Tangerine Dream - Live in America 1992
If your best memories of Tangerine Dream are from the band's prime in the 1970s or from their moody scores for movies likeSorcererandThe Keep, thenLive in America 1992may come as a bit of a shock. Gone are the days (1971-77) when group founder Edgar Froese, drummer Christopher Franke, and keyboard wizard Peter Baumann created pulsing synthesizer soundscapes that listeners associated with exotic mind-trips and sci-fi scenarios. After numerous incarnations led by Froese, TD's 1992 lineup (also including Froese's son Jerome on keys and guitar, guitarist Zlatko Perica, and keyboard/sax player Linda Spa) had evolved into a New Age/Ambient trio, performing more melodically integrated tracks like "Two Bunch Palms" while vintage material (like 1975's "Phaedra") had morphed into barely recognizable truncations of the original recordings. That's good news or bad news, depending on your preference, and in either case this DVD is soothing and well-performed, but also dated and stodgy (i.e., for devoted fans only). Too much of it sounds like high-tech muzak, and the live material (from Seattle's Paramount Theater, October 1992) is blandly photographed. The rest of this bare-bones DVD (previously released on video asThree Phase) consists mostly of archival footage and home video by Froese and his wife, Monica--all of which gives TD fans a sense of Froese's musical longevity, while suggesting that his creative prime is well behind him.--Jeff Shannon