WHITE EAGLE

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By this time , the inspiration was clearly gone and TD was doing albums in the Business-as- usual mode . I think also that synths had become a bit too much accessible as every pop group had two or three of them (sometimes this was the only instruments of some new- wave punks who wanted to be stars without knowing how to play music at all) and that they had difficulties in constantly researching new sounds and had more trouble being themselves now that the airwaves were filled to the brim with synths sounds. Funnily enough , this was the album that would hold one of their few hits (title track) but the formula was wearing thin for an early TD fan. Note that TD was never considered as a dinosaur in the 80's by the SMBWP (stupid mindless British music weekly press) but had to wait until the 90's for that.

When reviewing White eagle I realize that the previous soundtrack album Thief has been omitted from the line up. Hopefully this will be included at some stage by your erstwhile collborators!

White Eagle marked the beginning of the end for TD as far as I am concerned. ' Mojave Plan' and ' the Convention of 24' are great compositions but without being able to put a finger on it, it seemed to have lost the sparkle that was evident on previous albums. Maybe it was those dreaded 80's influencing the sound or just lack of inspiration from the bands part. White Eagle was good at best.

This record has beautiful rythmic, melodic, sequenced and floating keyboards sounds.

Mojave plan (20 min) is a progressive keyboards track. Very interesting. Rythm, beat, melody, this piece is quite loaded of different keyboards textures. Conventum of the 24 is made of a bass synth sequencer, repetitive but good, Froese's unique guitar notes surrounded by miscellaneous keyboards patterns, clinical, floating and experimental. Midnight in Tula is bass sequenced with many keyboards textures again and a melodic keyboard sound, the whole sounding rather instrumental new wave. Finally, the majestic and VERY subtle white eagle, progressively floating and increasing in intensity, after a sequencer beginning the track: the perfect marriage of sequencers and floating streams.

Inoffensive. but formulaic

"White eagle" is a disappointingly dull album by the Tangs. It has all theusual ingredients, but it does seem to be Tangerine Dream by the numbers. It has the sound of a band going through the motions, and churning out another album using the same formula.

The feature track is "Mojave plan", which occupies the whole of one side of the original vinyl album. It starts with the usual vague ambient moods, before moving into more structured synth dominated melody. The Munich Philharmonic Orchestra appears later in the track, but their contribution does little to lift the track from being an elongated noodle. With all three band members now firmly entrenched on keyboards, the lack of any other sounds such as lead guitar makes the album somewhat one dimensional.

The title track is brief by Tangerine Dream standards, but its use as the theme tune for a German TV series led to it becoming a surprisingly successful single.

There's nothing offensive about the album, indeed the music is pleasantly melodic. It is however unimaginative and just plain dull.

Okay, prog fans (especially you younger ones), let's get one thing straight from the start: German synth trio Tangerine Dream made (make) spacey background music of an unobtrusive, rhythmic nature. If you're looking for textbook dynamic progressive rock, DO NOT come looking here! When you listen to TD, don't expect "something to happen," because it WON'T. (It already is.)

1982's WHITE EAGLE, as with others of its ilk, is music for chilling out. It best serves as a means to establish an ambiance or mood in your space, allowing you to placidly go about your business -- reading, chatting, lounging, yoga, floating in the pool, loving, doing the dishes, whatever -- but probably not foosball or ultimate frisbee! (I suppose it might help a newcomer to the band's music to get into this stuff if that person had been a bit of a "head" 'back in the day,' as they say, and given to reading fantastic literature, playing D&D and engaging in other such "mind-expanding" trivial pursuits -- nudge nudge, wink wink.)

WHITE EAGLE has four tracks. "Mojave Plan" is the longest, at over twenty minutes, and it's a typical example of the longer TD pieces from this their early to mid-eighties era. It starts out eerie, and then visits various moods throughout its length. A perfect one to stretch out and drift with, or read classic sci fi by.

"Midnight in Tula" (as with "Choranzon" on the prior EXIT) is this disc's shorter up-tempo "single-sounding" selection, and elevates the mood - a good motivator for a foray to the kitchen.

"Convention of the 24" is almost ten minutes of gentle, aimless drifting, with a smattering of Froese lead. Get back to your book -- though you may well want to lose consciousness at this juncture, especially after overdoing it with the ice cream....

Finally, I have always found the title track, "White Eagle," to be simply lovely. I love the tinkling (!) piano, the hypnotic synth voices, and the gently floating majesty of this bird! My sole complaint is that, at less than 5 minutes, it's over only too soon.

