Label: Castle Music UK
Category: Music
Average customer rating:
Format: Import
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1
EAN: 5017615836721
ASIN: B0000074CH
Release Date: 1996-03-10
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Artist: Tangerine Dream
Label: Castle Music UK Category: Music Average customer rating:
Format: Import Media: Audio CD Number Of Discs: 1 EAN: 5017615836721 ASIN: B0000074CH Release Date: 1996-03-10 |
Tyger
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Electronica
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General
| New Age
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Meditation
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Progressive Rock
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Pop Rock
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Rock
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Tracks:
Customer Reviews:
Tangerine Dream interprets the poetry of William Blake.......2004-01-01
Mixed results ý mixed emotions.......2002-01-03
From the musical side, all members contributed, but this album bears the stigma of Paul Haslinger and his penchant for compositional structure and symmetry is evident throughout the album. Musically, it's a direct expansion on the ideas explored on "Underwater Sunlight" of 1986, the difference being that here the guitars are moved to the background, and most of the time, suppressed in favor of the synthesizer highly structured ballads. Although the album originally contained 4 tracks, including only one instrumental one, 'Alchemy of the Heart', the more recent CD editions are extended, for they include additional bonus tracks, 2 or 3, depending on the country of release, ergo, either only the two-piece 'The 21st Century Common Man', or 'Vigour' as the third bonus. Ever since the release of this album, the audience was divided, for most of audiophiles happen to have a love-hate relationship with this album, just like with the previous experiment with vocals, namely "Cyclone" of 1978. This also applies to the inclusion of the bonus instrumental tracks. Composed in the same vein as the rest of the album (did the band have second thoughts?), they either allow you to better swallow the bitter pill of the vocals, or annoy you to no end, depending on your relationship status regarding the vocals.
I happen to belong to the disgruntled camp of audiophiles, who were not happy with the results of this experiment of an album. While I am comfortable with the overall idea of experimentation in the quest of musical identity, I also realize that it's often hit or miss, just like in life. I loved "Cyclone", for there is no other reconrding like that one - it's unique and beautiful. I do not hold much value in the vocalized parts of "Tyger", most of the time - for several reasons. First of all, the choice of the performer was a complete failure. Missus Smith's voice is abrasive, unpleasant, and her mannerism is hard to digest. She apparently does not belong to the species of creative performers, who are able to deliver according to the genre. If we look at the vocal experiments of Vangelis, who with his perfect taste produced such albums like "Voices" or "Odes", where the female performers' voices are in perfect harmony with the music - we see that the choice Tangerine Dream (or rather, Edgar Froese) made was a complete failure. Every time I listen to the opening track, 'Tyger', or the long central piece, 'London', I writhe, for my aesthetic senses are violated beyond description. Only on 'Smile' it does get better, for Missus Smith softens her voice, and almost inaudibly sings, and not recites or screams, like on the aforementioned tracks. As if it were not enough, the theme content of the lyrics is an offense to my taste. I like poetry, but I am not fond with infantile attempts to intellectualize what is otherwise beyond redemption. I am not at school, but I feel like a tormented pupil whenever I listen to Tyger. if poetry is compatible with the acoustic music of Jacques Brel, or other minstrels, it's totally incompatible with the type of electronic music tangerine Dream composed Anno Domini 1987. If only Edgar Froese chose a delicate performer like Stina Nordenstam, whose angelic voice we hear on Vangelis's "Voices", if only - the result might have been heavenly. Eerie lyrics, or pure naturalistic vocalize (like the one by Claire Torry on the band's earlier album, "Le Parc" or on the unforgettable Pink Floyd's masterpiece, "The Dark Side of the Moon") might have rescued the album, and even make it prominent. Instead, what we have is an infantile lemon. We can only be thankful that there is actually something to listen beyond the vocal tracks on this album! In summary: mixed results - mixed emotions.
An under-appreciated classic.......2001-12-07
The vocalist throughout is guest R&B star, Jocelyn Bernadette Smith, who, it must be said, has a very powerful and beautiful singing voice, and is a joy to listen to. While she does quite a good job of difficult stuff, here, I find these tracks a little marred by her seeming lack of understanding of just what she is singing about at times. (She certainly doesn't know how to pronounce "Thames", for instance.) None the less, with these works, Tangerine Dream demonstrate that they are well able to integrate the singing voice into their own particular sound world.
Froese was no doubt drawn to Blake's mysterious and mystical works through his own interest in Surrealism - a movement that has often drawn heavily on Blake for its inspiration. Perhaps even, he was responding to the direct plea made in Blake's "Milton: A Prophecy": "Rouze up, O Young Men of the New Age! Set your foreheads against the ignorant Hirelings... who would, if they could, for ever depress Mental, and prolong Corporeal War. Painters! On you I call. Sculptors! Architects!" Now, how could Froese, as a true artist (painter as well as musician) of the New Age, resist that? In terms of commercial appeal, however, the choice was probably ill advised. These texts are not easy to comprehend at the best of times. They have certainly never enjoyed wide popularity outside of the intellectual elite. I suspect that most people (especially in English-speaking countries) get too much Blake forced upon them at too early an age to ever develop much of a taste for it! But whether or not this album is (as some have suggested) as far ahead of its time as Blake was ahead of his, its subject matter just about kills it stone dead for most listeners. Which is a great shame, for the settings are really rather fine and deserve to be given a fair hearing.
Plus, there is a lot of music on this disc that does not involve William Blake. The lengthy instrumental track 'Alchemy of the Heart' harks back to the album "Underwater Sunlight" in its delicacy and flowing lyrical nature. And by way of a bonus, the closing two tracks comprise another entirely instrumental work: '21st Century Common Man'. Added to the album some years after its first release in an attempt to improve sales, this work is neither of the same class nor character as the rest of the disc and really comes across as hasty, after-the-event padding. It would be churlish in the extreme to complain about its presence, though, as there is certainly nothing unpleasant about it. But even with this extra material, the total playing time of 45 minutes still isn't generous.
In my view, no collection of mid-period ('Blue Years') Tangerine Dream would be complete without this disc. It has to be pointed out, though, that much of its best music appears also (in only slightly altered form) on the 5-CD "Dream Roots Collection", so you might prefer to buy that instead.
One of the Best Electronic Albums.......2000-03-16
The album is unique because it was inspired by the poetry of William Blake and gives his poetry new unexpected colors.
Good melody but poorly engineered vocals.......2000-03-06
True, the songs are melodic and beautiful, especially Alchemy of the Heart (which many praise as the best song on the album, which it is), but the three vocal tracks, Tyger, London and Smile are ruined by the poorly engineered vocals. They're off tune and too loud, and should have been compressed better. In many places, the singer's mouth was too close to the mike.
Music Album:
Music CD
Why We Are Here ~ Carl Anderson
We Come to Party ~ The ReBirth Brass Band
Georgia on My Mind/Rockin' Chair Blues ~ Ray Charles
Gonna Lay My Heart On The Line
The Hawk in Paris ~ Coleman Hawkins
Canticos Aos Orixas de Candomble ~ Carlinhos d'Oxum