MIRACLE MILE (OST)

Tangerine Dream have done a lot,and I mean a lot!,of soundtracks and they fall into two categories: Documentary films and Hollywood films. The former is almost always very good and the latter is almost always abysmally awful. "Miracle Mile" is one of those rare exceptions to the latter rule. It is a Hollywood movie that's true but despite that it's actually rather good. None of TD's soundtracks can rank alongside the best of their "proper" albums,but "Miracle Mile" comes fairly close. It was made in 89 when TD was down to just two members,Edgar Froese and Paul Haslinger and it bears all the hallmarks of having been recorded by that dynamic duo who made quite a lot of music in a very short period of time,just a couple of years really,88 and 89. Regular TD albums such as "Optical Race" and "Lily On The Beach" was done by the just the two of them and also quite a lot of soundtrack work,most of which was terrible but for some reason they got it right with "Miracle Mile". It doesn't feel like one their late 80's, early 90's soundtracks,it sounds more like,if not the brother of "Optical Race" and "Lily On The Beach" than at least their cousin. Unlike their other soundtracks from the period,"Miracle Mile" has properly worked out music on it,not just snippets and tiny soundblasts to fit some scene in the movie,the very thing that blights most of their other soundtracks and makes them impossible to listen to outside the context of the movie. You can actually sit down and listen to "Miracle Mile",it has real music on it. Paul Haslingers presence is keenly felt through the whole thing. Being a classically trained pianist he had the virtuosic skills to add an extra dimension to TD's otherwise often static soundscapes and he utilizes those skills on "Miracle Mile". Not as much as on any of the regular TD albums he participated on but enough to make "Miracle Mile" a much more satisfying musical experience than probably all their other soundtracks,at least of the Hollywood variety. Just check out the beautiful piano on "One For The Books". I think the collaboration between Edgar Froese and Paul Haslinger was a fruitful one,Edgar as the visionary and Paul the skilled musician to bring those visions to life,and "Miracle Mile" is a good example of that partnership. Throughout it has creative arrangements,strong melodies,great percussion,and a wonderful,almost velvety production. A rare treasure among their soundtracks of the period. I'm giving it only three stars because being a soundtrack it is too restrained and inhibited for it's own good,they couldn't really stretch their creative wings as much as when they "did their own thing",consequently some of the tracks on "Miracle Mile" cry out for a more muscular and extended treatment,but within the inhibiting and restraining framework of a Hollywood soundtrack,"Miracle Mile" is as good as it gets.