In any case, you either have a taste for this sort of electronic background music, or you don't - just don't say I didn't tell you what to expect. Rather good - if you like it!

This is the only Tangerine Dream album I own, and I bought it because I had heard “Midnight in Tula” on a college radio station and thought it was kind of interesting. There were a number of these sort of syntho-pop pseudo-progressive groups around in the early 80’s, although at least in the States none of them had a particularly strong following: Kitaro, Vangelis, Philip Oakley, Icehouse. Jah Wobble was doing a lot of collaborations; Virginia Astley had a number of solo and group projects; Martha & the Muffins were up in Canada alternating between synthesizer-driven mood music and plain old dance tunes; even Joe Jackson put out Will Power, which sort of falls into this category.

I personally don’t really consider this to be particularly progressive music – it’s more of an album for setting a kind of laid-back mood in the background of whatever laid-back things you want to do while you’re playing it. Frankly I think anyone who tried to actively listen to each track as it works through its various progressions would become rather bored quickly. Some tracks, like “Mojave Plan”, sound like they were made for porno movie soundtracks. That comment is bound to pop up from time to time with any completely instrumental synthesizer-driven work.

That said, there are some decent moods explored on back side of the album. “Mojave Plan”, which occupies the entire 19:55 front side of the record, really just gets to be a bit tedious after a while, with some synthetic sound effects thrown in regularly whether they really add to the composition or not.

On the back side, “Midnight in Tula” is a fast-paced track with pretty much the same keyboard riff repeated over a syncopated beat, but some variety thrown in with the various sound-effects throughout.

With “Convention of the 24” we finally hear some prominent guitar work, although like “Midnight” this one is heavily focused on the synthetic bass tracks. Another fairly repetitive work (I guess that’s the point for this type of music, and you either like it or you don’t). Some of the sound effects are quite rich on a hi-fi, but tend to get lost if you listen to this in mp3 format or under a headset.

The closing track is “White Eagle”, the only song on the album that seems to actually build up towards something instead of just wandering along. This one has some spacey voices meandering in and out a bit, which adds some variety as well, and the way the piano kind of pitter-patters around the bass line is actually very pleasant. This is also the only song on this album I’m aware of that has made it intact onto any of the many Tangerine Dream compilation albums.

Like I said, this is my only Tangerine Dream album, and I have no basis of comparison with their other work, so I can only judge it on its own merits, and perhaps by comparison with some of the other synthesizer-driven experimental music of the early 80’s. On that basis, I wouldn’t put this one really high on the list, although there’s nothing particularly negative I can say either – other than it’s kind of boring if you actually try to concentrate on the music while it’s playing. So it seems that two stars is probably appropriate. It just doesn't feel like this is a very inspired group of musicians, at least on this particular album.

peace

There's no doubt that the enormous, monolithic TANGERINE DREAM sound lost something when translated into the 80s. The crisp, clean production values thinned out that layer of noise that was part TD pushing the production boundaries, and part mystique. And a thinner, clearer TD is definitely not a better article.

Nevertheless, the side-long 'Mojave Plan' is an excellent composition. The first half of the track is an as-per-programme synth/noise intro, leading into a FRANKE special of pulsing beats. And while this beat doesn't morph like the best of their mid-70s stuff, it's a splendid thing all the same. The second half is a little less spectacular and far more 80s sounding, with their more recent synth additions serving only to make them less distinguishable from the growing number of synth practitioners. It has to be said: by this time TD were no longer innovators. I like this track a great deal, but I'm prepared to concede it's a rewarmed stew.

'Midnight in Tula', on the other hand, is the business. A frenetic series of blips and synth runs, it captures the energy the TANGS once had in spades. The discordant high-pitched sound that smears across the track is particularly pleasing, invoking their difficult avant-garde days. 'Convention of the 24' follows, a surprisingly busy track and one that again reminds this listener of their early 'Pink years' work. All awkward angles and improvisation with no clear destination in mind.

The title track is an excellent stab at synth-pop. A genuinely good tune is given the TD treatment. It's no wonder this was lifted to become the theme for some show or other. To be fair, bands like ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK (NOT their latter pop years, but their early experimental stuff, contemporaneous with this) were doing this stuff much better, and with meaningful lyrics.

You don't need this album. It's nice though. Just somehow less than their 70s work. Less atmospheric, less mysterious.

The concept of great TD album is there: one gets the side long "Mojave Plan" as an introduction but the comparison stops here. Don't expect anything à la "Phaedra" or alike because you might be disappointed.

