Mars Polaris reviewed
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Mars Polaris reviewed
TANGERINE DREAM: Mars Polaris
Before the review, a couple of points. I had the odd complaint for the review of "Sohoman" about not stating the fact that extra bits had been tacked on and that it wasn't strictly as it had been performed. Well, it didn't affect my enjoyment of it, hence the review. Conversely, a lot of people have agreed that, if you take "What A Blast" as a synth album in its own right and just forget it's by TD, you'll hear one superb album. A lot of people buy TD albums wanting to hear the sounds of the '70's - sorry, but if you want that, then you'll have to look to RMI, Air Sculpture, Redshift, early Bionaut and the like.All of which leads on to this brand new studio album and it's evident from the opening track that, as I said for "What A Blast", we have a band playing with renewed confidence, and playing music that is rooted in 25+ years of TD history. In this one track you'll hear those fantastic melody lines, underlying string synths, bas synth welling up from below, a stinging electric guitar lead, a tune, digital drum sounds and a huge arrangement that flows effortlessly with a great sense of dynamics, and you simply cannot deny that this is a really superb 10 minute opening track for a synth album. After this, track two simmers a little, is still rhythmic, but again introduces loads of layers into the composition with soaring leads, synth choirs, that sort of twangy synth effect they use to such great effect, a train-like rhythm from the electronic percussion and another full sound full of melodic content that has lots of dynamics along the way and ends with a gorgeous heavenly choral effect. I don't want to go into copious detail on every track or we'll be here for days, but there isn't a bad track on the album. To be fair, it's not exactly their most creative album if you want a new direction, but if you want a really good, solid, dependable, enjoyable synth music album that has a production and a set of soundscapes that puts others to shame, not to mention more melodies than you can shake a stick at, this is the album for you. It's easy, it's accessible, it's not disposable and it is the sort of album you'll play repeatedly, leagues ahead of many competitors in today's field - but it's NOT '70's retro so stop expecting that and listen to it for the music and not the band - maybe then you'll realise just how good compared to their many European descendants, this band still is.