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Conrad Schnitzler

Consequenz

@ 1980 Private Press (Germany)

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Conrad ("Conny") Schnitzler (17 March 1937 – 4 August 2011) was a prolific German experimental musicIan associated with West Germany's 1970s krautrock movement. A co-founder of West Berlin's Zodiak Free Arts Lab, he was an early member of Tangerine Dream (1969–1970) and a founder of the band Kluster. He left Kluster in 1971, first working with his group Eruption and then focusing on solo works. Schnitzler participated in several collaborations with other electronic musicians.

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Conrad Schnitzler’s late ’70s and early ’80s period is difficult to pigeonhole within his larger body of work. By this point he had moved on from the early expansive drone pieces that featured on his first three releases and begun to amalgamate rhythmic patterns along side more condensed song structures. His Peter Baumann-produced 1978 album Con touched upon pop signatures but also allowed typical Schnitzler areas of experimentation. This was not altogether successful and these blending of sonic motifs would come together in a substantial ‘art rock’ vein within Consequenz, but would also borrow elements of the earlier ‘Krautrock’ period.

A warbling VCS3 introduces “Fata Morgana” which leads into a steady motorik drum pattern that is played over with simplistic synth lines. It has a sound akin to The Residents’ Not Available era and bridges an odd landscape of being both pop and avant-garde. More VCS3 introduces martial electronic rhythms on “Weiter,” its synth melody sounds like the soundtrack to some lost black and white Berlin art-house film from the ’70s and conjures up shadowy streets on winter’s evenings. “Tape 3” is rumbling drum machines and drifting synth that could have squeezed on to the first three Kraftwerk albums as it rolls over itself in a never-ending cycle. “Bilgenratte” is almost obviously cosmic sounding, outer space synths flutter under a brooding bass line that carries the main part of the tune. White noise chimes in “Afghanistan” before the main bass kicks in and the strolling bass drum gives the piece a forward momentum. It reminds me of “Toyota City” from the Human League’s Travelogue album of 1980 where the music discusses a place without ever really being a specific soundtrack for it. “Lugen Haben Kurze Beine” is all industrial drum machines and staccato synth tune; the robots are coming to town and the age of men has passed. The simple synth phrase follows the track throughout leaving a treadmill element to the music. “Nachte in Kreuzberg” sounds like Weimar cabaret tunes played by electronics and has a touch of the Tomitas about it. “Humpf” is punk-sounding electronic beats punctuated by Morse code pulses from the synth that leave a sense of urgency on the listener. “MS-477” drags us back to galactic motorik as we speed on the first Autobahn to take us to the edge of the universe. Its burbling synths and repetitive bass line gives us glimpses of a unchanging landscape. Dramatic rhythms introduce “Pendel,” its plodding bass line and gurgling VCS 3 giving the illusion of being stuck on a dark conveyer belt to a vast factory where all the workers are machines – this is the most post-punk sounding piece on the album. “Wer Geht Da?” has eerie echoed Ultravox-sounding synths playing over a cavernous guitar line; the dance tune for the end of time held in a continental futurists club. “Copacabana” has a swaying swing Latin beat that underplays a synth riff while synthetic birds tweet from plastic trees. Again repetition is the factor here: this is pop, but one without a chorus or middle eighth, just an endless repeating verse.

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