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With the third consignment of Schulze re-issues upon us I've decided to kick off with the 'Body Love' album from 1977. An album that in many ways does exactly what most all of us expect of first class electronica recordings these days. It forms that classic template for retro synth albums galore, 3 extended pieces with varying feel to each of the tracks.

As I'm sure many of you are aware, 'Body Love' was put together as the futuristic soundtrack to the porn movie of the same name, (a free bonus DVD would have been nice; purely for artistic reasons of course, so that we could hear the music in its correct context). I'm glad to read in the sleeve notes that Klaus had also mused on this thought. There's always 'Body Love II' Klaus.Presented now in the tasteful artsy white (now gated) sleeve that we all know and love, the album is re-issued with a twenty two minute bonus track. The cover artwork reproduced once again utilising high quality inlaid transfers. The enclosed 16 page booklet provides photos of Schulze from the era, a section of interview with the great man himself in 2004, a two page write up about the making of the album and a bunch of spurious promo stills from the movie for which the music was devised. As most any real porn connoisseur will tell you, the films by Harry S Morgan still have the finest electronic scores out there,( but that's enough about me) 'Body Love' pre- dates them all. And don't worry readers, I'm not about to break into any puns about Klaus thinking long and hard about the music and maybe l shouldn't mention 'scoring' in the review anymore!!!

Onto the music: - Recorded in late 1976, 'Body Love' it has to be said is an essential addition to the Schulze back catalogue of the 70's, spanning as it does two volumes. It is not so much a soundtrack as an out and out Schulze album without compromise. The whole porn thing is very much a side issue as the music is superb.

'Stardancer', (13.38) getting things off to a fantastic start, Klaus sounding eager to get on with the show, opening up with a cavalcade of off the wall electronic effects and percussive strikes that fire off in all directions. A solitary sequencer line soon arrives, as too does the very inventive drumming of Harald Grosskopf. Without more ado the sound of Moog soloing takes to the fore, the strong drumming remaining unobtrusive throughout complimenting the lead improvisations perfectly. Tron' choirs skirt around the peripheries of the piece as things move up to a pitch where they can't be sustained for too long, the piece ending rather abruptly. 'Blanche', (11.44) is a much more airy/dreamy affair that effortlessly drifts by with delayed piano sinking into a cosmic analogue sea of synthesis. A simple sequence appears from nowhere,( now here!!!) in the background as at the five minute mark, the Moog soloing seamlessly commences. The piece tailing off beautifully before it begins to tire.

Track three, 'P.T.O', (27.12) doesn't start with the same sense of purpose as the two previous tracks. A short solo over drifting synths leading to a single percussive sounding sequence all sounding very familiar, but at the six minute mark the sequence morphs into something with much more bite. The drums arrive doing nothing if not driving the track foreword, building a steady head of steam as those Mellotron choirs return to fill out the stereo sound field. Twelve minutes in and things are starting to get a little bit crazy with a great deal of outlandish synth effects twisting and turning all over the place in the background. A change of key and some sequential augmentation leads to more improvisations, the drums really starting to get a bit wild. Klaus reverts to the old phaser trick as events reach a climax, (yes l know, double-entendres, we don't need em') with the sequencing and solo's. An uncomfortable edit brings the madness to an end as we spend the last few minutes of the piece back in a melancholy drifting synth mode.

Time for the bonus track 'Lasse Braun', (22.26). This is brilliantly hypnotic stuff. We get past a few opening seconds of tape noise then we are into an extended piece that was recording during the same sessions as the rest of 'Body Love', (however it was put to one side and left un-used and untitled until now!!!). This is another of those archive gems; the quality of the recording is on a par with the rest of the album and compliments the whole of the set perfectly. After listening through the track for the first time my immediate thought was that this was like a more modern version of 'Picture Music's' , 'Totem', this becoming so much more apparent as of the eight minute mark when resonant percussive synth and arpeggiators conspire to form that similar soundbed of electronic tabla-like music from which solo's can emerge, and emerge they do in similar fashion to the Moog soloing of the rest of the album. Like 'Totem' there is a slight key change halfway through, things becoming more intense before fading off into nothingness.

So to the round up on this definitive re-issue. Well 'Body Love' is a forward looking album, Klaus employing is growing number of hi tech toys to great effect making a modern sounding recording for the time. Showing no sign of deviating from his set musical path, you would never for a moment guess that this was a soundtrack album, 'Body Love II' continuing that same musical story. It is a kind of anonymous album though, not putting a foot wrong, but at the same time not necessarily pushing the envelope. This is very much an album of formulaic Schulze. There is a saying that the road to success is dotted with many tempting parking spaces - this l think is one of them. Is this then a bad album? Not a bit of it, the music has a real vitality all its own, including the very welcome new addition of the bonus track. One can only hope that 'Body Love' the movie was as great as its soundtrack!!!

Tracklist :

01  Stardancer
02  Blanche
03  P.T.O.
04  Lasse Braun