Zeit
My impression of Zeit is that the band members of Tangerine Dream were aiming to
try and out-do the dark, nightmarish psychedelic period of Pink Floyd (such as
what we experienced from albums like A Saucerful of Secrets, Meddle and even the
studio portion of Ummagumma for that matter). I think it actually works. This is
some EXTREMELY moving stuff.
Unlike Pink Floyd however, there's no actual songwriting to speak of. Just waves upon waves and layers upon layers of incredibly spooky soundtrack/ambient sounds that will definitely take your mind through a variety of the creepiest settings and places in the entire universe. Seriously, this stuff is so whacked out that your imagination won't stop at just planet Earth. This journey takes us to Neptune and beyond!
Interesting side note- the more you hear this stuff, the more it absorbs into your mind. The ambient sounds actually manage to come together to create lengthy masterpieces. I can't explain HOW it works, but it does. Give it a chance. Definitely the kind of album you need to hear several times in order to fully and properly digest.
My favorite song by FAR is the opener titled "Birth of Liquid Plejades". The first 7 minutes sounds like nothing but the DARKEST violin (or cello) solo in the history of mankind. It sounds like it's just repeatedly playing one or two ominous notes over and over, totally reminiscent of the soundtrack from the relatively popular film There Will Be Blood. After that portion of the song is over, these organs come into the picture and they're noticeably creepy as well. The synths are remarkably melodic, if I recall. That carries us through most of the song.
Let me describe "Birth of Liquid Plejades" even more. The cellos actually remind me of this forest area that takes about 10 minutes to walk there from my house. This area is right when the Amish fields stop and the woods appear. It's pretty darn creepy, especially 20 minutes after the sun sets on a calm October night. The woods sort of go around in a circle, and when the conditions are right I feel like I'm being haunted by something. I've also seen some strange things back there such as weird bugs and animals I couldn't recognize coming out of the woods and looking at me. I've also had pets buried back there. This song makes me think about that particular area and really elevates the feeling of creepiness.
Now after those 7 minutes of cellos conclude, the song seems to take another ghostly turn- this time making me think about ghost ships that have disappeared into the fog and were never seen again. This section of the song really captures the feeling of mystery concerning the ships and even includes these occasional ghostly hawls to really elevate the atmosphere. These ghostly sounds always appear at JUST the right time. I love it. The song then finishes up with some organs to make it seem like everything we've just experienced is related to heaven in some way. Just a wonderful song overall and one that's totally unlike anything else.
"Nebulous Dawn" is mostly made up of, again, distinctly creepy nightmare world settings using some of the most frightening ambient sounds in existence (or rather, the most frightening ambient sounds technologically available at the time). Alright, these tricks were probably used in several horror or science fiction films back in the day, but nobody ever released an entire albums worth of similar effects, have they? If they have, it surely wasn't 70 minutes long and probably wasn't NEARLY as terrifying as the ambient tricks presented here.
This is where Tangerine Dream deserves credit for Zeit- it's a daring experiment, and I say "daring" because there was a good chance this kind of stuff would have been immediately rejected by the general public back in the day had Tangerine Dream been as popular as Pink Floyd, and you know, perhaps it was rejected in some areas of the world. I don't believe Tangerine Dream was popular enough for any rejection to be taken into consideration though (at least, not in America in the early 70's).
Anyway "Nebulous Dawn" feels like what would happen if bright lights were to shine through my bedroom window one night, and I was then forced to walk outside across a wheat field, through some thick weeds and eventually to these caves where aliens were planning to abduct me. Incredibly atmospheric.
The weak point is probably "Origin of Supernatural Probabilities". By "weak" I of course mean "Extremely cool but the worst song here". The ambience is pretty good but there's a few moments when the atmosphere does nothing remotely interesting. However when it *is* interesting (such as the first half with the clever use of ghostly shrills and other effects involving these tricks that continuously fade in and out when you pay extremely close attention to the piece- it's effectively breathtaking to say the least) you will be blown away completely. Some of the ambient sounds remind me of a laboratory of sorts where viral experiments take place, and where bodies are stored or frozen for future studies. Even a zombie setting wouldn't be out of the question. Awesome.
Oh, and the title song. PLEASE, listen to the first few minutes and tell me THAT doesn't remind you of an atmospheric world in a Metroid game ("Metroid" is a video game series in case you aren't familiar with the name). The rest of the song has quietly performed ominous waves of unusual ambient sounds with a dangerously thick and intense atmosphere. I admire it quite a bit.
