220 VOLT LIVE

The skill of creating music that's dynamic, yet boring at the same time.

I am the first one to admit that had I actually seen the performance, I would have been left with a much better impression compared with the (overdubbed) CD release. On the CD the dynamics come across only as boring, repetitive rhythms that tend to irritate. Thankfully, by this stage Jerome Froese is somewhat held back from turning the performance into yet another Techno piece released under the TD name.

The album as a whole fails to excite, but there are moments of interest, nevertheless. The guitar work (by any one of three performers) tends to lift the album in places with quite heavy, yet tasteful fills - till we get to "Purple Haze". Now, that is as relevant to TD as if Kraftwerk were to do a Mahavishnu cover. I just don't see the point in doing this piece.

Somewhat attractive middle-aged Teutonic blonde Linda Spa plays the saxes. She plays them well as if reading from a songbook. The one thing is missing - emotion. Her style leaves me feeling cold and that's a recurring observation I've made of her over a number of her recorded performances. The cold winds of Valhalla? Ah, but Jethro Tull does that much better...

Overall, I feel that at this point Froese is in a creative crisis. Too late to go back to the roots, yet new inspiration is not quiet present. The music here represents of no particular excitement to me, but TD have done much worse than this before.

This is not an album I'll keep in my quest of creating more shelf space by culling, shedding stuff that may never have another spin here. No, I wouldn't call it "bad", but essential it certainly isn't. 5 out of 10.