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Tangerine Dream - 220 Volt Live (1993)
Posted By :
Virginia Plain
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Date :
11 Feb 2010 21:48:29
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Comments :
4
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Tangerine Dream - 220 Volt Live (1993)
Flac (tracks)+CUE+LOG | 453 MB | Covers (300 dpi PNG)
Flac (tracks)+CUE+LOG | 453 MB | Covers (300 dpi PNG)
| “ | Michael Neumann, Prog Archives wrote: Tangerine Dream never enjoyed the same respect in the 1990s as the band responsible for such elemental masterpieces like "Rubycon" and "Ricochet", but that was twenty years earlier. Let's face it: by the time Edgar Froese re-tooled the group to include his son Jerome (whose infant face had adorned so many of his dad's early record sleeves), the music was hardly what anyone would call cutting edge. But I freely admit to having developed a soft spot for this disc: a quasi-live recording from their 1992 North American tour, and perhaps the quintessential snapshot, for better or worse, of the new TD nearing the start of the next millennium. It was, as then soon-to-be-ousted President George H.W. Bush might have said, a "kinder, gentler" Tangerine Dream: no longer pioneers of counter-culture electronic meditation, now closer in style to the more audience-friendly aesthetics of JEAN- MICHEL JARRE and VANGELIS. Coincidentally (or not?), the opening fanfare here has more than a slight echo of the Oscar® winning "Chariots of Fire" theme. Happily, the trademark synth-and-sequencer rhythm and bounce of classic Tangerine Dream is alive and reasonably healthy, dolled up in a bright new digital wardrobe but still irresistible whenever it canters over the horizon. Sure, it's a more earthbound, antiseptic facsimile of the original TD sound, thanks in part to the macho, arena-rock riffing of guitarist Zlatko Perica. And Linda Spa handles her saxophone with an open-hearted grace and dexterity that occasionally tips the music uncomfortably close to a blissful New Age narcolepsy unheard of in the band's proto-ambient infancy (and almost guaranteed to make any old-school fan shudder in his anorak). But the softer interludes fit snugly alongside the more kinetic dance floor grooves, forming a near-mesmerizing, homogenous flow of uninterrupted music, all of it showing a melodic flair the old TD couldn't hope (or in truth never wanted) to match (the first four tracks work almost like a single 34+ minute non-stop medley). As always with Tangerine Dream the original concert tapes were enhanced in the studio afterward, to a point where it's damn near impossible to distinguish between the live performance and the previously unreleased studio track ("Treasure of Innocence"), tacked on here to fill an already generous CD to its limit. Of course all the music here is new: again, a habit with live TD. The one exception is the unexpected encore, a cover of (believe it or not) the old Jimi Hendrix chestnut "Purple Haze". It's an entertaining novelty to be sure, but in retrospect also a somewhat mechanical plod compared to the empyrean heights achieved elsewhere on the disc. Never mind. The song at least earned the band their third Grammy® Award nomination (an honor any self-respecting musician should regard as an insult to the creative spirit). And for listeners still clinging to that early '70s counter-culture lifeboat it offers the final measure of the distance Edgar Froese has traveled from his Krautrock roots. | ” |
| “ | Amazon.com wrote: "220 Volt Live" is a recording from Tangerine Dream's tour of the USA in 1992. It is also the companion CD to the "Three Phase" video of the same tour featuring the same music. All in all, the concert is an inspired mix of the traditional Tangerine Dream elements of massed synthesiser choirs over sliding sequencer-driven rhythms with the newer elements of Linda Spa's bluesy sax playing, Zlatko Perica's guitar lines and a heavy drum-kit driven rock beat, so characteristic of many 90s Tangerine Dream studio albums. The main set consists of nine numbers, played in the usual TD live manner of two half-hour seamless segues. The concert opens with some trademark Tangerine Dream synth calls, announcing the start of 'Oriental Haze', a beautiful synthesiser ballad over a rising sequencer pulse into which a soaring sax line integrates effortlessly. The synthesiser rhythm track continues into 'Two bunch palms', this time beneath a powerful guitar lead which takes us into the heart of the concert's first set with '220 Volt' and 'Homeless', both of which are classic Tangerine Dream blends of chorused synths and singing guitar lines over a restless, ever shifting, sequencer pulse. The second half of the concert starts in traditional Tangerine Dream manner, too, with some unusual and tantalising synth voicing on 'Sundance Kid' with its sliding, overlapping sequencer pulses pulling the rhythm around in the way that Steve Reich loves to do in his works -- again, more hallmark Tangerine Dream. 'Backstreet Hero' starts out reminiscent of much of the earlier album, "Le Parc", but gradually the pure synthesiser elements in the music are squeezed out by rhythm guitar and drum kit. The transformation from old to new era TD continues in 'The Blue Bridge', where some traditional Dream synthesiser themes are gradually overpowered by the saxophone lead, before returning briefly as introduction to the soaring guitar-driven heart of the second half of the concert, 'Hamlet'. The main set closes with 'Dreamtime', in which the saxophone, guitar and rock drum-beat domination over the synthesisers announces in no uncertain terms that the old Tangerine Dream is dead! Long live Tangerine Dream! The disc has two fairly feeble encore pieces (one of which is an undistinguished cover of the immortal Jimi Hendrix number 'Purple Haze', about which, the less said the better, Grammy nominated though it may have been; the other, entitled 'Treasure of Innocence', is a synthesiser ballad typical of those that TD use to send people home from their concerts -- a sort of musical after-dinner mint) to finish what is otherwise an excellent Tangerine Dream performance. Once again, Froese demonstrates that he is at his most inspired when called upon to entertain a live audience, rather than when tucked away in a studio, producing bread-and-butter material for the record-buying public. There is over an hour of excellent music here (and that's ignoring the encores!) so even if you buy no other Tangerine Dream record of the 90s, make sure you have this one! | ” |
Tracklisting:
1. Oriental Haze (6:52)
2. Two Bunch Palms (5:48)
3. 220 Volt (9:02)
4. Homeless (9:52)
5. Sundance Kid (8:04)
6. Backstreet Hero (8:49)
7. The Blue Bridge (4:47)
8. Hamlet (8:30)
9. Dreamtime (3:48)
10. Purple Haze (3:35)
11. Treasure Of Innocence (3:41)
Total Time: 72:48
Line-Up:
- Edgar Froese / keyboards, guitar, producer
- Jerome Froese / keyboards, guitar
- Zlatko Perica / guitar
- Linda Spa / saxophone, keyboards
Pressing: Elektra 557-2
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