CYCLONE

Featuring ex-Steamhammer multi-instrumentalist Steve Joliffe, CYCLONE saw Tangerine Dream produce their most Progressive-rock orientated album yet. Fusing the ambient-synth-electronica of RUBYCON and PHAEDRA with eerie vocals, rocky guitars-and-bass and a touch of the Pink Floyd, CYCLONE has often been derided by both critics and fans as one of the group's lesser pieces, a fact imbued by the album being released slap-bang in the middle of the late 1970's punk onslaught that was storming the UK at the time. However, despite it's flaws, CYCLONE is in fact a genuinely interesting attempt by Edgar Froese to enter the prog-rock arena, eschewing as it does the repeitive, keyboard-driven, trance-enducing rhythms of their mid-seventies peak in favour of a more straightforward, conventional rock-style. Tangerine Dream have always been pioneers of electronic Krautrock, but within CYCLONE the blueprint is torn up then re-drawn to sound not unlike Yes' proto-futuristic 'Relayer' album, which was made just two-years before CYCLONE and features the same kind of electro-rock fusion. In true Tangerine Dream fashion CYCLONE is made up of just three tracks - two of which break the ten-minute mark - except this time around the tracks sound much more like rock songs, featuring choruses, verses and, of course, lyrics. Whilst the album's epic closing track 'Madrigal Medridan' proves to be the weakest, the first two tracks - the excellent 'Bent Cold Sidewalk' and the oddly-titled 'Rising Runner Missed By Endless Sender' - show that Edgar Froese'sTangerine Dream-does-Progressive Rock experiment was well worth the effort. The songs crackle with energy and menace, flowing cleverly from anthemic keyboard workouts to bass-driven rock riffing without ever succumbing to ersatz hard-rock mindlessness or cliche. Post-1978 there is very little evidence of Tangerine Dream repeating the CYCONE trick; the album's initial reception was poor, punk was ripping the old-prog guard to shreds and the early 1980's would offer up a plethora of opportunities, ranging from collaborations with other artists to producing film soundtracks and other projects. The carefully-constructed and epic keyboard-driven sound pioneered by Edgar Froese would remain the bands bread-and-butter output, right upto the present day, with only 1983's eastern-tinged neo-psychedelic offering HYPERBOREA straying from the formula. However, despite it's mixed reputation, CYCLONE is a fascinating attempt to meld the worlds of krautrock and prog that stands up as an important piece of work from the Tangerine Dream canon. Mysterious, ethereal and strangely-anthemic, CYCONE is very definitely one of the group's most underrated pieces. It's one-off status gives it a mystique it fflly deserves and the most disappointing aspect is that Edgar Froese's kraut/prog mixture was never repeated. STEFAN TURNER, LONDON, 2010