Deutche Schule! is the newest "solo" offering from Mr. Taylor, in that it's released under his name rather than Taylor's Universe. "Deutche Schule" means "German School", as in the "German school of prog", more commonly known as Krautrock. This album is "inspired by some of the freakier German Krautrock  artists of the '70's", though except maybe for the last song, "Das Experiment", Taylor isn't talking about the "Ash Ra Tempel, Cosmic Jokers, Guru Guru  and Tangerine Dream" spacey variety, but instead the "more rhythmically insistent, post-psychedelic experimentations of Faust, Neu!, Kraftwerk and Can". Deutche Schule is certainly "rhythmically insistant" and reminds me a lot of Kraftwerk  in places, though not as "pretty" as some of their stuff tended to be. But, to tell the truth, the illusion of this being an album of Krautrock  is destroyed by Karsten Vogel's sax soloing on almost every cut ... and the album is much better for it! In fact, this new release is my favorite of Taylor's solo albums at this point because of this ingenious juxtaposition. Just as you're starting to say, "OK, it's Krautrock already, and it's got the same problem as I have with Krautrock, namely it's starting to get boring now" ... but just then, Vogel's sax rises up from the insistent ostinato of synths, electronics and drum machines and starts to play incredible solos, from straight jazzy sounding to pure noisy freak-outs and any concern of being bored is dispelled. Maybe I've just finally figured out how to listen to Vogel's solos, but I don't ever think of the word "pointless" when listening to this album, as I accused him of on Heart Disc. "Chaotic" is still a good word to use for some of it, but even the chaos is tightly controlled and meaningful. The album closer "Das Experiment" is a drug-induced (I'm only guessing) sax and drum freakout of epic proportions, with a dissonant synth chord that drones and phases into and out of reality throughout the piece. It clocks in at 9:15 and heads straight out of Taylor's Universe and into some alternative audial dimension where music doesn't follow the same rules as it does on our plane of existence. Really great stuff, and if you like either Krautrock  or excellent jazzy yet crazed sax work, you should find a lot to like about this album. Highly recommended.
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