Hypnotica's Gig Reviews 2005

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Tangerine Dream @ Shepherds Bush Empire London 11/06/05

Summary: Best gig in YEARS!

Intro

Well the tickets said 7pm but rumours floated around that they could start at 8 so we weren't sure when to join the queue at all. I'm sure there were people queuing from about 5:30 but we joined at about 6:10pm and the queue was pretty long already.

Whilst waiting (for an hour+) we were leafleted by some French guys with details of a French electronic event - of particular interest (to me) was the fact that Tim Blake of Crystal Machine / New Jerusalem fame was playing there. One of the guys commented on my "The Ones" - Lady Greengrass T shirt, asking if I had the original single - when I said I had, he said that he had asked Edgar if 'he' had a copy and he replied that he wasn't sure if he had!

There was also 2 people filming & interviewing fans whilst waiting - hopefully all this footage will make it to a proper DVD release of the concert (UPDATE: Yes it was released & we are on the footage! though to shy to actually say anything on the day - hmm)

At the left of the entrance was the merchandise stand which throughout the event remained a total rugby scrum of frantic fans trying to get to the counter.

I picked up Kyoto (with great anticipation), Dalinetopia, & the limited edition two track Space Flight Orange CD. Highlights after a first flick through are Kyoto track 5 & Dalinetopia track 6

I must say that I thought it was a shame that the people working on the stand knew nothing about the products at all, as a few friends also commented on. When Martin was still with TDI there seemed to be knowledgeable people selling the products.... I was also disappointed that they didn't seem to have Vault 4 for sale

Anyway, big relief to us we made our way quite easily to our Level 1 seats and waited excitedly. As soon as I saw the Yamaha Piano on stage I thought "Ricochet solo!" and was not disappointed when Edgar walked onto the stage and started to play it. The rendition was not note for note and towards the end got quite loud and manic.

As the piece ended, the curtains opened and I nearly jumped out of my seat - oh my god they've got modulars! oh my god they've got modulars!........... oh my god they've got.......... 'flat screens' DOH !!

But after I'd calmed down, it was in fact an ultra cool stage and if you tried hard 'not' to imagine Chris seated in front of a wall of Moog modulars, you could be forgiven for almost getting used to it, the overall effect was great. The clear case, neon lit PC towers looked good and I thought the lighting throughout the gig was superb, a cut above almost all TD concerts I have seen.

I think TD have tried hard to please the fans by putting on a stage show that harked back to the old days but was clearly done using modern technology and for that I thank them for making the effort!

I know we would probably all like to get the wow factor from huge piles of vintage gear but realistically, I guess its not that practical to cart tons of bulky unpredictable kit to a gig when a soft synth will get you a long way towards the same effect

The Ricochet piano solo was great but short and I had really hoped we would hear more from the album ( as rumours may have suggested we would ), there were none of those stunning sequencer lines at all. The frantic ending of the solo turned into Phaedra..........

This was also good but not as we were led to (or wanted to) believe - a more or less original version of Phaedra perhaps improvised or tweaked very slightly, it was an updated version which seemed to be the "Jupiter Space Doors" track off the Ltd CD & maybe parts of the '88 version. The whole piece centred around the driving sequencer parts and didn't have any of the slower atmospheric / mellotron bits.

Although quite a long piece, it didn't seem to change much throughout and this was maybe because they seem to have some technical issues & perhaps restarted the same section.

To me, the sequence kind of 'jumped' out of sync for a second and restarted - a strange effect if they were running a sequence - I can't think how you would get that effect if you had a sequence playing via a sequencer; It sounded more like a sample looping badly - wasn't sure if anyone around me had even noticed but it was obvious to me.

For the 'they weren't really playing - doubters' I would have thought the looping glitch should be proof enough they were, but I definitely saw Edgar using menus & making changes to the virtual modular as well - & the sequences seemed to be running as you could see the lights ( which stopped later on ). Most of the time when he used them, he seemed to highlight blocks and it seemed that there were white noise type effects rather than obvious sequence changes at that time, but I have only played around with demo's of the Arturia soft synths so I'm hardly an expert on them

Each musician had what seemed like the same Roland keys as their main instrument - maybe JP8000 but I couldn't see the model number so wasn't sure if they were controllers or actual synths; they use their laptops a fair bit too.

