Customer Reviews

Mota Atma

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

 

 

Tangerine Dream fans are a demanding, proprietary lot made up of various factions who get their knickers in a twist whenever Edgar Froese goes off on yet another stylistic tangent. There are Tangerine heads who are fixing to boil Froese in oil for the heresy of using lyrics and vocalists (not the first time) on last year's Inferno. There are those who despaired when Tang D produced a long string of fairly conventional records in the '90s replete with guitars, sax, flute, dance beats and trance stylings. There are those who long for the band's spacey halcyon daze of the mid-70s to mid-80s. And finally, there are those who feel Edgar & Co. have done nothing but insult the senses and take money under false pretenses since 1973's dense, dark avant garde gem Atem. So which camp comes away happy with Mota Atma? Well, I've loved TD for 30 years and this one may be their most consistently trippy outing since Phaedra and Rubycon in the mid-70s. No pretty melodies or conventional song structures here, only those patented Phaedra-like bubbling rhythms percolating with sinister mystery under an array of sweeping synth washes and synapse-frying electronic effects. At times, the synth tones evoke the big, frizzy metallic buzz of TD's Johannes Schmoeling era in the early 80's. The percussion work is simple and much closer in feel to when Chris Franke was a major player in the 70s and 80s. Yet there is a clean up-to-date feel. My only niggle is the sameness of these 10 tracks, which are 99 percent atmosphere, albeit very effective atmosphere. It's almost as if Froese and son Jerome are toying with variations on a stylistic theme, but they draw the listener in nonetheless and carry you along for a pretty nice ride. Unless of course, you demand sax and guitar and melody with your Tangerines. In that case, you'll likely be firing up a big pot of pitch in a fit of righteous indignation.

First a disclaimer:
I'm a TD fan. Been one since '81

I like this CD. It's not too slow and not too fast, but it's great music to chill to, or to read to.

My newborn son likes this, as well as my wife.

Compared to the previous releases from the last few years, the overall musical quality of the selections tonality and soundforms on this release makes this 'Great' instead of just 'Good'

This CD would be one I would add to my list to reccomend to those as an introduction to their music.

Tangerine Dream's been around since 1967, with Edgar Froese at the helm; one of the first groups to adopt Synthesizers almost 40 years ago and able to make it a major player (pardon the unintended pun) in musical compositions. Edgar also plays a real mean electric guitar.

If you want to hear a group that knows it's way around Synths, TD is at the top 'o the list!

Following closely after the release of Tangerine Dream's live classical/operatic work, "Inferno", this new soundtrack recording was taken from the an obscure 2003 Japanese film titled "Mota Atma" (a quick check on the internet revealed not even ONE bit info on this film,...other than the fact that the soundtrack is by Tangerine Dream!) and it represents quite a change in sound and compositional style from "Inferno". While the music on "Inferno" is heavily structured and tightly arranged, much of the music here is more akin to the free-flowing space rock of early-70 works such as "Phaedra" or "Rubucon", albeit performed with more modern "digital" synth & percussion sounds. As other reviewers have duly noted, a few of the tracks here are mearly variations on a theme, or perhaps alternate versions of the same basic compositions. However, at well over 75 minutes of music, there is certainly enough top-notch new music here to justify adding it to your TD collection. For me, the standout tracks include "Royal Way of Privacy" (majectic & orchestral, with a beautiful chord progression), "Prophet in Chains" (a dark, intense, pulsating piece; with an overall sound reminicent of 1999's outstanding "Mars Polaris" soundtrack) and "For the Summit Only", a spacy, fluid, free-form jam that may even please some of those unfortunate "TD purists" who dismiss the band's more structured or "rock"-oriented latter day works (which I, just for the record, happen to love!) While "Mota Atma" and other such soundtrack recordings may not be as completely satisfying of a listen as Tangerine Dream's main studio albums, they still contain some gripping, evocative music that should not be missed by the die-hard T-Dream fan. (Just as an aside, I have often felt, with a few notable exceptions, that maybe TD saves their more complex & fully-realised material for their main studio & live album releases, while the sountrack albums represent the band's more ambient "minimalistic" side. The soundtrack works, after all, are meant simply as accompanyment to another artist's visual work.) All in all, dispite the grumbling of the naysayers, the current TD line-up of Edgar & Jerome Froese continue to create music that touches my soul and pleases my ears...the Dream lives on!

