird……..most definitely.

'The Looper isn't a Hooker', (8.30) features as probably the strongest entry from the original album with an introduction of electronically indescribable sounds the piece moves on into more rhythmic territory, everything punctuated by a simple kick drum,( a trick he'd use again on 'Audentity'). Such a simple idea, but so economic, so effective, pinning the whole track together. Curiously enough the lead sound from 'Weird Caravan' makes its appearance again to carry the track to its conclusion.

'Synthasy', (22.53) promises to be a typical slice of Schulzism. Starting off in an unusual fashion, sounding very theatrical, Klaus searching for a direction, deploying little mood swings and dynamic percussion crashes prior to settling into a foundation of Schulze synthetic cello and synth/organ work. We hit the halfway mark and a steady rhythm is kept with the drums whilst Klaus starts messing around with the vocoding effect on his voice again. Unfortunately it's the overuse of a strangely modulated lead sound that ruins the track for me which just clacks away whilst Klaus is busy elsewhere. The track evolves becoming steadily more and more intense before suddenly curtailing off into a variety of synth effects and vocoded speech once more. Yes it's a slow burner which it has to be said fails to really ignite, due in no small part to that harsh lead sound.

Time for the bonus track,'Esoteric Goody',(28.21). Forget about the title, Klaus had to call it something!!! What we have here is three linked pieces of not so much music as pure soundscapes, all of which are exercises in how to really sound sculpt with old analogue equipment, all of which are jaw droppingly brilliant. How on earth these slices of audio hadn't emerged before now has me really wondering what other esoteric goodies await us from the archives for the rest of the back catalogue re-issues??? With a feel of the electro acoustic about it, sounding typical of something you may have expected from Pierre Boulez at around the same period a synthetic eruption turns over for some ten minutes before moving us off in a Vangelisy ' Beauborg' direction. Three minutes into this second section and wow!!! We're now listening to TD's 'Rubycon' intro on steroids!! The piece building to 'Miragesque' proportions before returning to 'Beauborg' mode again. This is one hell of an improvisation if indeed that's what it is. The last eight minutes see things getting rather avant garde again with a mixture of effects that would have sat quite happily anywhere on 'X'. In actual fact, l found 'Esoteric Goody' well worthy of repeated listens. Though l shouldn't really say it, more inventive than the rest of 'Dig It'!!!