TANGERINE DREAM

Short, concise, yet innovative even if released in 2008 this album represents a very nice offering from the band. It has been quite a while that they didn't release such an "old" album.

While I was listening to this, I was wondering to myself: hey! is this really a new TD album? Or was it just a dream while I was awaken!

The short "Armageddon" is such a brilliant track that will undoubtedly remind you of the superb past. This is by far my favourite song from this album and one of their best for some twenty years. Easily.

This great band could of course rest on their laurel's (as some of their earlier production) but they were doing better with "Purple Diluvial". The title track and "epic" of this album (almost twenty minutes) offers some average electronic rock parts, upbeat at times and frankly not too much of a glory particularity. Just good and keyboarding as hell.

But I assume that it is what we are expecting from TD every time they are releasing an album. The closing section of this "Purple Diluvial" does "speak" more to my bones and heart and is really poignant. Another great TD moment should I say. But there are an awful lot of these ones of course throughout their immense discography.

I consider this album as one of their good ones from this millennium, even if the dance beats of "Babylon The Great Has Fallen" are quite unbearable. But he closing part is such memorable...

This album certainly deserves a listen. Three stars is my rating.

Second opus of this Japanese combination.

Nothing wrong, but nothing extraordinary either should I say. The quality of TD music has already been much better, for sure. But it was a long, long time ago. Still, thrilling moments are scarce and most of the items displayed are average.

Nice and ambient sounds, melodic at times, even profound and holding some remembrance of the glory days ("Mystery Of Life And Death"). At the end of the day, it is a highlight from this "Summer?". Some sort of résumé of their work since the early seventies. You get it all there. A very good song indeed.

I know that I might sound as a dinosaur expecting the same grandeur of past history; but I can't help: waiting for the unexpected to show up is always a thrilling affair. But most of the time, it doesn't happen even if this album is not a bad one. Actually, it is just slightly below "Spring..." but much superior to "Madcap's Flaming Duty".

This work is a more conventional TD production: great soundscapes, fine synths lines, longer pieces of music and some relation to the early days (without reaching the passion and emotion of course). But a song as " Dreaming In A Kyoto Train" does hold enough of good ingredients and push up this album into better territories.

Short tracks work as interludes and aren't really interesting. If only "Mystery Of Life And Death" could have lasted for fifty minutes?Anyway, I rate this work with three stars: nothing weak but nothing to be considered as a masterpiece either.

Well, I guess that I will be one of the few that won't feel like rating this album pretty high here.

It is of course not the first time that Edgar Froese has integrated vocals on a TD album, but he never did to such an extent. And after over an hour of this treat, I have to say that the mellow, uniform and inexpressive tone from Chris Hausl is quite working on my nerves.

I'm afraid that my perception of this album won't match the majority of (very few) my fellow reviewers. IMO this album is all flatness and (mainly) boredom. Some fine guitar during "A Dream Of Death". Big deal!

Out of almost fifty reviews from the band, I consider this album as one of the weakest TD work so far. Dull, pitiful and totally lacking of originality. Some deep "Talk Talk" feeling is even available; the most noticeable of these "moments" is probably "Hear The Voice". A typical and great "press next" track. Just as the painful "Lake Of Pontchartrain". One of the worst for sure. But is "Mad Song" any better??? I doubt.

It really hurts me when I have to review a TD album which doesn't fulfil its role. Without any spirit nor flavour: so is "Madcap's Flaming Duty". Fortunately, it didn't happen so often. This sounds as no TD at all. I can only recommend to avoid such an album. Unless you would like to listen to some sub "Human League" compositions ("One Hour Of Madness") or some sub "Spandau Ballet" ballad ("Man").

I guess that you have the global feel?

You can easily miss this release. I will be extremely generous because of the emotional link I have with the band: two stars. But gosh! These vocals sitting at each corner!!!

To be fair, it should be noted that at the time of this review, I own a grand total of 4 or 5 Tangerine Dream albums from the 90s onwards (I do not own anything from the 2000s yet either). And of those few albums, this is the only 90s one I've heard so far that has done anything to excite me in a really big way. Yes, there are definitely plenty of clichés found in this album left over from some of the 80s Tangerine Dream work, including lots of that nice 80s pop-synth sound most proggers just love to death, but I think most of the clichés work wonders here. But what really does wonders for me is the saxophone. I think it adds a unique sound not really found in the music of Tangerine Dream. And it kind of has a sensual feeling to it too, in that I could probably try using this on the girl I currently have a crush on and it would work in positive ways, if you get what I mean. The title track and Desert Train are the two that stick out the most to me, although that may be partially due to the saxophone. Did I mention I like the saxophone a lot on here? But seriously though, there are a lot of great atmospheres here, and yet there is still an almost dance-able quality to the sound of Melrose.

