CODENAME WILDGEESE (OST)

A somewhat dispensable accompaniment to a wholly dispensable film, "Codename Wildgeese" sounds even less like a shoot up em soundtrack than it does like an ELOY album. In fact, while it virtually lacks a rock aspect other than one dreadful vocal number ("Queen of Rock and Roll") and a serviceable instrumental ("Juke-Box"), the synth sounds are not entirely removed from those being made on the contemporaneous ELOY issues of the day, neither of which I would ever consider as peak period for this monster German symphonic group. What it lacks is any attempt at actual composition, which perhaps might have to do with Frank Bornemann's absenteeism.

Codename Wildgeese is mostly an amalgamation of short synth pieces that at their worst approach supermarket new age music and at their best, such as in "On the Edge", recall GOBLIN. "Patrol" , "Discovery" and the Hong Kong themes are competent if routine instrumentals that could easily be fillers on ELOY or PETE BARDENS albums, which isn't the worst idea, while "A Long Goodbye" is somewhat more engaging with faux synths that are reminiscent of....I'm drawing a blank. For the rest, ick. Still much better than the film I'd wager.

I can't really award this 3 stars but it's not far off 2.5 to be honest, and much better than I expected. But what eventually tips the scales is that it's really for fans like me who have every other ELOY studio album and are fed up with wondering how bad this could be. Codename mediocre.