Tangerine Dream What A Blast

Subtitled ‘Architecture in motion’ this is the soundtrack to a video which shows the collapsing of huge buildings from all over the world. Must say, the film sounds like it would be interesting viewing and it’s probably worth looking out for in its own right.

Musically we are presented with 9 tracks composed entirely by Messrs Froese and Froese. While writing this intro the music has already progressed to track 3 ‘Beauty of the Blast’ and the most striking aspect so far is the lack of striking aspects. With such an explosive subject matter the music has been relatively low key, with chugging beats and trademark motifs picked out on the “always in stock - money refunded if these shelves are empty” synth vox’s. I would hazard a guess that much slow motion footage will be employed on the video - hardly surprising perhaps if they want the thing to last more than 5 minutes.

Each new album (archive material excepted) from TD finds me progressively more at a loss about what to say. The time when it was “cool” to slag off Tangerine Dream, deserved or not, has long since passed. Perhaps more effort should be spent on trying to fathom out their overall strategy and raison d’etre. With such a prolific flurry of releases underway those who believe music is giving way to business will perhaps feel their viewpoint totally justified. There’s no doubt that the much heralded “musical change in direction” is nowhere in sight and though this album is by no means bad (some tracks such as ‘Art of Destruction’ are excellent) I can’t help thinking the bulk will be bought for collecting rather than musical purposes. Which is a shame - or is it? I’m not really sure. (GG)

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