GOBLINS' CLUB

With "Goblins Club" TD proved conclusively that they were well and truly out of the creative wilderness they had been wandering around in for the first half of the 90's. This was a revitalized band,Edgar and Jerome Froese were firing on all cylinders again,energized by the success of the first "Dream Mixes" album and the much needed injection of new creativity their dalliance with the club/dance scene had generated. "Goblins Club" is a delight from start to finish. Relying on beats and rythm to a much larger degree than ever before in their career,they use this new approach to the maximum effect here. All the tracks bar one has a very prominent rythm track,for the most part courtesy of Jerome Froese,who has proven to be an excellent percussionist and is responsible for TD being such a percussive band these days. But the outstanding feature of the percussion on "Goblins Club" is not necessarily to lay down beats but to fuse with the rest of the music so that the percussion assumes a floating,almost shimmering quality that enhances the beauty of the music,and makes the quality of the composing and the details of the production stand out more clearly. On "Goblins Club" TD have managed the feat of making drums and percussion sound ethereal which lifts the music to unprecendented heights in the TD catalogue. Add to that the high quality of the songwriting on this album with recent TD classics such as "Towards The Evening Star" and "Rising Haul In Silence", the otherworldy beauty of "Elf June And The Midnight Patrol" and the delicate acoustic guitar on "Sad Merlin's Sunday" (showing a more gentle side of Edgar Froese's guitarplaying) and you have what I have no hesitation in proclaiming the best TD album of the last 10 years and one that proves conclusively that TD continues to be a musical force like no other.