Album Review

Steven McDonald [allmusic.com]

A welcome reissue and one that marks an interesting transition in Tangerine Dream's existence -- this was the first TD album to incorporate lyrics and vocals (from Steve Jolliffe, who also contributed wind instruments and keyboards). By this point, the nucleus of the band was down to Edgar Froese and Christopher Franke, with the sound centering more on shifting arpeggiation over percussive rhythm structures, with ''Madrigal Meridian'' being an impressive example of this. Jolliffe's vocal contributions on ''Bent Cold Sidewalk'' and ''Rising Runner Missed by Endless Sender'' provide an aggressive edge that effectively catapults the listener from the hypnotic pulse that Tangerine Dream are best known for -- still, it's by no means a failed experiment, though it does make Cyclone one of the least useful TD albums for working up a good meditative state.