Zeit may just be the craziest, creepiest, oddest, strangest, darkest soundtrack I've ever heard. That is, if you were to call it a soundtrack. It probably doesn't qualify as such, but it sure *sounds* like one.
Unlike Pink Floyd however, there's no actual songwriting to speak of. Just waves upon waves and layers upon layers of incredibly spooky soundtrack/ambient sounds that will definitely take your mind through a variety of the creepiest settings and places in the entire universe. Seriously, this stuff is so whacked out that your imagination won't stop at just planet Earth. This journey takes us to Neptune and beyond!
Interesting side note- the more you hear this stuff, the more it absorbs into your mind. The ambient sounds actually manage to come together to create lengthy masterpieces. I can't explain HOW it works, but it does. Give it a chance. Definitely the kind of album you need to hear several times in order to fully and properly digest.
My favorite song by FAR is the opener titled "Birth of Liquid Plejades". The first 7 minutes sounds like nothing but the DARKEST violin (or cello) solo in the history of mankind. It sounds like it's just repeatedly playing one or two ominous notes over and over, totally reminiscent of the soundtrack from the relatively popular film There Will Be Blood. After that portion of the song is over, these organs come into the picture and they're noticeably creepy as well. The synths are remarkably melodic, if I recall. That carries us through most of the song.
Let me describe "Birth of Liquid Plejades" even more. The cellos actually remind me of this forest area that takes about 10 minutes to walk there from my house. This area is right when the Amish fields stop and the woods appear. It's pretty darn creepy, especially 20 minutes after the sun sets on a calm October night. The woods sort of go around in a circle, and when the conditions are right I feel like I'm being haunted by something. I've also seen some strange things back there such as weird bugs and animals I couldn't recognize coming out of the woods and looking at me. I've also had pets buried back there. This song makes me think about that particular area and really elevates the feeling of creepiness.
Now after those 7 minutes of cellos conclude, the song seems to take another ghostly turn- this time making me think about ghost ships that have disappeared into the fog and were never seen again. This section of the song really captures the feeling of mystery concerning the ships and even includes these occasional ghostly hawls to really elevate the atmosphere. These ghostly sounds always appear at JUST the right time. I love it. The song then finishes up with some organs to make it seem like everything we've just experienced is related to heaven in some way. Just a wonderful song overall and one that's totally unlike anything else.
"Nebulous Dawn" is mostly made up of, again, distinctly creepy nightmare world settings using some of the most frightening ambient sounds in existence (or rather, the most frightening ambient sounds technologically available at the time). Alright, these tricks were probably used in several horror or science fiction films back in the day, but nobody ever released an entire albums worth of similar effects, have they? If they have, it surely wasn't 70 minutes long and probably wasn't NEARLY as terrifying as the ambient tricks presented here.
This is where Tangerine Dream deserves credit for Zeit- it's a daring experiment, and I say "daring" because there was a good chance this kind of stuff would have been immediately rejected by the general public back in the day had Tangerine Dream been as popular as Pink Floyd, and you know, perhaps it was rejected in some areas of the world. I don't believe Tangerine Dream was popular enough for any rejection to be taken into consideration though (at least, not in America in the early 70's).
Anyway "Nebulous Dawn" feels like what would happen if bright lights were to shine through my bedroom window one night, and I was then forced to walk outside across a wheat field, through some thick weeds and eventually to these caves where aliens were planning to abduct me. Incredibly atmospheric.
The weak point is probably "Origin of Supernatural Probabilities". By "weak" I of course mean "Extremely cool but the worst song here". The ambience is pretty good but there's a few moments when the atmosphere does nothing remotely interesting. However when it *is* interesting (such as the first half with the clever use of ghostly shrills and other effects involving these tricks that continuously fade in and out when you pay extremely close attention to the piece- it's effectively breathtaking to say the least) you will be blown away completely. Some of the ambient sounds remind me of a laboratory of sorts where viral experiments take place, and where bodies are stored or frozen for future studies. Even a zombie setting wouldn't be out of the question. Awesome.
Oh, and the title song. PLEASE, listen to the first few minutes and tell me THAT doesn't remind you of an atmospheric world in a Metroid game ("Metroid" is a video game series in case you aren't familiar with the name). The rest of the song has quietly performed ominous waves of unusual ambient sounds with a dangerously thick and intense atmosphere. I admire it quite a bit.
Zeit may just be the craziest, creepiest, oddest, strangest, darkest soundtrack I've ever heard. That is, if you were to call it a soundtrack. It probably doesn't qualify as such, but it sure *sounds* like one.
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