The band has evolved (which is per se not a bad thing) towards a more synthetic music, less spacey and more "dehumanized" according my standards (whatever it might mean in TD's music). But there are plenty of joyful moments as well to be expected from this long piece of music: harmony, beauty and diversity (yes!). Good synth vibes and keys maestria are the ingredients.

And it works pretty well to be honest provided that you are keen to listen to these more "aggressive" sounds.

I have a kind emotion for "Midnight in Tula". But this is pure sentimentalism. This archaeological Mexican site resides in the vicinity of my wife's native town of Pachuca. To be in front of these "giants" statues is quite indescribable. But the title is maybe more related to the "Thule" myth, I don't know. In terms of music though, it can't really be considered as a great TD moment.

The second pleasant moment is "Convention of the 24". Almost ten minutes of "conventional" TD music like one is glad to listen to. More spacey, more beauty, more ...TD? Yes, probably.

In all, this is another good album released by the band. But to be honest, they haven't released a bad one so far (even if "Cyclone" was close). The good (but short) title track is another peaceful and so enjoyable moment of music. Really, really good.

Three stars.

From White Eagle onwards, Tangerine Dream started to sound as if their computers took over from human creativity. But it's hard to be angry with the result as it is all just so smooth and pleasing. This music wouldn't even complain if it got mugged.

The first half of Mojave Plan isn't bad, it's hardly essential but lots better then the inconsistent second half. While the previous album Exit contained some acceptable disco beats, the lame drum computer here is highly inadequate. The music isn't all that bad though, but predictable and sterile.

On Midnight In Thula, Tangerine Dream sound rejuvenated. It's a slightly new wave take on their sound, a bit lame but fun. Convention of the 24 is better and brings the helium boosted sound of Froese's excellent Stuntman from 1979 to mind. Also the closing track is very beautiful, one of their most successful new age tracks. I could even imagine my mom relaxing to this.

2.5 stars rounded up.

Five years after Encore the imagination of Froese & co goes west again. "Mojave Plan" is a 20 minutes track which follows the "rule of 5". I have called "rule of 5" the fact that the side long tracks of Tangerine Dream have a change approximatively every five minutes.

This is a good track. Even if some sounds have been "adapted" to the 80s there are some passages reminding of the period of Phaedra and Ricochet and the final minute has something of the Pink Period.

I can't say the same of "Night In Tula". Taken outside of its context, and ignoring that this is Tangerine Dream it's not that bad. Those are the conditions to appreciate it. Think to an artsy release of bands like Kraftwerk or "Devo". Even though it's deeply electronic this is not what one expects from Tangerine Dream.

"Convention of the 24" is back to where TD belong. It's far from Zeit or Atem, but it's Froese at his best: a 10 minutes track coming from the 70s.

Finally the title track. On this one I hear Phaedra. Maybe a commercial version of Phaedra but still intriguing and full of the typical square waves that are distinctive of TD's sound.

A good album, really better than its predecessor and one of the best things appeared in a decade, the 80s, that has been very poor of good music.

Eh, White Eagle is an okay album. By this time, the cheesiness of the '80s has a firm grip on Tangerine Dream. There's not anything progressive here except for "Mojave Plan", but the instant switch from aggressive to happy moods in that track seem like Tangerine Dream just decided not to try any more. All of the tracks on this album come off as sounding like long tv- show theme songs and short tv-show theme songs, and each is of course '80s intensified. The pop sensibilities have taken over on this album, and it stands out front in center.

Maybe not bad for jogging, but seems harsh and abrasive compared to the soaring beauty of the music that Tangerine Dream used create.

This is not a great tangerine Dream album, nor is it a terrible one.

The main piece is the twenty minute Mojave Plan. Like many of the long TD pieces this one moves from section to section without much to tie them together. The good: there are some very nice synth patches in the piece. i particularly like the buzzsaw synth lead in the earlier movements. The bad: too many sections get me imagining the vocals from Kraftwerk's We Are The Robots running over the music. Yes, that is a bad thing.

Midnight In Tula is a much more upbeat piece than I'm used to hearing from TD in the seventies and early eighties. I like it.

Convention Of The 24 is the best piece on the album. Dark and moody, it contains all of what drew me to TD in the first place.

From what I read here, the title track, White Eagle was used as a theme song for a German TV series. That's probably why they named the album after this track. But probably because it was made for a TV show, the song goes nowhere, and is about as boring a track I've heard from TD.

Ups and downs. 3 stars.