KLAUS DOLDINGER/PASSPORT — Infinity Machine (review)

KLAUS DOLDINGER/PASSPORT — Infinity Machine album cover

Album · 1976 · Fusion

4/5 · 2025-04-09
FunkFreak75

The last of Klaus' great quartet as keyboard master Kristian Schulze would depart after this album (Wolfgang Schmid and Curt Cress hanging on for one more album).

1. "Ju-Ju-man" (10:04) funk with a bit of a Disco beat and a flashy flair to its "horn" accents. There is a bit too much swag and cock as will become so popular in the machismo Black exploitation films of the time. I hate to say it, but this song is a perfect example of the fact that the funk went to far: the experimental exploration of all of the new synthesizer sounds that artists started throwing almost indiscriminately into the funk music of the 1970s went, in my opinion, way too far--into the protean realm of the ludicrous and absurd--where the effect was to reflect back upon the artist and humanity in terms of freakish exaggeration and circus-like parody. One of the artists that took this behaviour to the extreme, Parliament, at least gave you an immersive circus-like show which they pretended to take serious and which you could walk away from. Anyway, in case you can't tell, the musical palette on this song send me over the top; just too much. (Maybe I need to listen to more George Carlin or read more Robert Heinlein books so that I can desensitize myself to the idiotities of my own species.) (17/20)

2. "Morning sun" (5:49) more into the realm of upbeat Weather Report and Jay Bekcenstein SPYRO GYRA. At least it's coming more from jazz roots than novelty funk/R&B. (8.75/10)

3. "Blue aura" (3:02) pensive whole-band chords open this with some nice delicacy and spaciousness--wordless vocals in there, as well! Soprano sax with gentle yet reactive and creative piano accompaniment takes over at the one minute mark, making a pretty nice little piece just the two of them. Definitely top three song for me. (9.3333/10)

4. "Infinity machine" (5:12) despite the weird, stop-and-restart space intro, this turns into a very nice uptempo song with power and drive. Nothing offensive, over the top, or immature here. Curt Cress is dialed in and Wolfgang, Kristian and Klaus are right on the same page together. A great display of full-band coordination and integration. Plus, pretty decent solos from both Klaus and Kristian in the fourth and fifth minutes (with some fun accents from Klaus on Moog beneath Kristian's solo). (9/10)

5. "Ostinato" (7:37) with the hypnotic groove coming from the bass line it feels a bit like Alan Parsons Project I Robot, but the rest of the rock-heavy Jazz-Rock Fusion over the top is genuine and respectable. There are, however, more than just a couple "modern" synth sounds woven into the tapestry of this one--a couple trying to pull the song into the realm of Smooth Jazz or future Jean-Luc Ponty "Space Jazz." It's nice to hear Wolfgang Schmid return to his beloved guitar for the fifth and sixth minutes, and Curt Cress's tom and roto-tom play in sixth and seventh minutes is pretty darn awesome! (13.375/15)

6. "Contemplation" (6:39) another spacey intro with more wind-chime-like percussions and train-like doppler effect sax and bouncy-echoed Fender Rhodes until 1:40 when some acoustic guitar strums starts a new stream over which Klaus' echo-(chorus?)sax pronounces the melody notes which at times gets David Sanborn-level in terms of power scream(ch)ing but the speed or varies very little. (8.75/10)

Total Time: 38:23

B/four stars; a nice if inconsistent album of forward thinking Jazz-Rock Fusion that many lovers of technological advance will value greatly.