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Category:    Home > Reviews > Concert > Instrumental > Tangerine Dream - Live In America 1992

Tangerine Dream – Live In America 1992 (DVD/CD)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: B-     Extras: D     Main Program: C+     CD: B-

 

 

Without any major hit records or singles, Tangerine Dream has built its reputation for some memorable early film music.  They were formed in 1967 and soon were involved in film soundtracks.  William Friedkin’s Sorcerer (1977), Michael Mann’s Thief (1981) and The Keep (1983), the Tom Cruise vehicle Risky Business (also 1983), Walter Hill’s Red Heat and the U.S. theatrical release of Ridley Scott’s Legend (both 1985).  That is quite a run of key films of their time with some of the best directors in filmmaking still today.  However, though the band and its separate members continued to make film and television music, none of it has been up to their earlier work and the projects covered have not been as strong.  That is why I had high hopes for Live In America – 1992, a DVD/CD set of a brief 45-minutes long concert closer to the time of that work than to now.

 

The set includes ten of their original songs, plus a remake:

 

1)     Two Bunch Palms

2)     Dolls In The Shadows

3)     Treasure Of The Innocence

4)     Oriental Haze

5)     Graffiti Street

6)     Backstreet Hero

7)     Phaedra

8)     Love On A Real Train

9)     Hamlet

10)  Purple Haze

11)  Logos

 

 

Why this band gets to have Jimi Hendrix’s Purple Haze on this set, while DEVO’s music video for Are U Experienced? is not allowed by Hendrix’s estate makes no sense whatsoever.  That is seems almost like a spoof or a celebration of the decline of the Rock genre is worse, as the crowd cheers it on, are they really celebrating this weak cover or celebrating the end of the genre’s dominance?  Either way, it is not great and the rest of the music is mixed at best.  There is nothing memorable or stand out as I had hoped, but the video footage accompanying the music is clichéd, obnoxious and counterproductive.  If the idea was to be anti-Music Video, they could not have done a worse job.  I doubt this would have been slick in 1992, but it is not today and not seeing the band hardly at all makes them feel like faceless “Corporate Rock” that this presentation brings them down to the level of.  That makes this a disappointment.

 

The full frame video image is varied and not intended to be sharp or have any kind of clarity.  It is that kind of video music presentation, reminiscent of MTV’s AMP series.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is a bit better, but not by much and the PCM on the CD has some richness this mix lacks, but the CD is also better off because it does not include any of the awful footage from the DVD.  There are no extras, though both discs have room for them.  At least fans who care will have a choice of which disc they like.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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