AMBIENT MONKEYS

Sorry, this one is a clunker. They REALLY mean monkeys here. Lots and lots of screaming monkeys. This music was used during set changes on one of their concert tours. Small bits of music but mostly the sound of loud sceaming monkeys. Take a monkey, set it on fire and then record it. For completists only.

For the record, I am a HUGE Tangerine Dream fan, (listening to Inferno right now). I dont pan their records easily.

Ambient Monkeys is the Tangs album that divides Tangs fans. Originally a reworked version of various existing pieces, merged together with ambient jungle sounds, it was used as an aural backdrop at live performances, keeping concert-goers amused while waiting for the show to commence or during occasional planned pauses. The story goes that the pre-concert music attracted so much comment that it was then made available for sale in its own right.

It is basically the sound of Tangerine Dream in a rain forest. The sounscape includes mainly (as you may have guessed) monkeys calling from the canopy, while parrots swoop and a monsoon gives way to sunlight. It is atmospheric doodling of the highest order. It is an ideal introduction to ambient electronica, with tongue gently but firmly in cheek. A beautiful disc to play as background music.

And there's the problem. Good-natured fans have embraced the CD warmly. Newcomers will love it. Po-faced super-serious electro-noodlers rate it very poorly. I predict that the average rating will always be "somewhere in the middle", but each individual review will be either strongly for or against. I've no axe to grind, as I'm not even a Tangs fan, just an amused observer.

Suffie it to say, I play this CD more than any other Tangs disc.

Smile.

These "musical" moments should have remained what they were made for: some opening tracks for TD concerts at the time.

To have grouped these "numbers" and put them onto a CD was quite adventurous, and useless should I say. This great band doesn't gain anything with such a weak release. What was their real meaning with this stuff? Who the hell knows!!!

This (short) album is a prolonged continuation of the poor and the worse ("Symphony In A ? Minor"). If you would fancy some "jungle dance", this album is maybe appropriate for your ears ("Calyx Calamander"), but I have to say that mine are quite alien to these sounds. Quite hard to believe, really!

I do love TD an awful lot, but this time, a certain limit has been set, even if some decent work is being presented ("The Seventh Propeller Of Silence"). This is their first work I rate with one star (and I've been reviewing over thirty of their works).

This is just NOT working with me. Quite difficult to bear to be honest. What went through the minds of the Froese gang? I don't know. But you'd better never listen to this.

One star is the only rating possible (even if another reviewer did rate it as a masterpiece). I wish this release never saw the light.

I can only hope that TD will never release an "Ambient Crocodiles" or "Ambient Elephants". Extremely weak album this is. The only acceptable track is "Campera De Mon Glyan". Almost five minutes of sunshine in this darkness.

Might work for nature shops...

First let's define the "ambient" mention from the title. Both old fans expecting a come-back / revisit of early TANGERINE DREAM's "kozmische" material, like "Zeit" or "Atem", and more recent electronica lovers eager for 90's quality ambient works in the vein of THE ORB, THE FUTURE SOUND OF LONDON or early AUTECHRE will surely be disappointed. Instead, "Ambient Monkeys" mainly consists in a continuous mixture of more or less new-age TD from the nineties, noodling, natural sonorities and animal sounds. Sometimes, attentive listeners will recognize a known title...

The point is, this environmental soundtrack was only used by the band before starting concerts to warm audiences up. These pieces were initially not meant to be released. However, on "public demand" by the fans, the Froeses finally made this available. So who is to blame?

In conclusion, was it worth it? Not really... The "music" will rarely catch the ears of both classic and 90's TANGERINE DREAM lovers. Only for fans of background ambient wanting to sonically dress their vegetal lounge or bathroom with a "nature" soundtrack...