Customer Reviews

Rockoon

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

 

 

...in Tangerine Dream's case, this is not a commendable effort in my opinion. They went for a new sound with this CD - more of a pop approach rather than sticking with the style that made them so successful. To be honest, this CD really lacks the character that TD's better works possess. The best way I can describe it is to say that it sounds like a bunch of theme songs from bad 80's drama shows. No, I'm not kidding.

In 1991 Edgar Froese trumpeted that the band is going to significantly change its musical direction. What we didn't know at the time was that Tangerine Dream shrunk to father and son (Jerome). "Rockoon", recorded and published in 1992, was the first album conceived by the family powers, and abstracting for a while from the impressions I had at the time, I must say that from the 10-year perspective, one cay strongly claim that Tangerine Dream died in 1991 as an ensemble we knew. As a founder of the band, Edgar Froese had rights to the brand name, and thus when in 1991 he effectively set up a new band, of a completely different musical orientation, he preserved the name. This fact appeared unforgivable to millions of the band's followers all over the world. The audience shrunk considerably, and if we buy Froese's new records, it's because of that enormous sentiment we have for the old days of glory. As is widely known, the release of Rockoon caused the band's fan club to dismember. Now, if the compositional condition of performers simply worsened, this wouldn't have happened. We lost the heart and the trust we had in Edgar Froese because setting up a new band, he glued the noble name to it. That's a grave sin, Edgar, although you might feel entitled to do with Tangerine Dream what you wanted. A definition of property implies that the owner is free to destroy his property. Indeed.

"Rockoon" is a hopeless trial to enter the world of modern music, guitar-driven, percussive rock that is only augmented with electronica. It might have been good, but it just isn't, what can I say. It includes a large number of completely forgettable, boring muzak: 'Touchwood', 'Lifted Veil', 'Penguin Reference', 'Body Corporate', 'Rockoon', 'Girls on Broadway' and 'Spanish Love'. Out of one hour of music, only four tracks escape the abysmal quality of the rest. Although boring, repetitive and unimaginative as well, 'Big City Dwarves', 'Red Roaster' and 'Graffiti Street' at least show a minimal effort to produce something new. The only good track on "Rockoon" is 'Funky Atlanta', a very dynamic cheerful tune, which might serve well as a number in a Seattle discotheque.

Don't buy this album, or any album released afterwards, if you are a newcomer to Tangerine Dream world of music, and if you like the older albums. With so many records this band produced, you will be happy with about 40 albums recorded before. Don't waste your ears on this.

This album is an unimaginative collection of some 11 5-minuters, nearly all of which sacrifice the traditional Tangerine Dream approach of innovative and varied synthesiser and sequencer programming for a uniformly bland sound world of everyday synthesiser string washes and jangling guitar lines over a relentlessly boring rock drum-machine beat. Gone is the variety of tempo of earlier albums. In fact, gone is any great variety of anything! Only the short `Penguin Reference' manages to capture some of the sparkle of earlier Tangerine Dream successes, while the incorporation of alto sax into the tracks `Body Corporate' and `Red Roadster' give some new interest and also look ahead to the later incorporation of Linda Spa to the group.

(For a fuller review of this disc, see its entry on the amazon.co.uk site.)

What's missing from this album in my opinion is the genuine soulful moods that albums like 'Le Parc', 'Poland', 'Force Majeure', and 'Optical Race' provided. What's missed even more is the last key element (the former to the last being Paul Haslinger in the lineup and before him Chris Franke) to that soulfulness most folks don't recognize-- Edgar Froese's uncanny guitar solos! Instead of passionate and intelligent guitar melody countering the syths, Rockoon offers leadened egghead riffiness from a Satriani-esque player, Zlatco perica.

I found myself annoyed through this album mostly though I will have to say that I like Red Roadster and Big City Dwarves.

I'd recommend Turn of the Tides, or The Goblins Club where I feel the 'New' sound has come together a bit more.

I am appalled at the really scathing reviews that "Rockoon" has been getting. While certainly not on the heights of 1988's "Optical Race", I really find it to be a really enjoyable treat for the ears then again it's because I can eat up a wide variety of styles.

The album has a very rock-oritented dance sound especially with the title track but also has some very unusual New Age grooves such as "Penguin Reference" as well as the eerie "Lifted Veil". Though I can't say that it's essential, "Rockoon" is certainly better than what it's given credit for!

Rockoon is a fairly decent album from Tangerine Dream. I've had this disc for a few years. I admit that I don't listen to it that often though. The production and musicianship are very good, but I find that a lot of the songwriting just isn't that captivating--that doesn't mean that most of the songs are bad though. The songs that I like the most are "Big City Dwarves," "Touchwood," and "Girls on Broadway." I've only got a handful of releases from Tangerine Dream. I pretty much lost interest in them a while back because I felt that they tended to be repetitious. This isn't a favorite of mine, but it still has some good moments. Rockoon is worth a listen.

I can't understand the dislike of this cd shown by other reviewers. To each their own, but here's a positive review. I'm not a TD aficionado, having only 3 of their works, and I liked the Thief and Sorcerer works too. This album has lots of nice pieces, especially the final two. It may be a departure from their early work, but you can't expect them to keep doing the same stuff over and over. And the length of over 50 minutes gives you more worth than 35 minute ones that cost as much.

I too don't understand the negative ratings for this CD. I don't hear a huge difference between it and the other 15-20 TD CDs I own (mostly spanning 1974-2000 or so). "Touchwood" is a classic, one of my all-time TD faves. Plus this CD has the sentimental bonus of being the CD the tour for which I saw TD live at the Beacon in NYC. I'm sure that chance won't come again.

Sometimes people just don't simply understand music bands evolves the same way life, technology and other things. Someone is saying, 'why waist your money on this CD if this band has produced about 40 previous records?'... Tell me something, why people like modern music instead of some hundred years of classical mussic? simply, because everything evolves and we can't force our brains to like something that appears to be 'aged out', even if this was 'art' or 'glory' some year before...
TD didn't make any mistake producing Rockoon. They evolved their style and actually you can find this album was one of their finest production. Listen to Optical Race and Lily on the Beach and Melrose. These four albums including Rockoon have a very similar style, but I really like this album and it is the best in it's class.
Of course, new times are coming, so they can give us new inspiration with their brilliant music.

Having purchased TD albums for 15 years, I was stunned when I put this CD on my player in 1992. I'll never forget listening to it over and over as I flew in the night from the US to France...I couldn't tell where I was in the disc, but I knew I loved it all. While some may not like that quality, for me the seamless 'lostness' of this CD is testament to the magic of TD. A very good disc.