Next up was Rubycon, so you started to get the impression this was a chronological 'Best of TD' which was fine by me!

Parts of Phaedra / Rubycon (& I think Underwater twilight later on), were absolutely identical note for note to the originals ( having played them a zillion times you can just tell ) but with extra sounds & music weaved into them

The next big mystery for me, was that after Edgar's initial solo, the band were all seated with their backs to the audience and who was the mystery man in the middle ?? Could it be Johannes ?? could it ? maybe, not sure hmmmm no think not. Of course it wasn't, but with the talk of Kyoto etc I almost convinced myself for a moment

Things really started hotting up now and we moved from classic to classic, tracks from Force Majeure, White Eagle, logos, Poland - and for a moment I thought it was Church Theme from Wavelength but it was Silver scale

Just when you though things couldn't improve, the absolute blinder of the night ( for me ) that kicked in was Choronzon !! (from Exit) ABSOLUTELY AMAZING - I was on the edge of my seat and in sheer heaven - this was SO powerful, SO real and live sounding - this just can't have been pre-recorded - the solos sounded sharp and crisp it was just the best thing I have heard at any TD gig probably since 1986. Even the live drumming provided by Iris was spot on - powerful metallic beats, not (jungle bongos) all added to the power of the piece. I SO wanted this to be on the Ltd CD but alas not.

Sorry, got carried away there, but it really was that good - THAT was why they will remain my favourite group - if they can still perform stuff like that after all these years that says it all. It was the high point for me so after that things couldn't really measure up - it was like coming down from an emotional high.

Shortly afterwards the 1990's material started and when heard out of the context of this experience, the tracks played were probably many of the best modern tracks they have done, (some personal faves missing like Comets figurehead but they can't play everything ) but after the salvo of 80's monsters they couldn't really be done any justice in my view. It makes sense to do it chronologically but for me it meant the enjoyment lessened as the tracks progressed.

So to bring my long rambling review to a close...........

All in all a brilliant gig.

The lighting was excellent and the sound quality / mix - was very good, no distortion and clear but sometimes too loud ( though strangely I only though that when the 90's material was playing....hmmm)

All musicians impressed me with their ability to play almost every instrument going!

Not a huge fan of the 90's style tracks which feature guitar throughout the majority of the tracks it seems, but Zlatko solos were excellent and he was obviously enjoying showcasing his immense talent on guitar

I was extremely impressed with Jerome's solo, with Zlatko you would expect it, but presumably it's not Jerome's instrument of choice and his solo was fantastic. I am a guitar dunce but it appeared a very complicated piece and he seemed a natural - it reminded me more than a bit of his dad's style!

As mentioned earlier, the lovely Iris's performance was also probably the best I've seen. Perhaps the choice of drum sounds were better, they weren't so acoustic which I have never thought worked well with the TD sound and also the drums were much quieter in the mix, before they tended to drown out the main music.

Don't know if Thorsten is a full member of TD now or just passing through.......but he appeared to be really into what he was playing and seemed very competent - I half expected him to switch to sax next as he'd played almost everything else on stage!

Edgar of course can still cut the mustard on both synth & keyboard, his solo as part of the encores was interesting - at first it sounded like he was playing vocal samples through the guitar - maybe he was ?

The final encore track, "Purple haze" although a rousing number & one that involves the whole group, was a disappointment for me - with the classics they had played earlier, I was hoping for 'something 80's' Unicorn Theme, Hyde Park, Dolphin Dance, Time for Heroes or even something unheard from the Vaults but alas not - can't believe anyone would really want Purple Haze as an encore? But that's only my view

By the end of a VERY HOT 3 hours it was time to leave, I would have loved to have met the band at the end but I'm never able to convince my friends to hang around for another few hours! So it was time to head off

Suffice to say it was the best TD gig I've been to for years and years and hopefully it won't be too far until the next one. Anyone who deliberately didn't go to this gig as they didn't expect it to come up with the goods made a big mistake.........

Thanks to Dean Mitchell for letting me use his Photos

For loads more photos & info about the gig try Andy King's site

Review copyright Mat Mckenzie www.hypnoticbeats.co.uk 

 

My ticket! for Tangerine Dream @ Shepherds Bush Empire London 11/06/05

Tangerine Dream: Photo by Dean Mitchell

 

Tangerine Dream: Photo by Dean Mitchell