PHAEDRA 2005

As a Christian, my music collection is roughly divided into two halves: faith and non-faith. On the non-faith side, TD are my favourite group and the original Phaedra, which I first heard back in 1984 or 5, is my all-time favourite non-faith album. It has a transcendental, imaginative power second to none. The problem with comparing the original Phaedra to anything, especially a 'remake', is that Phaedra is one of THOSE kind of albums. The kind that when you hear it for the first time, often during an emotional and magical time in your life, e.g. newly started at university, first love affair, first or best experiences of being stoned etc., because it is so different and so transporting, it becomes embedded in your Psyche! As such, comparing this album with the original is a bit like comparing your much loved wife of 20 years with a pretty young girl you pass briefly in the street. The 'who is better' comparison is both meaningless and pointless. This album, being derived from a highly original original personal favourite, yet being different from it, cannot by definition be as good.

Having said that, I still like the new album very much. I would much rather listen to it than a lot of my other music. It gave me something new and refreshing yet strangely familiar to listen to. Now I have two Phaedra's to choose from!

Here is some detail on the tracks:

The title track is much shorter and totally different from the original, though even here layered in the mix are rhythms and sounds from the original. The old and the new rhythms together give the same transporting energy and momentum to the listener's imagination that I love so much in TD of this period, but less so and less far than the original Phaedra, or at least in a different direction. It's a cleaner, less dark and scary ride - the energy seems less psychological, more physical, more like Adrenaline than Acid. The mind expanding, haunting echoing otherworldliness of the intro that draws you relentlessly into that exhilarating rhythm is missing, as are the 'bad trip' climaxes.

The second track (Adorably Pretentious Title on The Limits of Credulity) is something of a cheat; it is mostly the original with a few synth washes and other touches added or substituted. On the negative this obscures or replaces some of the flourishes that gave the eerie marine flavour to the original track, but on the positive the newly added melancholic flute line at one of the climaxes of the track really gets you where it hurts and the new deep base line underlying adds a resonant depth.

The third track is Movement of a (re)Visionary. Like the second track, underneath it's mostly the original. However the additions and changes in this case give it a very different flavour. The TD signature non-melodic introduction has been changed, though is still as equally strange. The original main part of the track was a fusion of a kind of rhythmic beat suggestive of African tribal instruments, a high pitched eerie lilting and the growing intervention of the Hammond suggesting the climax of some perilous tribal ritual. The new main part has the addition of more synth washes and a kind of bizarre industrial rhythm reminiscent of a traumatic trip on a 60s train. This makes the track sound very different though no less engaging.

I seem to be alone in that the original fourth track, Sequent C, is very close to my heart. Everybody else seems to have hated it. So here's a pretentious self-indulgence alert! The original version's minimal sound, that of the single lonely melancholic flute layered round and around upon itself, echoing out desperately into the empty darkness, is anthemic for me. The original was always too short - you felt it should stretch on forever into infinity carrying your heart and soul with it. It was one of the most mournful sounds I have ever heard. The new version is longer. The sound is somehow older, as if it has travelled far, seen and done much since we last heard it. It has new richer echoes. It is less lonely, less vulnerable, stronger, but still mourning, still sad. Maybe I'm just projecting, but for me the original was the poor wretched adolescent lost, regretful and crying in the dark. Now we see the old man, looking back on the many roads he has travelled, to find himself just as alone once again but this time with his memories washing over him.

The fifth track Delfi is new. It is supposed to be 'in the spirit' of that era of TD; I think it gets a 5/10 for that, but it is a good enough track otherwise. It has some dance type beats there, but not so much so as to have you reaching for the anti-chav cannon. It is not as intense as a track from the original Phaedra. I am undecided whether it really belongs here at all. It fits with the style of the reworked title track, and as such is perhaps best seen as a further bridge to other things.

So in conclusion, good album this is, even if the original mighty Phaedra it aint. I'll carry on listening to it and the original.

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