ROCKOON

I enjoyed Optical Race and found Melrose listenable, but Rockoon is where it went horribly wrong for me. To be honest I've not listened to their output post this album, other than the odd concert from the Tree and Leaves series.

Perhaps the fact that Edgar was joined full time by Jerome and this spelt the deathknell of their stable lineups doesn't help, but trying to transform one of the founding groups of the berlin school style into a contemporary new-age, almost poppy group was never going to work.

Short, commercial sounding tracks do not allow for the theme developments and strong sequencer lines that the classic 70s and early 80s gave us. A real pity.

TD have flirted before with adding flutes before with very iffy results. Saxophone is a step too far, and the sound is no longer TD in that context. I always preferred Edgar's guitar in the form of his brief lead breaks at concerts, and always put these down to ego trips. Drawing more into the fold gives the sound another edge that drifts seriously away.

TD were once a great band, and I was lucky to see them live before it all went like this. I just wish I knew what Edgar's mindset was, as he took this deliberate turn. There seem to be a lot of fans who lament Rockoon and its sucessors.