Search - Tangerine Dream :: Lily on the Beach

Key Recording for TD

Robert Harding | Mobile, Alabama | 02/08/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have to categorically disagree with the naysayers--Lily on the Beach is an important, well-executed recording that brought to the fore the band's evolution from drifting, hypnotic, if not ambling, "sonic tapestries" toward a more refined, sophisticated sound. In LOTB, Haslinger and Froese expand on the their previous two progressions--Underwater Sunlight and Optical Race--to create an album of tighter, well-thought out compositions. While still very much a synthesizer-oriented group (no slight there--I was a keyboardist myself), TD has freely incorporated "the rest of the band" through the inclusion of more complex rhythms and percussion, an occasional sax, greater use of sampling technology, and most striking, raw, almost heavy metal, guitar solos on a few tracks (played by Edgar's son, Jerome--now a full-time member of the band), which provide a welcome punch the mood where needed.



The tracks run the gambit of styles from the light, whimsical "Gecko" to the driving, aggressive rock of "Radio City" to longing, romantic, saxophone-tinged strains of "Long Island Sunset." All in all, the band's improved compositional skills now highlight quality over quantity and have oriented the compositions toward a more progressive rock sound without losing the etheral spirit that made TD so good.



This in an essential part of any progressive-oriented music library."