Customer Reviews

Sohoman

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

 

 

This could have been a lot better. It misses one the most typical things of a td gig - Edgar's guitar solo. Bondy Parade featured in their '81 tour of the UK and Edgar's guitar line, and the accompanying bass line, made it outstanding. On Sohoman, the track is twinkly and lightweight, as with the other tracks. Sohoman is also only 45 mins long - the remaining 20 mins or so could have been used for previously unreleased stuff only available on poor quality bootlegs.

In the winter and spring of 1982 Tangerine Dream toured the world to promote their newest studio album, "White Eagle". In December of that year, a very good concert album was released, "Logos Live". Seventeen years later, Edgar and Jerome Froese, the current members of what is left of this once pioneering band - decided to publish a series of previously unreleased "classic" music they had in their inventory. Whereas this is a noble deed in itself, one might wonder as to the actual choices.

First of all, "Sohoman" represents a relatively new trend in Tangerine musical history, certainly not being classic. Second, the aforementioned album, "Logos" is very similar to material included on "Sohoman", and the latter does not really contribute to their discography beyond sheer quantity. Most of the material on this album is repetitive, as it contains only slightly different versions of compositions found on the studio or concert albums already released. Since there are hundreds of other concerts, which deserve publication, one might wonder why "Sohoman" saw the light of day, being in fact a simple unimaginative rehash of already published material. Think twice before purchase. Unless you have a habit like mine, that is a habit of having everything for collection purposes, you better stay with other, much superior releases, "Logos" being among them.

The technical details of this edition are hair-raising. The album is advertised to have been mastered on DQC system. Why don't we hear it? Why do old albums, mastered back in 1982 sound much better, are more properly mixed? This I do not know. The album begins as if it were randomly cut off a larger piece of live music. Carelessly edited, the first track actually bumps into your ear, as if recorded on old cassette recorder. Where is editing? Where is mastering? Edgar Froese has a quarter of the century of technical experience, and yet this album sounds as if edited by someone who has never heard of mastering, not to mention DQC. Other compositions are equally poorly edited, and it's a headache to listen when you know what they really are able to do with sound.

In summary, this is a rather forgettable item in their discography, an item that is technically and musically inferior. You can do better with your money if you would like to experience the live sound of Tangerine Dream Anno Domini 1982. Look for "Logos".

"Sohoman" is the first issue in the "Tangerine Dream Classics Edition", an on-going project from TDI that is intended to make available to the public any number of historical TD performances. This release features the first half of the band's gig in Sydney, on 22 Feb 1982. It seems an odd choice for a first release to me.

For your money, what you get here is a pitiful 44 minutes of music, over half of which is already available in almost identical form on the albums "Logos" and "White Eagle". Just two tracks offer anything new. `Ayers Majestic' is a 7-minute hybrid of ideas from "Logos", "Hyperborea", `Horizon' (from the "Poland" album of 1984) as well as Froese's 1983 solo alum "Pinnacles". The longer `Bondi Parade' (after a somewhat raggy and badly overdubbed start) is an uncharacteristically boppy affair, which is altogether too long, as well as terribly trite. Its 13 minutes experiment a little with some more ideas from "Hyperborea" and "Pinnacles" but it goes nowhere very much in that time and ultimately feels like just so much padding.

With so little new material on it, everyone except the most fanatical of Tangerine Dream collector can well afford to live without this release. Newcomers would certainly do better buying "Logos", or preferably "Poland", instead.

This is only a very mediocre concert by Tangerine Dream. There are no classic tracks, and the sound quality isn't the best. As the other reviewer said, there's a lot of space on this disc for CD-ROM material, studio outtakes, and other objects of desire. I think "Logos"(1982) is a far better live concert. "Sohoman" is the best example that pompous packaging can't make up a real lack in good music.

Incomplete recording of the Sydney concert, for some reason the prices on the used section are still outrageously steep. Yes this is the awesome trio of TD 80's with Schmoeling and Franke the music is really vintage TD but this cd release was short, incomplete, poor sound mastering it's like listening to the concert then suddenly the whole concert was aborted leaving you with a few tracks. The Bootmoon 2 cd is the genuine representation of this live show it was actually a radio broadcast recording with commentary. This 2 cd makes Sohoman obsolete! Buy only at $5 or less, I got mine at 20 so it was really a total loss I was very stubborn, persistent and if only I have listened to the negative reviews....

Sometimes the best thing for past material is to stay buried very deeply in a vault and this is the case with these live tracks recorded in 1982.

This "Classics Edition" contains five pieces ranging from 4:31 (White Eagle) to 13:22 (Bondy Parade) from Edgar Froese, Christopher Franke and Johannes Schmoelling. There is a bootleg-like quality the way the listener is dropped into the opening number - Convention of the 24 - and there really is not anything special in the material that makes it a fascinating or historical release.

Froese has been criticized over the years for reworking supposed live tracks with studio material and this may be his way at firing back at those who question that process. But no matter the reason, the live set adds nothing to the incredible legacy of the legendary band.

This pointless release seems to be yet another in an endless onslaught of sub-par "lost" recordings that have no business being found.

There's nothing on "Sohoman" that hasn't been heard before and much better. Obviously the pieces played here are not being "Played" at all but just recordings PRESENTED live, which is something [...] Froese and Co. started doing in the eighties. [....] anybody can do that.

Classic, vintage Tangerine Dream is long,long gone. All there is left now are scraps and memories. It may be time for ol' Ed to shut down his computers and call it a life.(Musically, anyway)

Well, this release heralds in a new era for T.D. fans. Sohoman is the first in the T.D. Classics series which has long been rumoured to be in the works. It was worth the wait!!!! Along with some T.D. faves such as "White Eagle" and "Logos Part One" we get three other tracks that contain some familiar themes to those who have been long time fans of the band and a plethora of new sounds to absorb!!!! This is a five star release and I am looking forward to the other planned releases in this series. ENJOY!!!!