With Vangelis making the boring Mythodea and Jean Michel Jarre going into lounge with Geometry of Love we are lucky that TD are still around and kicking.
A very good album(although a soundtrack) after many conventional ones.It reminds their great albums of the 70's.
Recommended to TD 70's fans or to anyone who wants to hear some good electronic music.

As a big fan of TD's early works (I generally dislike anything past circa. 1980) I had some high hopes after reading some reviews of Mota Atma and they proved only half realized. To describe Mota Atma as anything more complex than the albums such as Phadrea or Richochet re-composed using the sounds of albums like Lilly on the Beach would be a waste of letters. It's simply that, the general composition of Richochet, Phaedra done with the riffs, sounds and percussion of Lilly on the Beach.

If you're looking for the somber room-changing mood of Phadrea or it's similar albums you won't find it here. The track "Prophet In Chains" contains a typical and overall disctracting drum line that (if it were not for the fact that this is a soundtrack) completely kills the mood you're halfway towards experiencing. I would have no trouble believing this to be unused tracks of Lilly on the Beach or other albums from that time.

TD has done it again. The sound is so beautiful and there is a little of something for every kind of TD fan in there. This disc reminds me an awful lot of "TRANSSIBERIA" in both sound and tempo. It has alot of the same feel to it. Please just remember it is a soundtrack and not an album, so yes the theme runs continuously throughout. It is always nice to get more TD. Add this one to your inventory (yes, there are that many after all) and enjoy them for what they are... great music for any age. Keep up the great work, guys!

The latest release by Tangerine Dream, "Mota Atma", shows that the band can still please its listners with their atmospheric electronic masterpieces. The band has leaned towards shorter structured pieces in recent years but lately, it seems as if they are beginning to venture back into the epic works that made them famous so many moons ago. Their previous album "Inferno" was an album-length concept piece based on Dante's Divine Comedy. While not as theatrical as "Inferno", "Mota Atma" still carries an overall conceptual feel to it. A majority of the tracks run between 7 to 9 minutes. Also, there is a central theme which is heard through the entire album. Most of the tracks are in the same key which can get irritating if heard with the wrong set of ears. However, I've always considered TD to be modern-day classical composers. Beethoven and Mozart always tended to provide variations on a theme and often repeated them within the same work. "Mota Atma" is done very much in the same way. In a sense, it is like a single 71-minute composition broken into ten movements. It is quite fascinating to hear what can be done with a single theme especially when it is placed in the hands of a gifted composer or in this case, two gifted composers. Edgar Froese and his son Jerome have struck gold once again with "Mota Atma". This album continues to prove that the Dream is still alive or as Tom Cruise stated in "Risky Business": 'The Dream Is Always The Same'.

I've listened to this CD numerous times on headphones ususally when I'm flying. I am immensely drawn to the first few tracks. Somewhere in the middle of the disk, however, I get lost. But those first few track are enough for me. This music is fresh and steaming with tension. The recurring theme only makes it more compelling. My mind can only imagine what is happening in the film. Tangerine Dream is the group that can make new music while all the world, with every gadget money can buy, can only try to copy. Four stars for sure...maybe more.

First, let me start by saying I am a lifelong listener to the music of TD. I have around a dozen or so of their cds. I bought my first TD LP in around '71 or so. but enough about me. This cd is not what I'd call one of their most creative. At first it seems to promise a little bit of their early sound (think Phaedra), but some how it just does'nt seem to deliver. When TD is at their best the songs change constantly in rythm, texture, and melody. These do not. Still, if you want cool background music while you're doing something else. This ain't all that bad.

If you are looking for electronic music with some bite, this is it. I had heard one particular song from this CD, which compelled me to order it. I was thoroughly pleased. It features their relentless bass lines and crystal clear synthesizer expressions. I have since purchased other works of theirs, but none are as intense as this one. It does have its "Liquid Mind" moments which are also beautiful by the way, but overall, it rocks unlike any electronic music that I have ever heard.