German disco producers have been exploring the use of the synthesizer beyond its customary roles as a glorified electric organ, string substitute and astral backwash for art rock. Leading the way have been Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte, Donna Summer's Munich-based producers. In "I Feel Love," Summer's finest single, they compressed synthesizer rhythm into a machine-gun beat that approximated the pulsations of a strobe light; the result was galvanizing.

Now Moroder has gone even further and made a totally synthesized album (except for some female backups and the robotization of a man's voice). From Here to Eternity goes for a sound that's cold, occasionally threatening and thoroughly spacey. A keyboard virtuoso with lowbrow taste, Moroder is content using the most obvious futuristic sound effects and repeating the tritest melodic fragments; for him, pop is little more than a fun house loaded with flashy gimmicks. But From Here to Eternity is a revolutionary album. Like no other record, it demonstrates the full power of the synthesizer in a pop context, and that power is very impressive. (RS 249)

STEPHEN HOLDEN