Customer Reviews

Hummel

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I first heard a track from the "Hummel" album on the "Echoes" late night program on NPR and immediately knew I had fallen on a gem. As a big fan of Tangerine Dream era '73-'77, I keep hoping to come across more albums that display the same unique sound of "deep space" made legendary by TD (think "Ricochet", "Rubycon", "Encore"). Well, look no further. "Hummel" is as good as, if not better, than anything TD ever put out. Clearly, the "Hummel" album is a loving tribute by Spacecraft to TD.

The album starts of with "The Summon", a 15+ min. track that starts off slowly with an atmospheric guitar solo and eventually finding its rythm in a nicely-done sequenced piece. "Explorations in Space" is aptly-titled and reminiscent of the mood found on the "Spacecraft" debut album. The title track is without a doubt the best track on the album, another 15+ min. piece, more urgently and densly sequenced than "The Summon". What can I say, this is the very best you will find in today's "space music" genre, bar none. The rest of the album is very good as well, although it cannot match the outstanding quality of the first 4 tracks.

Spacecraft is fairly prolific, and has issued several albums since, none of which have matched the quality of "Hummel" However, the "Cybersphere" album issued in 2001 comes very close and is in my opinion the true worthy sequel to "Hummel".

Meanwhile, enjoy the deep pulses, sequencers and screetching guitar solos that will be reminiscent of that certain German space music pioneer band. "Hummel" is a 70 min. masterpiece of space music. By all means, BUY THIS!

i totally concur with paul allear. and remember,the incredible precision of this music ,the interlocking patterns,unusual chordal structures,textures that morph into each other, this was not overdubbed in a studio, this was recorded LIVE!!...(and mostly improvised) as background music for a laser light show no less, at the Hummel Planeterium in kentucky,hence the title.A CD the result of an analog master capturing a rare peformance on tape. can you imagine what those people who CAME TO SEE THE LASER SHOW AT The planaterium,and were greeted with this must have thought?!! i can only imagine that show,but i had a similar experience. in 1999, spacecraft was invited to play a concert in philadelphia as part of the gatherings, an ongoing series of space music concerts.i had never heard spacecraft before, but like paul i was a big fan of vintage Tangerine dream, the virgin recordings (Paedra,Rubycon,Richochet). i took my seat in the third row. the band had a video monitor of psychedelic images that they synced to the music and the trip was on.what an experience. i bought the CD at intermission and i still am stunned when i listen to it 4 years later. any more adjectives or superlatives i could use to describe this music would just be an excercise in semantics on my part. the best Tangerine Dream CD since 1975 that TD did not record.