From: eirikur@ranger.enet.dec.com (Eirikur Hallgrimsson)
Newsgroups: rec.music.synth
Subject: Tangerine Nightmare: Old-time idealists read at own peril.
Date: 9 Oct 92 16:43:51 GMT
Article-I.D.: nntpd.1992Oct9.154507.20501
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation

Micro-review of Boston Tangerine Dream concert:  I'm depressed.

If you like mannequins, and muzack with a loud, pounding, DULL, drum machine
backdrop, you might have had a better time than I did.  But you don't, I know
you.

I think it spoiled the Rockoon album for me.  Permanently.  I had built up a
certain tolerance to it as sort-of-soothing wallpaper for driving in traffic.

It was pretty embarrassing to be an electronic musician inspired by early
Tangerine Dream last night.

Like the last time I saw them, about five years ago, they basically played
whole-note pad chords on their keyboards, which may or may not have actually
been in the mix.  I think that generally they were not audible, as opposed all
the parts in the very same sequences used on the albums.

Particularly embarrasing was the retension of sampled guitar and sax parts,
seeing as how they had hired sax and guitar players, who actually could and did
play at times.  I'm serious, they left in a good amount of sampled guitar, save
for dropping it out of the mix for solos by the live guitarist.

The guitar player was uninspired....  Jerome had a lot more heart (and a lot
less technique) in his one solo.  I wish he had played more.  I'll take heart,
most any day.  Edgar's one guitar solo, very late in the concert, was probably
the best, and probably the most musically interesting passage in the whole
affair, but it was badly marred by an overly busy, uptempo rhythm track, that
had fixed tempo changes, etc.  In general, soloists improv directions could not
be supported by the band because 90% (minimum) of the music was provided by
sequencers that were just allowed to free-run.  No effort at using things like
the Kahler Human-Clock was made.


Five years ago, little pretense of playing live was made.  This time, for the
first set, the pretense was pretty strong.  It was so obviously fake, to me,
that I started suspecting that the tenor sax parts were being uh, reed-synched,
by Linda Whats-her-name.   I think the way her playing was treated was a real
disgrace.   She played alto-sax and flute into mics, competently.   Tenor,
without visible wireless, she played while wandering around the stage.  While
other sax parts, with identical timbre, played around the ostensible live lead.
At one point, either she got held-up backstage, or they just don't care at all,
and a badly sampled sax part started before she got into place, and apparently
she was supposed to harmonize with it (or something like that.)  Embarrassing.
She played the only fast keyboard parts (clearly she knows some of the
arpegiatted stuff).   Was she audible?  Generally not.


ObGearHeadStuff: Interesting setup!  Each keyboard station had two keyboards,
the same, in fact, for each person.  Controllers were K2000, and (ID not
positive) D-70.  Stacked with K2000 on top for Linda, and at 90-degree angles
for Edgar and Jerome, with the two K2000s facing (backing?) each other and the
D-70s facing the audience.   Did I hear a distinct D-70 or K2000 sound?  Of
course not, all the sound came from the tall rackmount cabinets.
I suppose the K2000s were the most heartening part of the show, (potential for
exploring some new sounds, if they get into them), outside of Linda, who has
nice legs (although anyone can have nice legs in heels that high, it's just
that it takes practice to walk in them and play t the same time).

Eirikur


Eirikur Hallgrimsson   |    "Rhodes?  Where we're going, we don't need Rhodes!"
eh@ranger.enet.dec.com |
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