DEAD SOLID PERFECT (OST)

'Dead Solid Perfect' - Tangerine Dream (4/10)

With the way some people have approached this soundtrack, it may have been more suitable to call it "Dread Solid Perfect". However, when it all comes down to it, this is a functional piece of Tangerine Dream's career that feels content to brush aside to the corner while the classics take the full credit and acclaim. The band was commissioned to write some incidental music for the film of the same name, and out comes a fairly tame collection of upbeat pop-electronic pieces. There's little ambition or inspiration to be heard here, but it gets the job done.

From what I can ascertain, the film "Dead Solid Perfect" was a made-for-TV movie about a struggling golfer. Although the film seems to have been forgotten by all save a handful of sports buffs, I get the impression from reviews that the film attempted to unravel some of the illusions of an overglorified PGA tour. I'm not a golfer myself, so I'm not sure the film would have had much of an effect on me. What I can say, however, is that Tangerine Dream do manage to transform their sound well to fit a 'sports' theme. Much of the music is upbeat and endowed with a 'driving' rhythm. As with the band's better-known 'classic' material, synthesizers are the primary ingredient, but they're used in a vastly different manner than I'm regularly used to from Tangerine Dream. Ambiance still plays a role, but it's never graced with any sort of depth. The synthesizers generally sound effective here, albeit a little shallow texturewise. The percussion does not sound nearly as good, equating to little more than the sort of drum machine rhythms a twelve year old might use to practice guitar scales with. Then again, this is the soundtrack for an 80's film, so who can really complain?

I suppose a major part of a soundtrack is how it's actually used in the film, but outside of context, the music makes for pleasant background music, rarely leaping out or enticing a listener. Much of the composition here falls flat, save for the main "Dead Solid Perfect" theme. Although the same sort of cheesiness is employed here, there's a firmer sense of Tangerine Dream's trademark electronic sequences. More importantly, the theme's melody is rather beautiful, a little more introspective sounding than one would normally expect from a sports film soundtrack. On the whole, the soundtrack for "Dead Solid Perfect" lacks any sort of bell or whistle to warrant a return. What interesting ideas that are here are never given any time to grow. Progressive electronic soundtracks can be phenomenal- look to Vangelis' "Blade Runner" OST for proof- but in this case, Tangerine Dream sound like they were simply trying to cash in. All the power to them, really.

Who could have imagined that we would have seen a Tangerine Dream album whose longest track is 3:20 minutes? This is the opening track of the n-th TD soundtrack, recorded in 1988 and released in 1991, so belonging to the 80s.

The opener as movie title is not bad but also not special.

Haven't seen the movie I can't tell if the music is at least in line with the images. What I can say is that should they have made each track fading into the next, spending some effort in the transitions, it could have been a decent album.

As it is I can just appreciate some short moment here and there. "Of Cads and Caddies"is decent but it fades out too quickly like Edgar Froese has had problems with his intestine while he was recording.

In few words, this is a useless release, a collector item which would have better remained in the label's closets. The fact that it has been released after 3 years is a symptom of the label wish to release something under the TD brand.

A collection of short jingles, some even good. Nothing more