Artist: Tangerine Dream
P: 1993
"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 h alf 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 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 a 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. 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!
Here the last copy of the first Miramar version.
Weight:
0,105
kg per
piece