Goblins Club

AMG Review of Goblins Club

Dave Connolly
All Music Guide

Edgar Froese and his son, Jerome Froese, represent different generations of electronic music, yet are able to fuse /p>

ew age and club sounds together in a fresh medium on Goblins Club. The result is a disc that you can dance to or simply listen to, although it bares no trace of echno's nihilism. The tracks suit a variety of moods familiar to fans of Tangerine Dream's post-Peter Baumann work: spiritual, heroic, sentimental. A number of guests join the father-and-son duo, including Linda Spa (who appears as a third member in the disc's artwork but in fact only appears on two songs), Mark Hornby, and Gerald Gradwool. The opening "Towards the Evening Star" is indicative of the disc's merits: a sweeping landscape of sound painted by Edgar's graceful keyboards and driven by Jerome's drum beats. Tangerine Dream had mixed club beats and graceful melodies on earlier albums, dating back to Le Parc, but the sonic palette is expanded on Goblins Club (even if the contributions of their guests go undetected) to add a much-needed sense of substance and purpose. A few tracks hark back to the band's "classic" period, with elements of Pink Floyd appearing on the lovely "United Goblins Parade" and sequencers invoked on the epic "Sad Merlin's Sunday." Despite moments of sinister music, which add much-needed character, the best moments are also the most sentimental. "Elf June and the Midnight Patrol," which was inexplicably replaced on the Australian release, is a prime example of this, employing an oddly electronic-sounding Vienna Boys Choir that rescues the track from its own mawkish potential. If a disproportionate amount of "product" has lulled Tangerine Dream's listeners into a sense of ennui, Goblins Club could be the wake-up call they've waited for. Adding Jerome Froese may have been initially convenient, but if Tangerine Dream wishes to remain relevant, it's clear that the confluence of the pair's cross-generational styles will be crucial.