LOGOS... LIVE AT THE DOMINION - LONDON

Possibly the greatest thing Tangerine Dream did in the 1980s. This live album is no match for Ricochet or Encore, but unlike those albums this does not sound like it was spiced up in the studio later. At this point in their career they were working almost exclusively with digital synthesizers and drum machines. There are no analog keyboards or guitars here, although the synths can sometimes sound almost like a guitar. A lot of the music here was based on their work for the soundtrack to the Michael Mann film The Keep. Lots and lots of great melodies on this set, most likely due to the influence of newest member Johannes Schmoelling.

The 45 minute title track was originally split into two parts; I will review it as such. Part 1 begins with the trio being introduced for the London audience. Some (at the time) futuristic sounding spaciness starts the piece. A drum machine groove leads to some quasi-soloing on keys. Later the drum machine dies out and the music gets both ambient and cinematic. As another drum machine pattern begins we get to hear one of the best things TD ever did...absolutely fantastic melodies that will get stuck in your head forever. The melodies and the tones used to play them are just perfect. Once this part ends you can hear the roar of applause from the audience.

After that the music gets spacey again, almost sounds like a horror movie soundtrack for awhile. The next part I have read is based on Music For 18 Musicians by minimalist composer Steve Reich. Since I am not very familiar with the work of Reich, I can neither confirm nor deny this. Some military style drum machine programming gets joined by some ethereal synthetic voices and hip-hop DJ scratching. More sounds get added and it becomes very "80s" sounding. After 20 minutes some more great melodies start as the miltary style beat is lowered in volume. Tempo increases towards the end of Part 1.

Part 2 is not as consistently good as Part 1 but still has it's moments. It starts out very icy and mechanical sounding. I like the fake bird sounds after a few minutes. Shortly after that the music changes to some kind of baroque synth-pop. Gradually it gets more aggressive and darker sounding before going back. Halfway starts a very '80s sounding drum machine pattern. Then it goes into some catchy synth-pop territory. The last few minutes sound similar to the title track of Hyperborea. it sounds like music to accompany the credits at the end of a movie.

There's one more song at the end, a very early 80s danceable synth-pop ditty called "Dominion." It's nice but nothing special; at least it has some good melodies. With the title track you could hear a connection to the 1970s, but this song looks towards the uncertain future. If you only know '70s TD but are curious about anything they did after, I would suggest picking this up. It's nowhere near as good as their best work from the previous decade, but it's still more consistent and enjoyable than the majority of what they released in the '80s. This gets a 3.5 rounded up to 4 stars.

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