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Cyclone
by Tangerine Dream
Product Group: Music
Studio: Virgin Records Us
ISBN: B000025JX0
EAN: 0077778609322
UPC: 077778609322
Audio CD
Original Release Date: 1978-01-01
Release Date: 1992-06-29
SKU: BX001-060809009
Condition: Used: Acceptable
Comments: 1978 Virgin Records. Has back insert but missing front artwork. CD has minor wear, well cared for.
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Customer Reviews
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A+
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-06-17
For me, this is one of my top 10 albums of all time that has had a major musical influence on my own work. I am nothing more than a hobbiest musician but I think it rates up there with Sgt Pepper, Dark Side, Strange Universe Romantic Warrior, Liquid Tension-II, Rossini etc.
I LIKE IT ALOT..
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Could try harder; a sadly flawed album
Rating  (2)
Date: 2008-06-02
There are those who claim that the best thing about Tangerine Dream's 1978 album "Cyclone" was Edgar Froese's painting used on the cover! Of course, there are those who don't even like that, and the new releases of the disc don't feature it, so...
Now, though, with the benefit of over 20 years of hindsight, it can be seen that "Cyclone" was just one experiment to try to determine the future direction of a group suffering greatly from the loss of one of its most inspirational members.
There can be no doubt that Peter Baumann's precipitate departure from the trio in 1977 deprived Tangerine Dream of a highly important and enormously creative influence. (It is a sad fact of artistic life that the most creative forces are often also the most destructive!) "Cyclone" was the soul fruit of the collaboration between the two remaining members of the band (Edgar Froese and Christoph Franke) and two others: percussionist, Klaus Krieger and flautist, Steve Jolliffe. This latter brought to the album not only woodwind playing (in the form of flutes, clarinets and cor anglais) but also another, entirely new element for the band: lyrics. (Add dramatic chord of your own choosing at this point!)
Many commentators have attributed the unpopularity of "Cyclone" to Steve Jolliffe's fairly outlandish lyrics and vocal style but I think that this assessment is most unfair. After all, they feature in less than a third of the album in total and for the most part fit in well with the material around them. True, there are times when Jolliffe's rather brash delivery is at odds with established Tangerine Dream leanings. But his wordless and vocoded passages are entirely consistent with previous TD practices and mesh seamlessly with the synthesised sounds. In addition, his detractors say, his lyrics are often pretentious or just plain meaningless. Well, most of the pop industry does quite well out of pretentiousness, thank you very much! And why is music with 'meaningless' lyrics any less meaningful than music with no lyrics at all? Think about that one for a bit. Answers on anything that suits you... (used banknotes of any denomination preferred...)
No: if there are weaknesses to be identified in the music presented on "Cyclone", it has to be the overall lack of clear direction for the album, coupled with the unimaginative and often just plain boring percussion lines which underpin some of it (especially around the vocal lines). Klaus Krieger's skills are entirely wasted in these standard pop percussion figures, which are entirely superfluous to the TD mix. Personally, I suspect that the real reason for this album's lack of popularity with the established Tangerine Dream fans of its time is that those fans had come to think of the band (quite erroneously) as a pure synthesiser trio - something that set them apart from other bands of the time. Suddenly, with "Cyclone", Tangerine Dream were a quartet, complete with 'standard pop' drummer and vocalist. And basically just like any other boring old pop group. Couple this with the fact that other artists like Brian Eno and Ultravox were breaking new ground with their forays into synthesised sounds and one can understand that "Cyclone" was a grave disappointment indeed at the time.
So: turning away from idle (and pointless) speculation, what does the music actually sound like? The album opens with one of its highlights: a beautiful passage for vocoded voice (à la Pink Floyd "Animals") as an introduction to 'Bent Cold Sidewalk'. This 13-minute track is in three sections of roughly equal size: the first section features the aforementioned much-maligned lyrics of Steve Jolliffe, here integrating well with rich, supporting synth textures (although the trite drum line is rather irritating). The middle section is mostly instrumental (there is a patch of wordless - or at least unintelligible - voice towards its end) and introduces a change of mood, with Jolliffe's lilting flute and woodwind contribution harking back to the days of "Alpha Centauri". With a strong sequencer pulse and a wandering cymbal-based percussion line, this is probably the strongest (and by far the most beautiful) music on the album. A drum burst brings this central section to a close, though, reprising material from the opening section. Jolliffe's vocal contribution here does begin to jar, and he has certainly outstaying his welcome by the end of the track. (The track's ABA form is another departure for TD, who usually continue to introduce material right through to a track's ending.)
The following 'Rising Runner Missed by Endless Sender' is a fast and furious 5-minute romp of a work, through which Jolliffe shouts and screams, sobs and sighs his way, with his own particular brand of surreal lyrics. He is kept company by a screaming lead synth line over a throbbing bass synth pulse as well as by some fairly innocuous drumming from Krieger.
