Customer Reviews

Miracle Mile

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In 1988, Tangerine Dream substantially slowed down with album releases and soundtracks. That trend was to persist in later years as well - and for a few reasons. First of all, the band was now a duo instead of a trio, and the main force behind soundtrack work was missing from the band. Another reason might be that Edgar Froese finally realized that there is an upper limit of compositional burden anyone can take. Previous years showed clearly that even if Tangerine Dream was to become a machine for output creation, it might just as well break, and as any machine, it does have its friction coefficient, and other limitations of physical nature. Whether or not it was in the remaining members' power to continue, is debatable, and best left for the listener.

The year 1988 brought us only two releases from Tangerine Dream (which is little only if compared to their output in previous years) - a studio album "Optical Race", and a soundtrack, "Miracle Mile". Released for public consumption a year later, the album provides us with some very good music, almost worth comparison with previous efforts from the band. Almost, but not quite. On the one hand the album contains watered-down themes resembling previous work on "Canyon Dreams", "Near Dark" and "Heartbreakers". A derivative work, but worth listening. Perfect examples might be 'One for the Books', 'Running Out of Time' and 'After the Call'. On the other hand, we have some unique and original tracks, which are consistently in the moody percussive rhythmic mode. A pleasure to listen, undoubtedly, but nothing that would set us on our knees. Good representative tracks that set the mood on this album are 'Teetering Scales' and 'All of a Dither'. Musically, these tracks do not contribute to the musical heritage of the band, but nevertheless represent solid, good soundtrack work. Proceeding further, we once again come back to slightly derivative work in 'Final Statement', 'In Julie's Eyes', and 'People in the News'. Good old times, one might say. However, time and again we scratch our heads with a powerful deja vu. Have we heard it somewhere already? This album would earn solid five stars if not for these mixed emotions. The cheesy ending, 'Museum Walk' leaves us a little too hungry as well.

Despite all these mumblings and grumblings, this is a must-have for all those who like solid electronic soundtrack work.

One wouldn't expect a low-budget apocalyptic movie to feature a sound track of this caliber. No worries. This is not just any apocalyptic movie, this is "Miracle Mile", an outstanding exemplar of the genre. Done on a shoe string and filmed within a mile (or two) of LA's Miracle Mile (Wilshire Blvd near the tarpits, the museums, etc.). Never in either director Steve De Jarnatt's or the viewer's eyes, are things that simple. (No spoilers here.) Suffice it to say that this is one flick which needs more exposure for De Jarnatt's and Tangerine Dream's creativity in using their respective minimalistic canvasses to flesh out such a rich story.

Tangerine Dream is one of the big reasons why this film succeeds as well as it does. The last hour of the film runs roughly in real time, with events reaching the inevitable hair-raising climax. Tangerine Dream's music sets the pedal point for both the metaphorical and the very real deadline clock portrayed in the plot. At points the movie is all Tangerine Dream, with the action taking place in the background. But the story inevitably carries through and in the devastating end, there is a melding of the two.

Two quibbles, although one has been addressed by previous reviewers. First, the cuts on the album all fade out at the end. This is an unfortunately side effect of squeezing a 90 minute movie into a somewhat shorter audio CD. Still, having seen the movie multiple times, one misses the bridge music.

The other is a more serious flaw, but is easily fixed. That's the disorder between the cuts. This is explained to make the album sound more musically reasonable when listened to. Unfortunately, the producers neglected to consider who might want to purchase this CD. I want the CD to start with "Museum Walk" like the movie, and to build in tension throughout the album to the end, again like the movie. "Miracle Mile" soundtrack producers have twisted the order all around. It literally ends with the beginning. Wrong. Well, you can always program your player to present the tracks in their proper order, so this is a minor quibble.

Oh, and by the way. This is damned good Tangerine Dream. All the better if you've seen the movie. If you haven't, what are you waiting for?

this has some of the most haunting and beautiful music ever. my favorites are if its all over and on the spur of the moment. if you have not seen the movie see the movie. but the music is excellant!

Miracle Mile is, without a doubt, the best soundtrack I have ever heard. It is tense and it is tender, and it just keeps getting better every time I listen to it.

This is the soundtrack to a film of the same name about impending nuclear destruction of LA. Movie is worth seeing, I suppose, if you can find it. I bought this simply because it rounds out my CD collection of Tangerine Dream - it was the one CD I couldn't find. MIRACLE MILE was recorded at a time when TD consisted of just Edgar Froese and Paul Haslinger. Christopher Franke had left the group a year or so before and TD was about to take a turn with their music that I didn't like... adding Kenny G style saxophone to many of their tracks and pretty much eliminating the long evolving synthesizer based tracks I so loved from their earlier period in favor of short, guitar driven rock that just didn't sound all that different from a lot of other bands of the time... whatever they were going for I began to pay less attention to them but remained ever hopeful. This isn't a bad CD at all... They later performed a lot of this material live with a touring band and it was awesome.

