FORCE MAJEURE

Where the vocals were somewhat interesting on the previous Cyclone album, that phase of the band, thankfully, was now over. As far as I am concerned vocal has no place on more than one Tangerine Dream album. The one overriding factor I can convey about Force Majeure is the fact that it could be Tangerine Dream's most accessible work. The underlying drum work (provided by Klaus Krieger alongside keyboard electro wizards and TD mainstays Edgar Froese and Christoph Franke) is fast, looping, rhythmic and forces a continuous and consistent tone which brings to mind another bunch of Krauts, especially in the title track, Kraftwerk, a band who were making a name for themselves at the end of the seventies, but Tangerine Dream were always a progressive act in any sense and Force Majeure is an evolution of what they built to this time rather than jumping on the band wagon of their country men I may add, Tangerine Dream through a few line up changes along the way were at this sort of thing since the late sixties. As they moved from the seventies to the eighties they took on the mentality of the instrumentation and textures of electronica sounds of the time, and this album with its melody and sound would become more prevalent on future albums yet they would never be as hypnotic as they would be on this album. Still music for darkness with a little light coming through.