The final track, 'Madrigal Meridian', is a much larger scale work. At 24 minutes long, it originally occupied the whole of the second side of the vinyl disc. Stylistically, the music here harks back to a variety of earlier TD works (and has no vocals at all!). It starts out with some 'cosmic' style electronic ambiences, through which a throbbing synthesiser pulse finally hammers its way, forcing the sound to dissolve into soaring string textures. Suddenly, a strong sequencer pulse erupts and a typical TD synthesiser melody of delightful simplicity takes over. The first half of this track is very reminiscent of both "Stratosfear" and "Ricochet", with its catchy tunes and driving rhythms, coupled with some fabulously uninhibited guitar-playing from Edgar Froese. After almost 20 minutes of this delightful stuff, the material gradually disintegrates both melodically and rhythmically, until a series of crashing chords introduce a short lyrical section for synthesised harpsichord and strings, and a brief interlude for flute. The track's peaceful (but unresolved and therefore ultimately unsatisfying) conclusion is spoiled further by some truly cringe-worthy intonation problems - something of a shame, as it leaves the listener finally feeling that this album really could have been very much better than it is.
Worth a visit if you're at all curious but Tangerine Dream have done much better than this in their time.
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The most overlooked yet best album in electronic music history.
Rating (5)
Date: 2007-12-10
I just received the CD in my mailbox two days before I went my holiday season trip to Illinois. Afterwards, I decided to play the entire CD, and believe it or not, I love what I heard. Apart from all the other titles I own (PHAEDRA, RUBYCON & STRATOSFEAR), CYCLONE amazingly has its share of dark lyrical content. The 3 songs on this album show excessive amounts of suspense from start to finish. The Tangerine Dream lineup for CYCLONE consists of Steve Jolliffe, Edgar Froese, Chris Franke, and Klaus Krieger (who wasn't listed on the album). And here it goes...
BENT COLD SIDEWALK (13:11)
The sprawling 3-part epic ballad is based on terms of science-fiction. As it mentions something about unlocking a door and walking into a strange room with supposedly hidden danger, the lyrics advise the listener to take care when heading straight to the realm of eternity. The middle part has orchestral portions leading to a distorted voice along with indistinct shouting. That brings us to the reprise ending in a different pattern where Jolliffe impersonates Roger Waters.
RISING RUNNER MISSED BY ENDLESS SENDER (5:04)
The only short-scale mid-tempo stomp with only half as much lyrical content. The vocals here are more intense.
MADRIGAL MERIDIAN (20:32)
Originally filling up Side 2 of CYCLONE, the closing epic instrumental with ensuing multiple layers of synthesizers leading to a lengthy pattern by the same speed as the last track. 10 minutes into the song, the bass pattern quickly changes when the guitars burst out. Afterwards, the pattern slowly fades away to high-pitched violins, then harpsichord, then a brief outro.
No matter who thinks this album isn't good at all, I think CYCLONE really rocks.
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Brilliant
Rating (5)
Date: 2007-07-06
Cyclone, is absolutely a great album, in fact Cyclone and Phaedra are my favorites
Bent Cold Sidewalk, Madrigal Meridian & Rising Runner Missed By Endless. All 3 are just brilliant. Some may not agree with me, however that depends on the taste.
Raj
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OK. Well, that wasn't such a good idea
Rating (2)
Date: 2007-06-20
Tangerine Dream was obviously suffering from the departure of long time bandmate Peter Baumann. The band had hired Steve Joliffe to help them out, and Steve decided that it would be a great idea to... ADD LYRICS!
Of course, most die hard TD fans felt betrayed. By now, Tangerine Dream had become the de facto instrumental band known for their exclusive devotion to electronic instruments.
In defense of the fans, most of the lyrics contained in this album are downright strange. At times, it sounds like self-idulgent poetry.....BAD poetry. At other times, there are no words at all, just nonsensical ramblings and gibberish. It also didn't help that Steve Joliffe did NOT have a very good singing voice.
Yeesh!
Despite these TREMENDOUS negative points, Cyclone does have some shining moments. During the first track, Bent Cold Sidewalk, after Joliffe finishes singing the first set of lyrics, Chris' now famous sequencers kick in with a rolling rhythm with some excellent keyboard work layered on top. Unfortunately, this eventually returns back to Joliffe and his "lyrics".
The final track, Madrigal Meridian, is entirely instrumental and showcases the classic Tangerine Dream sound. Unfortunately, it was too little and too late to save this critically and commercially doomed album.
BUT, in the big picture of things, it's really not all that bad. If you overlook the (very) poor vocals, the music and musicianship is actually quite impressive. But, have no fear, true beleivers. After this outing, TD quickly fired Joliffe and pressed on to make ammends for this, as Edgar Froese once put it, "failed experiment".
I still pop this one into the player from time to time.
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