Search - Tangerine Dream :: Destination Berlin

Disappointing album with few redeeming features

Steve Benner | Lancaster, UK | 09/12/2000

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Considering the number of reasonably strong albums produced in the late '80s and early '90s by the Tangerine Dream duo of Edgar Froese and Paul Haslinger, this 1989 film score release is a very great disappointment indeed. Composed for a special "Imagine 360" panorama-sound production that seems to have subsequently sunk without trace, it isn't actually the band's worst effort by any means - the music following Haslinger's departure is even less imaginative and unvaried - but it does sink pretty low. The 38 minutes of its 10 tracks present a fairly uniform (some might say monotonous) tone world of synthesised harpsichord, twelve string guitar and `boom-tish' percussion with the occasional application of thin choral vocal wash and tinny synthetic horn/recorder. Trite tunes, harmonies and chord progressions abound, as indeed do boppy rhythms and jangly guitar ballads. If those sorts of things turn you on, you might take great delight in this album. Serious Tangerine Dream fans will most likely be disappointed with most of the music here, though. There are a couple of enjoyable tracks (`Brandenburg Gate' is a sweet little gem; `Peacock Island' and `Midnight in Bear City' are quite fun; `Berlin Summer Nights' neatly encapsulates the entire album) but the album's main material appears rather too many times for this disc to be able to cut much mustard. No, hunt out "Miracle Mile" instead if you want some really stunning sounds from these two guys!"

Weak as water

George Zucco 3rd | Fort Myers Beach, FL | 07/04/2002

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Possibly their worst album ever (with the exception of Heartbreakers - 0 stars). Little more than elevator music: thin, redundant and utterly flavorless. A "contractual obligation" album if there ever was one; turn the synths on auto, dinkity-dinkety-dinkety-casiodrumset-dinkity-doink for a mere 38 minutes, while the musicians go out for a latte or diet soda or something equally bland to wash down the prozac. Sounds like a soundtrack for one of those real estate programs on tv. There are plenty of superior TD's to choose from instead, such as Phaedra, Stratosfear, Force Majeure, Tangram, Logos, Poland - anything but this!"

Soundtrack full of melody

K. Warner | www.bluemangocafe.net | 05/05/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Among old-school TD fans, this soundtrack is sure to polarize given that is dominated by tight, melodic songs that do not venture into improvisation or long repeating sequences. That being said, there are several strong tunes on this album including the very memorable "Berlin Summer Nights" that melds a down-tempo beat with an excellent melody.Collectors should look for a CD-Maxi version of "Alexander Square" that features an more varied extended version of that song."