TROPICAL HEAT

I have listened "New Age of Earth", "Blackouts" & "Walkin' the Desert", and also "Seven Up", "Schwingungen" & the homonymous album from Ash Ra Tempel.

"Tropical Heat" is a musical voyage from "deutsche Touristen" to tropical countries. It sounds totally so: german musicians (from the Krautrock scene) trying to play tropical music, but in an electronical ("New Age") way. Sadly, it doesn't work.

This album is far from their peak ('76 & '77 albums) and also has some similarities with "Walkin'...". Nevertheless, it is worse than "Walkin'..." and also the worst album from Krautrock I've listened.

What a lost of time. This album shows a radical direction taken by the band (even if we can hear a few controversial stuffs on "walkin´ the desert"). The musicians exchange their old materials for new technological and digital equipements. Consequently the sound is cold, heartless and sometimes we just wonder where are the musicians and all these warm electric organs and vintage analog synth... After "New Age of Earth" it´s clear that the musical level of the band dicreased. In this effort, the melodies and harmonies are so easy and self indulgent . Only the title track deserves a certain attention with a catchy, funky and groovy guitaristic section by Gottsching. The rest is as dull as what Tangerine Dream have produced during the same period. However, contrary to their colleagues of TD, Gottsching and his team tried with a certain success to renew with their golden spacey synth era during the emd of the last decay. I give more than one point because this band deserves a certain respect.

Dear Manuel was quite surprising with his output during the late seventies / early eighties. The music from "Correlations" and "Belle Alliance" had little to do with their first two great albums. And one can say only after a few seconds of "Mosquito Dance", that this album is going to be a very poor adventure.

Poor electro beats, lifeless music, repetition to the bones. Press next quickly to avoid pure boredom. The problem you will be facing is that the next track isn't any better and the next one ("Pretty Papaya") is of the same texture: a combination of electro music with reggae (same recipe during "Don't Stop The Fan" and "Monsoon")! Ouch, it hurts quite a bit. A rather weak album it is.

"Tropical" rhythms are hardly bearable ("Nights In Sweat") and frankly out of purpose from such a band. The only positive aspect of this album is that it lasts for less than forty minutes? I can't rate this album with more than one star.

Easily ASHRA's weakest album. Released in 1991, "Tropical Heat" is a compilation of compositions initially recorded in 1986-1987. These for sure does not sound like their former records. The band tries to mix their style with "tropical" elements and the worst mid-80's electronic sounds. This record is harder to understand when you know Manuel Göttsching composed such innovative and avant-garde albums like "New Age of Earth" and the influencal "E2-E4", just 5 years earlier.

The opening "Mosquito Dance" is one of the rare pleasant passage of the record. It's a relaxing and charming soft tune with a dynamic rythm and joyful melody. On the contrary, The title track have no particular tropical feel, but sounds terribly dated and uninspired, as it contains many of the synth clichés of this period. Where's my ASHRA? "Pretty Papaya" is the only composition by Manuel Göttsching. Not really pretty, this is a dated 80's synth tune trying to sound exotic.

"Nights In Sweat" is a missed attempt at including jazz samples. With its awful beats and disjointed melody, this track is barely listenable. In the same style, "Don't Stop The Fan" is just slightly better. "Monsoon" concludes the record with an hawaiian-like guitar. A peaceful tune, not bad but not good either.

Reworking this rather uninspired dated mid-80's material was not a good idea. Releasing it during the beginning of the 90's, a period that gave birth to a new generation of electronic artists, was even worse. Few rare enjoyable moments, I recommend to skip to other albums of ASHRA.