Klaus Schulze - 1977 - Body Love

Klaus Schulze

1977

Body Love

01. Stardancer (13:38)

02. Blanche (11:44)

03. P.T.O. ( 27:12)

04. Lasse Braun (22:26) Bonus Track

 Klaus Schulze / keyboards

Harald Grosskopf / drums

As per the usual Klaus Schulze standard, this is uber-dramatic Berlin school music at its most epic. But the soundtrack to love? Definitely not with the women I've known.

I've never seen the movie Body Love, though I'm sure I'd probably enjoy it considering that it's a pornographic film and I'm a college student; the two implicitly go hand in hand. Also, Schulze did this soundtrack for the film, which guarantees Body Love to be the most awkwardly and unintentionally nerdy pornographic film since Bikini Cavegirl.

Besides all of this, Body Love is a great album that fits in very well with the much loved classics of Schulze's classic era. The soaring synths that portray spacial travel and the propelling drumming is here just like in Moondawn and X, but here on the track "Stardancer" it seems that the percussion has been done much more tastefully and has worked its way more comfortably into Schulze's classic sound; for this I am grateful, because the percussion in the aforementioned albums were kind of overbearing for my taste.

"Blanche" is my favorite track on the album because of its depressing tone, and everyone knows I'm all about that. I'd have to rank this track as being among Schulze's most emotional (still sufficiently awkward for porn) and beautiful tracks and only clocks in at a manageable 12 minutes, and features a moody piano melody coupled with the classic and recognizable sounds of analog Berlin school synths. The atmosphere achieved on "Blanche" makes me think of lying in the moonlight on a beach on Neptune where lambent aurora paint the skyline (pretty good idea for a porn setting), and the sounds of the close and distant waves crashing onto the sand are easily distinguishable.

"P.T.O.", which I assume to stand for Pornographic Topographic Oceans among other more explicit things, bears the trademark Schulze epic track length (about 27 minutes). I'm kind of underwhelmed by this track mostly because this track is kind of a noisy "balls out" aggressive Berlin school track that doesn't really match up too well with the previous two emotional tracks, although on its own "P.T.O." is definitely a reputable classic track in Schulze's catalogue.

Being a fan of Schulze's work but having not listened to any of it in a long time, Body Love is definitely a great representation of his classic era with a great element of emotion that is probably only a bit stronger and more thought out on Mirage. But because of this album's manageable length and the strength of the material, I'd say that this would be as good a starting place for aspiring Schulze fans as any of his previous classics. Don't expect anything romantic though, because (and I promise this) no woman will ever be turned on by this brand of spacial exploration music, and if she says otherwise then she is lying and is probably a keeper.