How long do a band keep being favourites after you stop following them actively? I bought my first Tangerine Dream album in Spring 1981, and this, my last, in Summer 1985 (though I've actually just broken the drought by ordering another one in the last few days). Only a little over four years, though I never completely stopped being a fan in all those 27-going-on-28 years.
But Le Parc made me wary of buying another album of theirs. I mentioned how much Hyperborea had been a welcome and surprising highlight, and that made Le Parc even more of an anti-climax as a result. No new dawn here: it sounds like an attempt to reach a wider audience that falls flat by straitjacketing the rhythmic development they'd been exploring so interestingly. Johannes Schmoelling left the band directly after this album, and Chris Franke ended a 16-17 year stint after another couple of albums. I briefly considered getting the next album, Underwater Sunlight, on the simple basis that I thought it might show off my new CD player, but either it wasn't available on CD, or it was too expensive, or I just wasn't prepared to take a risk on it.
Twenty three and a half years later, Le Parc doesn't sound bad so much as nondescript. The bonus is that, thanks to the likes of We7, I can at last hear Underwater Sunlight and the subsequent album Tyger. I don't think I missed much by not owning them, but I do like being able to call up those deaf spots in my past listening and filling them in. I hope We7 will thrive, not wither, through 2009.
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