This isn't the best TD album by any means, but it is certainly a darn good one. I could really give this either 3 or 4 stars, but for most TD fans, this is one of the few 90s albums that definitely belongs in your collection, so I will rank it 4 stars.

I am a big Tangerine Dream fan, and I´ve been ever since I encountered "Cloudburst Flight" lying on the ground in my friends´ parent´s flowerbed, spewing large doses of booze-infused penne with chili all over the tulips... (- Chili is much more enjoyable on the way down ;-) I struck electric gold with the "Force Majeur" album, and I thought I´d explore more from this band and maybe start digging in the past. I found "Zeit" in a used recordstore, where it practically jumped down from the shelf and into my hands with its rather stunning artwork and a ludicrous price attached to it. It was either "Zeit" or a big bag of onions, and I allready bought the onions the day before...

I can´t say that it was the mindblowing experience that I was hoping and cheering for, but more in the realm of: Are you [%*!#]ing kidding me?? Where is the drummer? Where is the guitar? And why does this album sound like the perfect romance music for people in coma trying to get it on? Is it dance music for humpback whales? OR am I listening to this in the right manner?

The music is so minimalistic that you are struggling to see the minuscule changes that actually DO happen. The trick is not to listen. Yep, that´s what I said! I had it in my cd-changer for a while, and sometimes it would be playing when I wasn´t aware of it. It eventually struck me as a good record, whilst listening to this after a 10 hour long workday as a sub in the local kinder garden, where I strut my stuff from time to time. I was tired like Santa turning 350 - put the album on, and suddenly I got it! It was music of giant immoveable mountains and planets spinning on their own axes to the slow droning of TD. The music moves extremely slow - like a caterpillar with untied shoelaces, but when you finally calm yourself down to the point of 4 heartbeats a minute, the droning of the caterpillar suddenly transforms into this galactic butterfly, and you are left with an absurd mental image of Time.

The problem with this album then is its inaccessibility. It´s a masterpiece in its own right, but I am so seldom in the mood for it, that it looses the attraction. It truly is a mental voyage to listen to this album, but more so a never ending hunt for the right mindset, which is a shame.

"Tangerine Dream" seemed to have been quite impressed by the Japanese culture. After the release of "Kyoto" which was which conceived during a tour in Japan and released a long time after, TD now offers an oeuvre which is divided into several albums of which three are released so far.

The first leg offers some very interesting music, sometimes close to their great seventies period: "Navel: Part One" & the first half of "Part Three"). Maybe that the fact that Edgar's son is not featured any more can explain this feeling: Edgar is again fully in charge (although one might suspect that he never lost control) and might be willing to integrate more of the "old TD" back again in his works. This is very much of my liking.

The "Second Part" will please more the fans of the nineties since it uses more these characteristically driven electronic upbeat sounds; although more sensitive in this circumstance.

The second piece of music from "Springtime In Nagasaki" (which holds only two) is more experimental for a good bunch. Surprisingly it ends up with a short section that is fully comparable as a Jean-Michel Jarre composition: melodic and commercial. Joyfull and very pleasant indeed.

In all, this album is another good work from Edgar (but these are countless by now). Three stars for the fist step into his "nuclear" music.

Since there is little new material released by the band after the turn of the century, one could only be satisfied with some earlier unreleased material which were brought to life much, much later.

It was already the case with the good and ambient "Kyoto" and this one is on par as well. No masterpiece of course (these belonged to an even older period), but a solid effort which mixes ambient music with some more "electric" parts. Notably the excellent "Riding The World" which offers a wonderful and passionate guitar section.

This album took its roots in the late eighties (which was not their best period: "Optical Race", "Lily On The Beach") and is frankly above average when compared to these albums. To cosider that it was not to put it on the market is strange. Anyway, this is now corrected and allows the fan to discover another angle of this period; it also offers a brighter perspective in terms of quality music even if "Thunderheads" is maybe too repetitive.

