from Harald Grosskopf - Synthesist (1980)

For a record of electronic music released in 1980, called Synthesist, and with the artist looking like a chromed nerd on the cover (possibly also doing the robot on his live shows), this could certainly be worse; but that's not exactly enough. The album still bears some traces of Grosskopf's respectable resume, having played with quite a few krautrock household names: the more spacey tracks in particular ("B. Aldrian" and "Trauma") can pleasantly recall Ashra's m.o. on the best parts of New Age of Earth, although in a more rushed way (it is 1980 after all: time to wake up, snort a line, grab your briefcase, get a cappuccino on the way, and go to the office). 

Sadly, the tracks relying more heavily on repetitive rhythms and sequencer patterns may also recall Ashra's m.o. on the worst parts of New Age of Earth - only without Manuel Göttsching's guitar inventions to give it some form of human touch, which is why a good chunk of this ends up feeling a bit like music on autopilot. Now, I'm sure that, in AI times, saying that will quickly stop being the burn I still think it is, as HAL 9000 2.0 fixes the whole of existence and makes life all smooth-sailing from here on out (whether you like it or not), but, call me old-fashioned, as long as I get the choice, and even if solely as a safeguard, I do still prefer my pilots to at least stay awake for the duration of the flight.