Klaus Schulze: Inter*Face (1985)

Klaus Schulze - Inter*Face

KS Canon 18

Track Listing:

1.	On the Edge	07:58
2.	Colours in the Darkness	09:41
3.	The Beat Planante	07:24
4.	Inter*Face	24:49

Bonus Tracks:

5.	The Real Colours in the Darkness	12:02
6.	Nichtarische Arie	13:47

Notes:
(1) Ulli Schober plays drums.
(2) Rainer Bloss sings on "Nichtarische Arie" (bonus track).

Rating: 5 Stars
Bonus Tracks: 4½ Stars

This is the 18th solo album recorded by Klaus Schulze. It's sometimes listed as his 20th album, but KDM no longer recognises the albums "Aphrica" and "Drive Inn" as official releases, so it's been moved up two places in the canon.

This was the first Klaus Schulze album to be released simultaneously on LP and CD. Nevertheless, I only bought it on LP. It was barely three years since the release of the first commercial CDs, and the prices were still extortionate. In 1985 I was living in Germany, and I remember walking into my favourite record store, Lerche, and seeing the first CDs on sale. The usual price for LPs was 18 Marks (about $10), but the CDs cost 85 Marks (about $47). I waited a few years for the prices to drop.

Even though it was released on CD, it was still made for LP. What I mean is, the tracks were recorded in an LP-friendly format, i.e. they were the correct lengths to fit on LPs. In later years Klaus Schulze's albums usually had tracks which were too long for LP.

One of the problems with owning so many Klaus Schulze albums is that I don't have time to listen to them all. No, that's not correct, I have plenty of time, but when I want to listen to his music I just play my favourite albums and forget the rest. When I listened to "Inter*Face" today I was amazed. I'd forgotten that it was so good. According to Amazon's records I bought the CD in August 2007, which was just before I moved house, so I was busy packing everything into boxes. It's possible that I only listened to it once before today. That's a sin! The title track especially is brilliant.

As for the bonus tracks, "Nichtarische Arie" is an extended version of "Macksy", that was released as a 12-inch maxi-single in 1985. I never saw it in the shops, because I didn't look at the maxi-single section. I didn't even know that it existed until years later. As I've said before, it was difficult being a Klaus Schulze fan in the days before the Internet.

"The Real Colours in the Darkness" is a mystery. It's an alternate version of "Colours in the Darkness". On the original LP release the cover incorrectly listed the length of "Colours in the Darkness" as 12 minutes, so it seems like the wrong version was included. KDM has no idea what happened, but at least we can listen to both tracks today. Both versions are good, but I prefer the version in the bonus track.

My bonus track rating is the average of five stars for "The Real Colours  in the Darkness" and four stars for "Nichtarische Arie".