Re: a few questions

["Daniel S. Efran" <de0t+@andrew.cmu.edu>]

I agree, Livemiles is much better than Optical Race.  Tyger is
pathetically bad--and I even LIKED the lyrics on cyclone (although I
don't understand them--I think "rising runner" is a reference to the
slope of a line (rise over run), but I don't have a clue about "endless
sender".)  
I thought the tour before Optical Race was better--they seemed more like
they were doing something.  I don't go to a concert to watch about 10
atari CRT's.  The huge racks of equipment they had on the previous tour
were much cooler looking.
Does there exist a recording of the main theme to Legend?  It's kind of
on the soundtrack album, but not really (It's buried behind a
meaningless vocal at the end of "Loved by the Sun" (the Jon Anderson
song that sounds like all other Jon Anderson songs, only more so).  They
played it as an encore on the North America tour (the one before O.R.),
so I ran out and got the album.  Very frustrating.
Part of the problem with their new stuff is the missing rhythm by
Franke--the sequenced percussion tracks just don't measure up...they
sound like sequenced percussion tracks.  Also, the melodies (what's left
of them) are sounding more ethnic and less alien.  Compare a track on
Miracle Mile or Optical Race with one on Exit or Ricochet. 
Besides, when all their synthesizers were analog, they relied more on
music--it seems that now they put more attention on "sounds"--samples
and synth patches--than on melody or harmony.  Even Livemiles has this
problem, although it's closer than Optical Race.

By the way, I just noticed that I'm wearing my Optical Race tour t-shirt
today.  Even the clothing from the North American tour was better (it
was unified...it all had the TD-circle logo from the Tyger album cover. 
The OR stuff was all different, and just had random colors and shapes).  

	
				--The "Music of the" Sphere