Search - Tangerine Dream :: Great Wall of China

Still interesting after all these years

J. Lyda | Raleigh, North Carolina | 12/12/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I ordered this disc for the simple reason that I didn't own it. My first listening was through an old-fashioned stereo with massive speakers (3 way system with hefty 12 inch woofers.) The first cut on this disc is something else...bass that rattled my teeth, a galloping rhythm which progressed through the song, and washes of multilayered electronic sound effects. I kept thinking, 'how do they do this?' Cuts 3,5 and 6 bear up just as well. Back at my home, through my elegant but smaller Bose speakers, the effect is diminshed as I can't feel the air moving in the room. No, this is not the best thing TD had done, but it is certainly not the worst. I remind myself that this is a soundtrack to a movie. In all due respect to the earlier review, this disc seems to have more in common with TD's earlier work than most of their recent releases, being more abstract and less tuneful. Considering the title, the music is remarkably free of the usual rubber-band and wooden bamboo flute effects most of us westerners associate with Chinese music. This is good TD more worthy of investigation."