Search - Tangerine Dream :: What a Blast

Like it used to be.

Timothy J Walburg | Wyoming, MI United States | 11/20/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is Tangerine Dream like it used to be when I started listening to them with the soundtrack to 'Sorceror' in the 70's. It's the dark, repetitive beat that really hits me deep inside. I wish they would do more like this rather than the light, jazzy stuff of late. The Virgin years are the best and 'What A Blast' belongs right there with the best of them."

The Dream Mixes, Vol. 1.75?

Steve Benner | Lancaster, UK | 09/11/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Although not captioned or credited as such, this disk is very much a part of Tangerine Dream's on-going Dream Mixes project. Most of the tracks on it are remixes of or variations on `Jungle Journey' (originally from "Turn of the Tides" but used extensively as the source for tracks on "The Dream Mixes Vol. 1") with suggestions from various other Dream Mixes tracks thrown in for good measure. Certainly, the sound-world of this CD is very much that of the first volume. (The video gets even closer by using tracks lifted straight from "The Dream Mixes Vol. 1" as well as "Timesquare: Dream Mixes Vol. 2".) In short, the disc presents the usual collection of vox humana choral washes, jolly synthesiser tunes and simple chord progressions over a fast, pulsing sequencer-driven percussion beat which has come to characterise so much of Tangerine Dream's output of late 90s.That said, this collection does offer a better variety and blend of sounds than can be found on some of the band's other recent releases. At 53 minutes in duration, it is long enough to be satisfying, without ever outstaying its welcome. It does stand up to repeated listening and proves hypnotic and annoyingly memorable! Enough of it sounds sufficiently new for even owners of complete Tangerine Dream collections to avoid any feeling that they are being subjected to any recycling scam! While the sources for the material here may sound familiar, the treatments are often a surprise: `Forced to Surrender', for example, comes across as an updated version of "Thief", with some fairly wild guitar playing and very rock-like drum-kit percussion base. The result is like nothing Tangerine Dream have done before! My only real complaint - a minor one, at that - is that some of the track endings come across as very abrupt (the very end of the album being the worst example) giving the impression that tracks have been switched around during compilation of the album, and fairly untidily at that. One other warning is in order, too. Although described on the cover as an "original motion picture soundtrack" album, if you're after exact copies of the music used in the "What a blast - Architecture in motion" video production, you need to be aware that this disc doesn't fully deliver. In common with most Tangerine Dream soundtrack releases, there exist major discrepancies between the two. The video uses some music that is not here. (The video section called "Times Square" uses the original mix of `Timesquare' from "The Dream Mixes Vol. 2", whereas what is presented here is an extended and much-altered remix. Similarly, "San Rocco" appears on "The Dream Mixes Vol. 1", not here.) Conversely, the CD release contains music which is not used in the video: `Last Trumpet on 23rd Street' is an entirely bonus track, as indeed is `Jungle Journey' - presented here in an otherwise unavailable version dubbed `the Bond of Ages Mix'. [The section of the video called "Jungle Journey" uses `Stoneyard' as its soundtrack, by the way!] And finally, the video uses little more than one minute-worth of `Art of Destruction' and then only for the closing credits - rather a shame, as this 7-minute track is the only one that sounds to have deliberately composed for the video! Lovers of Tangerine Dream's "Dream Mixes" treatments (especially those of volume 1) should definitely not hold back from buying here. And if you've bought this disc and are looking for more like it, you now know where to look, don't you?"

I Like It

cprog1 | Kenner, La. United States | 05/04/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Well, I'm not going to dissect the music here, or give you a brief history of what the band was up to at the time. I'm not going to tell you how much I've hated everything Tangerine Dream has put out since they stopped doing music that I like. I'm not going to say how little imagination they put into their recordings now, and tell you how simplistic it is. I like what I like, and I like this. I like the rhythms and the melodies. I like the sounds and the vox humana. I like the guitars and the percussion, and I like the way they put it all together. I even like the artwork, which has nothing to do with the music, so if you're wondering, I say Yes, buy this."