It is likely not for nothing that Majeure shares its name with one of the most notable albums by Tangerine Dream, as the steady sequencer arrangement which slowly opens the album's first track, "The Dresden Codex," certainly doesn't sound far removed from that act's work. Or, unsurprisingly, from Zombi, whose drummer A. E. Paterra maintains Majeure as his solo side project. The nervous, quick-paced percussion that appears in the song soon after it begins ends up matching the frenetic bite of some of the synth parts just so. Overall, the three-track album is as classic a take on '70s-into-'80s non-dance electronic music as any, perhaps the only logical equivalent to the beardo-disco trend of the early 21st century exemplified by acts like Lindstrom and Prins Thomas. At just under ten minutes, "Teleforce" is the shortest song here, and furthers the Tangerine Dream comparison a touch by sounding like a soundtrack effort -- though perhaps Vangelis would be the better reference point, given how this feels like a slicker but no less ominous riff on some of that musician's groundbreaking work for Blade Runner. The concluding title track, the album's longest, has the exact feel of a classic side-long vinyl effort of the time, sweeping, futuristic even if now in an inevitably retrospective sense, riding a proto-superhighway of information defined less by Wired and more by Omni.
© Ned Raggett /TiVo