FORCE MAJEURE

Electronic music in its "pure" form can be intensely beautiful, but if you want passionate you have to meld it to progressive rock, with guitars both acoustic and electric, and real drums. This is what Tangerine Dream decided to do with "Cyclone", but the vocals amounted to too big a change. On Force Majeure, they reached a career pinnacle, blending a Floydian spaciness and a sense of the dramatic onto their existing sound with astounding results.

The side long title cut is a shape shifting masterpiece, from floating and sensuous, to open and rocking, to hypnotic, to succinctly synthesized. But "Cloudburst Flight" actually bests the opener, telling a musical tale of a flight through a major storm, from innocent beginnings to growing gloom to severe attack, and finally to an epiloguish escape and the view of the rainbow and the sun again. The use of acoustic guitars below the highly melodic and colourful surface is especially noteworthy.

While "Thru Metamorphic Rocks" is a letdown, it is by no means a failure, especially in the first few rocking minutes, but eventually the repetition takes its toll; as innovative as the closing theme may have been for 2 or 3 minutes, after 5 or 6 it does lose its appeal.

4.5 stars, rounded up because of the great significance of this album and the fact that 3/4 of it is total perfection and the other 1/4 is listenable. Start here if the idea of electronic music is daunting but you have heard good things about TD, because this is the album for you. If you already know TD, allow yourself to be overcome by force majeure, pun intended.