FORCE MAJEURE

"Force Majeure" contains loads of goods ideas, good implementation of ideas, nice atmospheres, beautiful sequences, good guitar work and perhaps the best feature of drums (real drum set, not the machine) in electronic music.

However, I don't think it's a masterpiece. Why? Well, sometimes the music is not bigger (not even equal) than the sum of it's parts. Somewhat is missing, and it's hard to tell what. Sounds like the guys from the band decided to make a very good record, and then somewhere in the middle of recording someone said "Hey, we have to publish it as soon as possible, doesn't matter if the tracks are unfinished, just give them anything. Hurry!"

The "Force Majeure" track itself would be considered masterpiece - if published as a EP or single. There are a few inconsistencies, just to remind you that the authors of the masterpieces are imperfect human being themselves, and that imperfection makes it perfect. Get it?

To be less poetic and more fact-oriented, I will say that the track contains astonishing intro, full of (scary) ambiental sounds, sounds that can remind you of bird flock, locomotive, thunder...after a 5 minutes or so rhythm begins to drive the song, and soon after a drum enters in, we have a enjoyable drive and a story to listen, wondering where it will take us.

And it will take us to incredible soundscapes, German-precise machine-like drumming, pentatonic sequence (my favourite!) and it will end with nice neo-baroque melody.

Unfortunately, the rest of the album is not on the same level. "Cloudburst Flight" is a self-explanatory title, and it's mellow and lovely, short song. (for TANGERINE DREAM, clocking at 7 and a half minutes is just a brief idea, really).It's quite pleasant, but there is not much to focus your attention on, really. "Thru Metamorphic Rocks" is way toooo long; it starts with nice guitar work, and then turns into a trance monster of repetitive simple sequence and one major chord repeating itself on and on. TANGERINE DREAM are brilliant sound technicians, and that chord is mutating itself from sharp, detuned brassy oscillator inferno to something that could easily be overdriven Hammond organ played through strong filter with extra noise sources. That could be interesting if you are into sound synthesis, but for an average prog rock fan it's not very challenging. This album failed in it's purpose - whatever that purpose should be. If your perception of music is more transcendental, meditative, than the first track is too diverse and detailed. If you are looking from a progressive point of view, B-side is too repetitive. Perhaps listening would work very well if you consume some brain-distorting chemicals before you spin the record, but if the record is not telling you stories when you are sober and clean, that's just not a masterpiece in my book.