CYCLONE

Tangerine Dream was formed in 1967 by Edgar Froese, a musician who tried to convey to the music the impressionism of Salvador Dali's painting, of which he was a collaborator and a personal friend. It started out as a Pink Floyd's style band, gradually starting to venture into hype with the newly emerged electronic music with the invention of the Moog synthesizers. We are obviously talking about music that is played by human hands on electronic instruments and not contemporary programmed music. The band's music is instrumental and environmental, not having a commercial success, although they reached the top 10 in England with their album "Phaedra", actually a landmark of the electronic music. The electronic music invented by them would quickly evolve into the more techno style of bands like Kraftwerk.

Tangerine Dream is one of the most influential electronic groups of all time and their influence can be felt even today. Their music has made an immeasurable impact on ambient, new age, techno, trance, and prog rock, as well as modern film score composition. But, it only was only in their musical period known as "The Virgin Years" that Tangerine Dream became to be more known with some of their best works, namely, "Phaedra", "Rubycon", "Ricochet", "Stratosfear", "Encore" and "Force Majeure". It's of this phase too the album that will be reviewed today, "Cyclone", released in 1978.

"Cyclone" is an album on which Tangerine Dream began to explore the possibilities of the first digital sequencers, more secure and accurate, immune to the voltage fluctuations that so compromised in live performances, disrupting the programmed rhythms. But, after the departure from the band of Peter Bauman, "Cyclone" brought some other changes, with the recruiting of the drummer Klaus Krieger and the multi- instrumentalist Steve Joliffe, who had previously been in the band for a brief period in 1969. Jolliffe, in addition to his skills as a musician, also offered to the fluid equation of the Tangerine Dream his services as a vocalist, an idea much debated between Edgar Froese and Richard Branson of Virgin, certainly reflecting a strategy to enhance the commercial potential of the group. The improvisation continued to be a constant, but the music was more structured and from the interaction of Krieger's drums and Franke's sequencers a more pronounced rhythmic dimension emerged, perhaps even more "rock", with the group clearly wanting to grab a part of the prog audience that flowed to see concerts like those of Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Pink Floyd, Genesis or Yes. The album has three tracks, which isn't a strange thing by them. It starts with "Bent Cold Sidewalk", a song with thirteen minutes. The track starts with synthesizers, followed by Joliffe's flutes. Soon their vocals appear which, in a way, mischaracterize the band's music. In the second part of the theme there are electronic vocals and flutes in the best Jethro Tull's style amid layers of synthesizers. In a way, it has a sound similar to Pink Floyd's earlier works. The second track "Rising Runner Missed By Endless Sender" is too short, especially when we are talking about Tangerine Dream. It's based on their characteristic synthesizers, but the introduction of vocals makes it a bit more dynamic. Incidentally, the voices on this track in particular reminded me a lot of progressive rock bands from the 80's like Pallas, for instance. The "Madrigal Meridian" suite closes the album and covers the entire B side of the old vinyl with more than twenty minutes. It's a song entirely based on the classic style of the group. The keyboards in the background together with the organ give a perfect climax as if we were in a suspense film. The song has several nuances and changes of tempo, with the entry of synthesizers in the middle of the drums played in a simple way and with many electronic effects led by Klaus Krieger. The guitar incursions make the theme even more complete, which continues to grow more and more, being enriched by the use of a saxophone, Moogs and stacks of synthesizers. Although it doesn't have vocals, the use of other instruments in front of the suite left the more progressive and psychedelic side of the group exacerbated, bringing them closer to some other bands, twisting the nose of the most purists. So, in a way, Tangerine Dream became much closer to the English progressive sound, leaving aside the more electronic and characteristic German's sound.

Conclusion: Atypical is the best adjective that can define "Cyclone". At the time, Tangerine Dream was a renowned electronic prog group formed by Baumann, Froese and Franke. With Baumann's departure, Froese and Franke decided to innovate, bringing Joliffe to take care of wind instruments and vocals. This change was considered heresy by many of band's followers who didn't understand the new proposal presented. Many negative reviews have been said about Steve's vocals, especially that his singing style did not match the sound presented. But to say that his voice is bad is close to exaggeration. The album's poor acceptance led the redirection of the band again, which culminated in Jolliffe's departure and the return to the electronics in the following year with the aforementioned "Force Majeure". But, if you like prog rock with elements of electronic and psychedelic music, "Cyclone" is a nice and highly recommended album.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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