The 1988 movie "Miracle Mile" from independent film company Hemdale was a pretty dire production overall - apart from a stunning performance by a very young Anthony Edwards. The Tangerine Dream soundtrack for it, however, is an absolute masterpiece! Edgar Froese and Paul Haslinger certainly pulled out all the stops to produce what is arguably their greatest film score ever and this official TD release (on the Private Music label) delivers some 43 minutes of great music.

Arranged in a sequence that makes for better through-listening than would following the order used in the film, the music on this release covers a much wider sonic spectrum than can be found on most of the band's other releases of the time-or, indeed since! It has moments of great calm and beauty, as well as brooding suspense, frantic action and high drama. (Such a shame that the film never managed to deliver any of these!)

This album is very much the culmination of Tangerine Dream's own unique hallmark blend of minimalist sequencer pulse, multi-layered percussion runs and massed synthesiser choirs-at times almost more "classical" in its outlook than "pop". It also makes great use of some fabulous percussion sounds - I still get shivers down my spine every time I hear 'In Julie's Eyes'!

Since this album, Tangerine Dream's music has been going fairly steadily downhill, but this album manages to recapture some of the magic of their earlier film-score successes, such as "Sorcerer", "Thief", "Risky Business" and "Flashpoint". Ultimately, I think, it delivers rather more than any of the others. Highly recommended.

After the critical and commerical success of Optical Race, TD once again lost another memeber of its lineup, session musician Ralf Wadephul. Wadephul lasted for one studio album (Optical Race), one soundtrack (Dead Solid Perfect), and one tour (Optical Race tour - 1988). In early 1989, Tangerine Dream had been reduced to a duo for the first time in 16 years (Peter Baumann left the band for a short while in 1973, but later returned that same year).

Would the band's music suffer after losing 1/3 of its creative input?

Absolutely not.

The music on this soundtrack fits the film so well that it oftentimes overshadows the performance of the actors and the dire situation faced by mankind, but it also stands on its own VERY well. The overall tone of the soundtrack (as well as the film) is very dark and despairing, but then again, how the heck do you put a nice face on the threat of imminent nuclear war and the destruciton of mankind? (On that note, if this movie had been released in the EARLY '80s as opposed to 1989, the theme would have had much more of an impact. By the time Miracle Mile saw a home video release, the Berlin Wall fell as well as communism in general in the U.S.S.R. which, more or less, heralded the end of the Cold War, but I digress).

There are 3 tracks however, that help lighten the mood a bit which keeps the entire soundtrack form depressing the hell out of you (God knows, the movie succeeded at doing THAT!). "On the Spur of the Momet" is an incredible "love theme" that comes pretty damn close to surpassing "Love On a Real Train" from Risky business. "...Train..." has more of a sexy mood to it, whereas, "...SPUR..." is more of a romantic tune. "All of a Dither" is an almost disco-like, upbeat tune that can scarcely be heard in the film itself (as the protagonist, played by E.R.'s Anthony Edwards, frantically runs through an all-nite gym in search of someone who can fly a helicopter, this song can be heard for a few seconds in a workout room where a bunch of people are aerobicising to it). "Museum Walk" is a noble-sounding composition that sounds as if it could be used during a coronation ceremony. This song actually serves as the opening theme to the film as the protagonists cross paths in the Museum of Natural History. "One for the Books" is also a lighter affair, but the sequencing in the song gives the listener a sense of underlying urgency.

"After the Call" and "People In the News" are actually the same song, but they both have slightly different arrangements. In my opinion, the arrangement for "People In the News" conveys a much more intense emotional impact. That song makes the hairs stand up on my arms and neck every time. If you can, play this song in your vehicle when you're driving by yourself and turn the volume up as high as you can stand it. Trust me, you'll understand what I mean by "emotional impact".

To sum up, even without 1/3 of its usual personnel, Tangerine Dream delivers a near-perfect masterpiece of soundtrack work. The price for this title is spot-on, so you don't have to be concerned, as with other TD soundtracks, that your going to spend a lot of money and come away disappointed. Miracle Mile is an EXCELLENT addition to any soundtrack or Tangerine Dream collection.

Miracle Mile is an excellant movie and this is an excellant soundtrack to go with it. The music goes so well with the movie. My two favorite songs on the CD have to be On The Spur of the Moment and If It's All Over. Those two are some of the most beautiful yet haunting score i have heard in a movie.Highly recommended. a must if youre a tangerine dream fan. and even if you're not you will like it anyways

I love the music of Tangerine Dream and this was a happy addition to my collection. I will be purchasing more of their music in the future.

This low budget apocolyptic film Miracle Mile may not have aged well over the years but the music is as great as ever.The throbbing menace of it immediately captures your attention in the movie and even on it's own it's riveting.Even the slow tracks have an eerie quality to them.A haunting classic.If you're looking for Tangerine Dream film music start at the top with this 1989 score.