Archive for the ‘Edgar Froese’ Category

Dystopian Soundtracks of Future Past

Thursday, September 30th, 2010

I’ve been complaining a lot lately (Just lately? Shut up. Shit, I’m talking to myself). so maybe its time to share some good news.

I got a new turntable! And it’s AWESOME.

For those who want the specifics, it’s a Stanton SR-80. It’s a direct-drive model with a bunch of bells and whistles I’ll never use, and a straight-arm as opposed to a curved one. Now, I know straight arms are worse for records, but they also cut down on skipping, so it’s worth it for me. Besides, I usually only listen to a record a couple times at the most before I record it. After that I really never listen to it again unless I find a mistake with the recording.

But most importantly, it sounds AMAZING. No RF interference, no varying speed due to a worn down belt, no motor noise, no hissing, no nothing. Just pure, beautiful music. One of the problems with my last turntable was interference, it was even a problem after I got an external pre-amp. When it wasn’t radio stations busting through my audio signal, it was just annoying white noise, ruining any quiet moments a record had. That’s why I wasn’t able to record this album until now.

Edgar Froese – Kamikaze 1989
I know very little about this album and movie. Let’s get the easy shit out of the way. For those of you who aren’t retarded  New Ave/Ambient fans (and why aren’t you?!?!) Edgar Froese is the sole continuous member of Tangerine Dream, a group that started out as a Krautrock band before slowly morphing into electronic/ambient mellowness, but in the best way possible. You probably know Tangerine Dream like I do, from their soundtracks, because they’ve done a shitload. Near Dark, Legend, Thief, Sorcerer, Risky Business, Firestarter and about a billion other flicks all feature scores by the German keyboard fanatics.

Oddly enough, I’m pretty sure that this is the only soundtrack that Froese created under his own name. Like I said, I know very little about this movie. It is apparently not very good if this incredibly negative review is to be believed and the only thing worth mentioning about it is that it was the last film to feature the legendary German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who died the same year it came out. It’s a dystopian sci-fi fantasy that takes place in the far off future of 1989 (it was made in 1982). And since everyone knew in 1982 that the future was synthesizers, it must have made sense to get Froese to do the score.

If the movie does indeed suck that’s a damn shame, because the soundtrack is pretty good as ambient electronic music goes. Sure, there’ s not always a lot to it, but it is supposed to be background music after all. I’ve always had a soft spot for ambient music, I don’t know why. It really goes against everything I usually like in music (fast beats, high energy). Maybe it’s because everything that I do while listening to ambient music sounds incredibly important and mysterious. Right now I’m listening to Tangerine Dreams’ soundtrack to Sorcerer, and it really gives the imprssion that the shit I’m typing is totally fucking epic.

Anyways, if you like Tangerine Dream type stuff you’ll dig this. If not, avoid it.