“Inter*Face is a brilliant album whose complexity has not to be ashamed of its rhythms and harmonies as much compulsive than magnetizing”
1 On the Edge 7:58
2 Colours in the Darkness 9:12
3 The Beat Planante 7:24
4 Inter*Face 24:49
5 The Real Colours in the Darkness (Bonus Track) 12:02
6 Nichtarische Arie (Bonus Track) 13:47
Brain | 827 673-2 (CD 49:28)
SPV 305262 CD REV 059 (CD 75:18)
(CD 75:18) (V.F.)
(Minimalist New Berlin School
Released in 1985, INTER*FACE is considered as being the worst album realized during the digital period of Klaus Schulze and as one of the worst in his discography, just besides Le Moulin de Daudet. Let's say that it badly starts a review, because I totally disagree and I think that it's a very good one. And a great one, if I may insist. In fact, I always considered INTER*FACE as one of the most beautiful madnesses of Schulze where some remainders of Angst and Dziekuje Poland floats in a tumult that only KS can easily harmonize. Revisited Records rereleases a retouched version of this intense forgotten work with, as usual, an interesting booklet filled of facts regarding this album and with 2 bonus tracks which, if are not breaking all, are worth it...if we are collectors of the Master's works.
And that starts with On the Edge and its heavy orchestral strata which tear a cathédralesque ambience and float on the pulsations of a stoical drum of which the linear beatings stumble towards a mind of funky rock approach. The rhythm is bombarded by these strikes of drum and chords of a bass line which coo over the floating harmonies from the orchestral strata while On the Edge embraces the funk style of Phil Collins with the hatched blows of trumpets à la Earth, Wind and Fire style. It's Christmas in summer with some ringing bells which decorate a festive approach whereas behind all this catchy ghetto rhythm is looming the notes of a meditative piano which plunges the listener into another musical register with soft anthological flavors. And as there is anything never sets in stone with Mr. Schulze, percussions, kind of conga drums, add to the ambiguity of a structure of rhythm from which the constant evolution is torn by sound elements which split the premise, if premise there was. And good heavens that I like these violins and their floating wings which caress a rebellious rhythm! Distant spheroidal sirens pierce the silence to introduce Colours in the Darkness; a crazy track that sinks into the paranoia of a synth and of its synthesized vocabulary where Angst and Dziekuje Poland had spread their ashes. Although incisive, the beat sounds a bit like a rough draught and rolls on the slow dragging strata of a synth which mute into vampiric cello. Percussions and glockenspiels are feeding a schizophrenic rhythmic structure where huge symphonic strata add a harmonious dimension to a track which should have gone nowhere. This is great Schulze! On the verge of funk and groove, The Beat Planante offers a structure of ambient rhythm which looks strangely like a bumpy ballad of a cowboy where wooden percussions, kind of clogs' ones, make some tick-tocks on the carpet of iridescent mists from a synth which floods our ears with breaths of nasal spectres. It's quite relaxing, and this even if the percussions weigh down the mood in the course of the last minutes.
Spat by the tumult, the long title-track is in the vein of KS as I love it. A soft line of bass sequence fed furtively a rhythm which is outwitted by another line of more crystal clear sequences. One would say a 1985 version of Body Love, but with more madness. Synths spit out apocalyptic atmospheres and vampiric solos which move with a strange sensuality. And the ambiences get fatten by huge Babelian strata which are mooing beneath the big rollings of the bass drums, drawing a hallucinatory route which increases its pace with arpeggios sparkling in silvery breaths. Inter*Face dives into a nagging lento where twitchy strata float of their philharmonic jolts on the strikings of percussions became more rock than random. The rhythm is heavy and Klaus Schulze plays with his spectral moods while controlling a rhythmic approach from which the minimalist tone extends the insanity of the evasive harmonies. It's a great beautiful 25 minutes of charm, where the Maestro builds his Daliesque painting with bass-drums which are thundering and rolling with fury under the slow movements of philharmonic strata and vampiric solos which whistle under a thick cloud of cosmic tones unique to the Master's signature. Incredibly delicious! According to the story; The Real Colours in the Darkness should have been on the original pressing instead of Colours in the Darkness. There was a mixture at that time and Schulze corrects this error by giving it to us as a bonus track on this revisited edition. But in the end, this track has nothing to do with Colours in the Darkness. On the contrary, it's a beautifully ethereal piece of music, once the intro is passed, which reveals all the romantic and dreamy side of Schulze. The beautiful arrangements breathe a passion unique to the universe of Klaus Schulze; undulating bass-line, mystic choirs which call up to the spiritual pleasures and multi-sonic layers which make anemic all those who want to imitate the thought of Schulze. I like it very much and I cannot refrain from drawing a parallel with his works from the Body Love era. Nichtarische Arie (A Not So Hidden Track) brings us back towards another musical register of Klaus Schulze. It's an extended version of the Macksy maxi single released earlier in 1985. It's a kind of disco, or a mix of techno and synth-pop, à la Gerogio Moroder. If the percussions are brilliant, the voice, the beat and the sequencing are rather ordinary.
Can people leave me alone by saying that Klaus Schulze got mislaid from his original style? We know it since 1980. KS is the only one to make a so perfect symbiosis between his analog and digital period. Just think of Tangerine Dream or Jean-Michel Jarre. INTER*FACE is a brilliant album whose complexity has not to be ashamed of its rhythms and harmonies as compulsive than magnetizing. No! Schulze doesn't deny his roots, or his past works and even less his fans. He advances and gives to the technology of today the Schulze-style, making of his music a completely unique art that will be still played when the children of our children will learn the history of music, because Schulze is simply the musician of an era. A brilliant one! I found nothing of poison on this album. Everything is there: moods and analog tones, crazy, floating and ambient rhythms as well as dreamy and aggressive synths. In brief, the ideal combination to spend another 75 minutes of bewitchment with the Master. When to this revisited edition, it has the merit to remind us all the genius which was hiding behind INTER*FACE, a nice booklet in plus with additional music. A dream. And in all honesty, would you give 20 years of gap between this edition and that of the 1985? Here we are! You understood everything.
Sylvain Lupari (August 29th, 2013) *****