Julian Cope presents Head Heritage

Zariadris,
Yes, the 1991 CD issues on the Brain and Thunderbolt labels were pressed from masters Schulze had overdubbed mellotron and extra reverb onto in order to cover up tape hiss, apparently. The tracks were also shortened -- again, (I think) in a bid to eliminate tape hiss.

"Floating" original time: 27:15 (26:53 on the 1991 issues)
"Mindphaser" original time: 25:22 (25:05 on the 1991 issues)

CD versions produced since (Japan 1995, Germany 2005, Japan 2007, EU 2016, Japan 2018) contain the original version.

(Note: although extremely expensive, the recent Japanese issues of Schulze's seventies back catalogue on Arcangelo (2007) and the SHM-CD series on Belle Antique (2018) sound so fantastic that it borders on the occult.)

Right on Seth Man. Thanks for this!

I'll seek out the original version, but the 1991 dubs always sounded great enough to me...mellotron and extra reverb never hurts...

Citizensmurf,

You have pretty much scored it all! Great you got BODY LOVE 2 (ADDITIONAL MUSIC FROM). That was the first Klaus Schulze album I ever saw, then purchased. In 1981, copies of the US Island pressing were everywhere in NYC for $2.99. (Already had the Go albums because I -- then, as now -- really liked Traffic and Winwood was part of the floating lineup.) Upon recent re-listen, the second side had some stunning moments I didn't recall at all.

Like a good friend first said to me decades ago, live albums and compilations cap off an era and Schulze's ...LIVE... (1980) is no exception. It's not only commendable but absolutely insane how Schulze kept up with new synthesizer developments. It did wind up impacting not only the sounds he got but the compositions he arranged them in.

As a result of this, the entirely digital DIG IT (1980) is clean and clinical as hell. Even though the prominent drum beats and vocoder vocals derail it somewhat (says the guy that loves Joy Division, MAN MACHINE and COMPUTER WORLD) but the final track has startling passages. Then again, I suppose Schulze could've easily continued with sequencer driven synthesizer albums for the next several years but instead pursued a far more difficult path of experimentation with no guarantees.

When Schulze was "fucked in lippy," (Ash Ra Tempel, TAROT, LORD KRISHNA VON GOLOKA, Cosmic Jokers, IRRLICHT, CYBORG), he could do no wrong: everything he touched was cosmic to the extreme and engaging as fuck forever. Buy it all and listen to it all.

Most of the time I've bought records from Germany they've been packed with first rate examples of German thoroughness and efficiency.

I got a reel to reel from there though, that was so full of rust, cobwebs and dead spiders that a tech friend of mine (specialized in tape recorders for around 50 years) said that he's never seen anything like that.

Most of the freebie records (used to make the package sturdier) that I've received have been total mind numbing garbage with dull covers. But that looks hilarious. Is it any good..?