For
all of you who like "New Age Music",
"Electronic Music", "World
Music'', or even "Techno", owe
a huge debt of gratitude to this German
rock band, who along with their fellow
countrymen 'Kraftwerk' pioneered a whole
new age of musical genres.
Originally a straight ahead Rock band
the founding members of Tangerine Dream
soon discovered the many amazing sounds
they could get out of their instruments,
and with the technology developing around
them they were riding the crest of a new
and exciting musical wave.
'Force Majeure' was their big breakthrough
album in 1979, their thirteenth album
altogether, and second for Richard Branson's
Virgin Record label. The Virgin team had
already had enormous success by taking
a chance and releasing Michael Oldfield's
'Tubular Bells' to Platinum sales worldwide,
after all the major labels would not touch
it. So Virgin and Tangerine Dream made
very suitable partners. The first album
released on Virgin had been the controversial
'Cyclone' album, when the Band had played
more like a traditional Rock band including
vocals whilst forsaking some of the sweeping
synthesizers and ambient sounds, much
to the despair of their fans.
But it only made for a quick re-think
and vocalist Steve Joliffe had left the
band by the time they went back into the
studio. The spacey Tangerine Dream sound
was back, but better than ever, with even
more adventurous effects and more structure
to the songs. If songs is what you call
these pieces of music. The shortest piece
clocks in at seven minutes and twenty
one seconds, while the opening title track
is a massive eighteen and a half minutes.
It opens the album in grand style, keyboards
come sweeping in after the opening theme,
building to a crashing climax with all
instruments joining in one by one, layer
upon layer, before settling down when
the opening theme is reintroduced on acoustic
guitar and the music takes of again at
a more manageable pace. A grand piano
takes you off on one of Tangerine's musical
journeys into the unknown. Soon Edgar
Froese's electric guitar comes into duel
with the piano before jumping off at a
different tangent, before being brought
back into the song by the piano, allowing
the keyboards to make themselves heard.
So at ten minutes along you are finally
into the real meat of the music. As the
music takes a second to pause at the eleven
minute mark, a ghost train huffs and puffs
its way across your speakers, taking you
into a far more sinister area of the Tangerine
Dream mind, where the sounds of the mellotron,
VCS3, organ, e-piano, synthesizers, and
flute leave you with a feeling of being
watched, whilst in the dark the sounds,
emanating from the band, whisk from speaker
to speaker. However, just before it gets
too weird the keyboards come back in with
the main theme of the song and before
you know it, you are back in the musical
sunshine, and all of the loose ends of
the instruments tie together to bring
the music to a gloriously satisfying conclusion.
'Cloudburst Flight', although the shortest
piece in this collection, has the most
infectious main riff with three minutes
of pure genius from Edgar Foese on the
six-string. He brings the song to a thundering
finale with a guitar solo that has only
ever been equaled by David Gilmour on
the corresponding solo to the end of 'Pink
Floyd's "Comfortably Numb".
(Have a listen - it really is that good.)
'Thru Metamorphic Rock' gives you an
insight into the direction in which Tangerine
Dream were going in the future. For over
fourteen minutes you are hit by a repetitive
beat played out on both acoustic and electronic
drums, whilst all the time, like two musical
wizards, Froese and Franke cast musical
spells to drag you deeper into their web.
As the rhythms drive into your mind in
almost a hypnotic manor, it leaves you
wanting more once it finishes.
There are now more than fifty Tangerine
albums to choose from, and that is not
counting the hoards of Live albums and
compilations. However, if you fancy a
musical change or a step into another
world, 'Force Majeure' is as good a place
to start as any.
If on first listening any of the themes
seem familiar, this is probably because
all of them were used in the first movie
to star Tom Cruise 'Risky Business'. The
fantasy scene on the train being particularly
memorable. This movie helped to push both,
Tom Cruise and Tangerine Dream, from the
second division into the major league.
These days there is still a band called
Tangerine Dream with Guitarist Edgar Froese
at the helm, but these days with a much
more guitar based sound. Gad Zooks! The
last Tangerine Dream Live album even had
a sonic version of Hendrix's 'Purple Haze'
on it. Meanwhile his old partner Chris
Franke went on to have a very successful
career as a solo artist, keeping the more
traditional Tangerine Dream sound alive.
Which ever way these two very talented
artists are heading, they are well worth
your attention.
Although all the music on 'Force Majeure'
is quite magnificent, my one adverse comment
would be that the whole thing clocks in
at under forty minutes. In this day and
age of CD's is this really value for money
to pay? Could not the record label have
found some out-takes, Live recordings,
or the pieces from the Risky Business
Soundtrack, to have given the paying punter
more value for his hard earned buck. But
a minor quibble when the standard of what
you get is so good. Perhaps it's a case
of "feel the quality not the width".
Pawed by Mott The Dog
Remastered by Ella Crew
E-mail: review@mott-the-dog.com