One of my fave is "Eagle's Crest" which combines different elements: a tranquil atmosphere, delicate synth touches and very melodic guitar. A highlight. In terms of guitar, the introduction of "Food For The Gods" is also very interesting. For the first time in their long career (if my memory serves me right), Edgar plays some flamenco oriented noteswhich are truly convincing and original. The remaining section is a quite classic TD song but the whole should please lots of fans (new as well as old ones).

There aren't memorable music on this album ("World Away from Gagaland") but I would consider the title track as a highlight: there are heart and soul in this and after a beautiful and melodic intro, the upbeat second half is an extremely good moment to share with the band. An orgy of keys and soaring guitar; nothing ambient: pure and devastating symph prog. Great.

The naughties were not very prolific in terms of new music for the TD fans. Mostly was the band releasing live material from old concerts, remixes and compilations.

This one has another approach: they use old unreleased material which remained into the vaults for over twenty years and after some restoration decided to release it as a studio material. As Richard mentioned in his review, while the band was touring in Japan in 83, they were quite inspired by this Far Eastern environment and therefore most of the songs featured do have a close relation with this country.

But since TD already committed two albums of the same concept (the weak "Hollywood Years") I was not sure what could be expected from this "Kyoto". Let me assure you right away: Japan was a better source of inspiration than California...

The past grandeur of the seventies is not met; nor the immaculate beauty from "Tangram" or "Underwater Sunlight" but the result achieved is quite acceptable. Mostly ambient and melodic ("Industrial Life", "Cherry Blossom Road") this album also holds some more upbeat tracks ("Mad Sumo Yamoto ") while "Chilly Moons" is a more conventional TD song and could have been released in the late seventies.

To find a link with "Tamago Yaki" and the musical content is a complicated exercise. The "Tamago Yaki" is a culinary institution in Japan (some sort of omelette). To try and depict this musically is quite a challenge?which leads to one of the weakest song from this offering although the last third and spacey part is rather good.

My favourite song (although short - some four minutes) is the very nice "Last Train To Osaka". An ambient hymn which should have closed this album. A fantastic and peaceful ode to meditation.

This is another good album released by TD; nothing extraordinary but a pleasant hour of relaxing music. Three stars.

Boring minimalist background music...or is it?

Tangerine Dream get a ton of kudos from me. Normally this type of music is just unbearable for me to sit through; long mellotron drones, spacey synth effects, studio tampered flute, etcetera, etcetera. It's the type of music to space out to as it takes a lot of willpower and patience to concentrate on the ''music'' (I put music in quotes; to be explained later). Even as I throw four stars at PHAEDRA, I still find it difficult to pay attention to the whole of say ''Mysterious Semblance''.

It's more of an album to be appreciated rather than loved or cuddled. There's rarely a moment that could be considered ''music'' in the traditional sense as most of the pieces convey moods, soundscapes and abstract ideas as opposed to musical notes. If you eliminate the idea of music requiring melodies, meaningful lyrics and structures, it's hard not to appreciate what PHAEDRA is doing.

Last words: Against the normal tide, I can remember much of the ideas of ''Movements of a Visionary''; I even bounce to it.

I was not really enthusiast about the first leg of this trilogy ("Inferno"). I have to say that I'm much more confident with this "Purgatorio" which is closer to what a TD fan might expect (at least during the first CD).

Of course, the vocal parts do provide of theatrical angle (but not too much), and it adds some nice perspectives. There are even some parts sung in Spanish! The whole of this album sounds much less classic as "Inferno" and needless to say, that this aspect is not to discourage myself.

Some great synth lines from the past ("Sun Son's Seal") are even back! Very pleasant to listen to of course. But the whole of this album is quite a decent offering even if the past grandeur is not fully met. But, we all know that it is almost impossible to achieve any longer, so I guess that what is available on this double CD set is the best to be expected by the band in the naughties.

Vocals are aerial, and the only disturbance is the synthetic kind of drumming which I have never really appreciated. On the other hand, what I really do appreciate is the splendid and almost early TD music represented during the wonderful "Steps To Heaven". I almost got there! I would have loved more of this type.

The second CD sounds a little weaker: more opera oriented ("Death Of Medusa") and sounds more like "Inferno" even if during the second part of "Sun Son's Seal", the beat starts more upbeat an the same nice old TD feel is again on board at times (but less than during Part I). My fave from the second CD is the closing "Spirit Spiral". It is sung in French and is fully Boléro- oriented.

In all, this is a good album (but mostly thanks to the first part) and as such, Irate it with three stars. A bit longish maybe?