Klaus Schulze Interface (Reissue)

... and so we lift the lid on another Schulzian episode, 'Inter*Face' from 1985. An album which served to compound that digital sound that Schulze had embarked upon several years before with the expulsion of all things analogue from the studio. Here Klaus himself refers to the recording as being a pretty unconventional Schulze album serving up a well honed cocktail of material that is laced with an almost slick commercial sounding edge at times and at others pushes the listener that little bit harder to stay with the eclectic multi faceted direction of some of the pieces. Both fans and reviewers alike having remained divided over this particular album in the past, l guess l'm pretty much walking on broken glass here with this write up. Let's try and disseminate some of that dogma that surrounds the recording and concentrate on what the album itself has to say.

'Inter*Face' was released over a year after the 'Angst' soundtrack unyet for an album that was supposed to be alittle more experimental showing a slight change of direction we find that there is still that familiar musical thread which runs through many of the pieces presented here that link this album directly to it's predecessor. Never the less, for better or worse it was time for Klaus to move the Schulze sound forward and 'Inter*Face' emerged as the vehicle to do just that. The reissued album is presented in a card gatefolded clip case with quality embossed transfers of the art on the outer cover. The accompanying 12 page booklet contains a brief write up about the album by Klaus himself,( on this occasion telling us more about his musical helpers rather than the actual album); manager Klaus D. Mueller adding quite a bit of background information about the make up of the reissue at the rear of the booklet. Apparently the original album that we all know was mispressed back in the 80's. This mistake has now been corrected and l think what we have here now as a result of the change is a more substantive recording.

Track 1, 'On the Edge'(7.58) starts things off very nicely, sounding very modernesque for it's time. A mid tempo beat soon kicks to life and an obtuse little bass staggers in. The piece moves on looking for direction at times sounding somewhat uneasy about where it's heading. Halfway through Klaus strips everything back to just the percussion, huge 7ths strings return sounding great, but narrowing real creative narrative by their very nature when used to play counterpoint to any lead sound. Klaus continues to stab away at the synth's but the track never really ignites ending very abruptly indeed.

Now here's where it gets a bit confusing - apparently when track two 'Colours in the Darkness' was put onto the original album back in 1985 the wrong version was stamped onto the album, not the version that Schulze had originally intended. So with this definitative version he has amended this rather sizable gaff by including the correct version as one of the two bonus tracks.........that's great news!!! As for the 'Colours in the Dark' that appeared on the 1985 version, that remains unchanged in the track two position on the CD. The piece commencing with an off-key rhythm, the drums being the focal point and key feature of the track with large swathes of sampled synth's filling out the soundfield. Sinister sounding strings fly around the mix with the odd dissonant Calliope strike, all very very reminiscent of the 'Angst' material. At just over nine minutes duration this piece again fails to find a real direction which may frustrate some listeners. If thought of as a piece of drama in the same way as you might some soundtrack work l don't think you'll have any problems with the track - in effect it's 'Angst' revisited.

'The Beat Planante'(7.24) is upon us with it's light electronic piano chords and twitchy little shuffle of a rhythm coming over as a Boris Blank/Yello type of track of the same period. Digital synths dominate this piece locked in a single key against the kick drum, the composition finally revealing its true nature at the five minute mark when the big snare drum arrives making everything click into place. A rather frightening sounding title track rumbles into being with a big bubbling crescendo of epic proportions. A light pair of ping pong, left/ right sequences start up and a heavily filtered lead sound squirms its way into being to a point at which the track opens up into a big sample driven orchestral hiatus. Six minutes in and the acoustic sounding drums arrive to merely keep time just as they did on some of the long pieces from 'X', the Fairlight sampler really doing most all of the sonic donkey work here. A busier sounding sequence rides along overhead as kettle drums clatter through the mix. A high register arpeggiator adds more fuel to the fire and halfway through this twenty four minute opus things finally appear to have settled into a steady groove, the soloing continuing in the middle ground of the mix as more kettle drum and orchestral strikes fire off like canons. Seventeen minutes in and you'll probably be thinking that the track has more in common with the 'En=Trance' album as things remain pretty strident dwarfing the improvisations that Klaus hammers out. Another key change and there's a wonderful little slur on the marching orchestra strikes which really set off the dramatic tone of the piece continuing though to the finale which again ends rather abruptly swamped in reversed reverb.

The first of the bonus tracks, now called 'The Real Colours in the Dark'(12.02) which should have featured on the original album is a fabulous track. Certainly the most readily identifiable classic Schulze piece out of all the album tracks featured here. Forget any similarity with the track two 'Colours in the Dark', this is a completely different interpretation to the very rhythmic one heard earlier. This is one of those more sedate moments from Klaus, percussion free, though strangely still managing to sound full on. Huge 'Audentity' styled sweeps fly through the mix as the sequencing is almost completely buried in a sampled synth backdrop as Klaus improvises away. All said and done an excellent track from Klaus and one which must have annoyed him not to have had on the original album.

'Nichtarische Arie (A Not So Hidden Track)' is actually a longer version of the 'Macksy' single recorded earlier in 85'. Lasting just under fourteen minutes it comes into play sounding like we've just paid a visit to the Georgio Moroder school of how to make a hit record and get away with it. Simple arpeggiated pulsating basslines weaving in and out, punchy drums thumping out a steady beat and a catchy hook or two make for a memorable slice of user friendly euro synth pop. Halfway through there's a drum break followed by a vocal by Rainer Bloss. Set low in the mix we can only snatch odd phrases and l have to admit, the vocal just about works!!! We even get a Moroder styled distorted synth lead towards the end. All this has not much if anything to do with the rest of the album but it is a bonus and again a very welcome one, thanks to Klaus D. Mueller for choosing it.