Dark Side of The Moog (1994)

Klaus Schulze and Pete Namlook - Dark Side of the Moog

Track Listing:

1.

Wish you were there

51:09

Rating: 5 Stars

On the CD the track is split into 10 tracks, but they're divided at even five minute breaks, which have no relationship to the musical content. It's only one single track.

The album was originally released on Pete Namlook's private label as a limited edition of 1000 copies, which quickly sold out. In 2016 it was re-released as part of a box set, which is now also out of print.

This is the first in a series of collaborations between Klaus Schulze and Pete Namlook. It was originally intended to be only a single album, but over the next 14 years they recorded another ten albums together. The two musicians met in 1992, but it wasn't until 1994 that they sat together to record an album.

Klaus Schulze had been using digital instruments, i.e. computers, since 1980, but Pete Namlook persuaded him to return to his analogue synthesizers, since he greatly appreciated the music Klaus had made in the 1970's. To put it in Pete's own words:

"This partly beatless and partly beat-oriented CD contains weird and fascinating sounds reminding us of the 1970's, reaching a new dimension of environmental music. Klaus Schulze plays analogue synthesizers and guitar for the first time since quite a period".

I was excited by the release of this album, because I was already a fan of Pete Namlook's music. My enthusiasm wasn't shared. In the mid-1990's I was in frequent telephone contact with KDM, Klaus Schulze's publisher, and the first time I mentioned Pete Namlook's name he flew into a rage. He said that Pete wasn't a musician, he was a gangster. That was a strange statement. It took me a while to understand what he meant. In KDM's opinion, Pete Namlook had no musical skills of his own, so he made money by exploiting competent musicians like Klaus Schulze. Despite repeated letters, Pete Namlook had refused to pay KDM the publishing fees for the album.

At that time I was also in sporadic telephone contact with Pete Namlook, so I heard the other side of the story. Pete was an idealist, who believed that musicians should receive all the money. He considered managers unnecessary; moreover, he was of the opinion that KDM was exploiting Klaus Schulze. Pete told me that in his collaborations with other musicians he gave the musician one third of the income from a CD – he emphasised that he meant the income, not the profit – and kept two thirds for himself. In Klaus Schulze's case it was different. Because he admired him so much, he gave him two thirds of the income and only retained one third for himself. Then he added, "It's such an honour to make an album with Klaus that I'd give him all the money if he asked for it. But I won't give his stupid manager a single penny".

Pete Namlook wasn't exploiting Klaus Schulze. Far from it. He was just opposed to music managers in principle. I passed on this message to KDM in my next phone call, but he wasn't listening to me, he was just shouting into the phone.

KDM is often called Klaus Schulze's manager, but KDM insists that he's only his publisher, adding that if he were his manager he'd be charging a higher percentage, and "publisher" is his job description on his yearly tax returns. I see what he means, but it's obvious to everyone who knows KDM that he's far more than a publisher. For instance, when Klaus was invited to meet President Mitterrand, KDM took Klaus out shopping to buy a decent suit. That's far more than a mere publisher would do. He might argue that it's a favour he did for a friend, but over the years there have been so many of these small favours that it seems systematic.

A few years later I was asked to translate an article into German for Frontpage magazine, a monthly Techno magazine. It was an interview between Pete Namlook and an American journalist, a long, very interesting interview which was never printed, because Frontpage went out of business a few months later. In the interview Pete mentioned Klaus Schulze. He said, "In 500 years Michael Jackson and the Beatles will be forgotten, but people will still listen to Klaus Schulze".  I mentioned this to KDM in a phone call, and his reply was "That's idiotic". Okay, none of us will live long enough to find out if Pete's prediction is true, but it proves one thing: Pete Namlook had a higher opinion of Klaus Schulze's music than KDM did.

Please don't get the impression that I don't respect KDM. As I've said more than once, KDM is vital as a link between Klaus Schulze and the fans. Without KDM there would be no Klaus Schulze. Who else would have painstakingly preserved all the old tapes for later release?