Customer Reviews

Digital Gothic: A Critical Discography of Tangerine Dream (Music)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was very excited to get this book in hopes it contained new insights (so little has been written in depth) into one of the great electronic bands of our times but unfortunantly he really doesn't have any. Problem for me was Paul uses WAY to many quotes from Julian Cope's hyperactive book on Kraut rock- I already have that book and think it's pretty ridiculous itsself. When Paul steps out and writes his own opinion the book starts to have meat. But it lacks real depth and insight. Too much is skimmed over and he has an annoying style of writing two versions of every chapter, one skimmed one so-so. The British writer Miles wrote an excellent book on Pink Floyd and he also wrote the program notes for the Stratosfear tour book. It's REALLY too bad he never wrote a book about T.D. But bottom line this is it for now. The book does make you want to check out some of their more lame recordings- but tread carefully overall.

I bought this book because there are no others on the subject! It is dauntingly slim for a band 33 years old and deals fleetingly with certain areas of the band's history. That said it did answer many questions and was well enough written. It also whetted my appetite for more music. I would have liked to see a larger volume that could have taken time to go further in depth on this band's history, but for the price I am not complaining.

Mr. Stump has written Digital Gothic like a long and tiring review of the bands work. And in 'formula' critic fashion he has something bad to say then retracts it a few paragraphs later. Though some of the insites into T.G. are interesting, they seem second, third, forth hand at best. First hand personal interviews with the band would have been nice. I suppose the biggest disappointment of all is that such a ground breaking band with such a rich history has so little written about them. This can be due to T.G.'s trade-mark 'cool' mannerisms that they adopted (and warmed a bit with age) as they became older but none the less, Mr. Stump definately did not dig very deep. Repeating himself often by simply rewording his intent and direction as if to fill the pages so the thin book wasn't 10 pages, the author simply likes to read his own writing.
Tangerine Dream has to be my favorite band in modern history but I found the book boorish.
It only deserves a rating above two due to the fact that it helps feed the fans of T.D. who have to pick at bits and scraps to indulge their interest in the facinating artists that truely desearve the title.

I still find it difficult to understand how these two blokes supposedly weren't close buddies? I was pretty astonished when I first read about this in Paul's great little book.So does that mean those times when I queued up in the cold to see my heroes after a gig and watched them sign their autographs in amazement,that all was not rosey in TD's garden? And how did Franke & Froese exchange their musical ideas so well if this was so.Great book!

I'll echo what the others have said. This is written like a critic's review of the band. Critical, then somewhat repentant not about the music, but their own writing. Like many other music critics before him, Stump takes that same path. But unlike what TD fans really clamor for, Stump's book isn't that well researched, and is surprisingly thin and empty. Much of it taken from Krautrock, and other written pieces the past, or stories well known to most TD fans. The one aspect that keeps it from being a 1-star book is that it does a fairly comprehensive job of listing a chronological order of events in the TD history and family.

I had the lucky chance to meet two TD members in my life at separate times (without naming names) and can guarantee you that there are omissions in this book that should be in a comprehensive book on the band. I also heard Edgar Froese once say in an interview that he he doesn't really like books like this, and had no intention of writing a TD autobiography. He likened it to the famous Elvis Costello comment about "dancing about architecture", and would much rather just have fans listen to the music or see the band live, than dig into his personal life. I concur.

The author does an admirable job via trying to encapsulate Tangerine Dream's enormous musical discography. However, he only has a few accolades for Edgar Froese, the inimitable and indomitable leader of the Band. The author knows nothing about the Froese family. For example, Edgar, Monika and Jerome Froese are all vegetarians, wildlife and nature lovers and interested in saving the planet. I am especially disappointed that the author does not consistently commend Edgar Froese's incredible talents and ability to create great music after losing so many incredibly gifted bandmates. Sure, Tangerine Dream has had a few below average albums but none of them are as bad as this author states they are. It is high-time for a captivating and comprehensive book about Edgar Froese and Tangerine Dream. They are the music industry's seminal and pioneering electronic icons !