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Transatlantic - "The Whirlwind"


atari2600land

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Here are some notes I made while listening to the entire thing:

Introduction similar to Pink Floyd's "Atom Heart Mother," slowly fading in with horns and samples. Then comes the beginning of the catchy song. Then, the next 6 minutes reminds me of the beginning of Dream Theater's "6 Degrees of Inner Turbulence." Seems fitting, as Mike Portnoy, Dream Theater's drummer, is part of Transatlantic. The first word is sung at almost the 7-minute mark. The main theme, the part that goes "We got caught in the whirlwind, torn by the storms of our lives", is catchy. At about the ten minute mark, the tempo slows down for the second part of the song. By the second verse of "The Wind Blew Them All Away", the tempo picks back up. Seems like they stole part of their own music from part 1, put some new notes in, and played it in a minor key. At the end of this, the tempo slows back down for a little bit, and sets a mellow mood of the first part of part 3, "On the Prowl" with keyboards and drums. By now, we're in the 17th minute of the song. Then the electric guitar kicks back up, although in this part, it seems to be a minor instrument. Then, the mood changes to dark, as the song seems to be sung in a minor key now. The mood turns to mysterious once we get to the 22nd minute for the fourth part, "A Man Can Feel." Then, during a 2 1/2-minute musical interlude, the mood is set to minor key again. Then we finally get a major key in part 5, "Out of the Night," which borrows a little bit part of part 1. At the 30th minute-mark, we're still in part 5, but it has slowed down for a half-minute, then speeds back up again to normal (for this song.) A three-minute or so reprise of part 1 follows. Part 6, "Rose Colored Glasses" is mostly mellow, with an acoustic guitar and drums, and occasional tubular bells chime in. By the second verse, we get more drums. By the 37-1/2 minute mark, we get another dose of normalcy for this song, with electric guitar wailing. At 39 minutes, we get an upbeat reprise of part 6. Then, we get part 7, "Evermore", with a new instrument, a piano, but it's only a cameo, as the song quickly ditches it in favor of the traditional instruments (for this song, anyway.) Then we get a brief preview of part 11, followed by part 7, "Set Us Free." with an electric piano now, with hardly any guitar during the verse, and minor during the chorus. The key is major again for this part. By the 49th minute, the electric guitar is back. Then, a brief rerprise of part 2, before we get into part 9, called "Lay Down Your Life." The song is now heavily minor keyed and sets a sinister mood. One thing bugs me by the 52nd minute: They mispronounce the Washington town of "Spokane." I thought it was something totally different until I looked at the lyrics. Part 10, "Pieces of Heaven", is instrumental and feels like it's setting up something. Then, we get a mellow, sample-laden interlude of news reports of natural disasters. The samples disappear, and by minute #59, we get into mellow terrirory again for part 11: "Is It Really Happening?" The piano returns again during parts. Then, the tempo picks back up, but is still in a minor key. After three minutes of instrumental music, the piano begins part 12: "Dancing With Eternal Glory/Whirlwind (Reprise.)" The music is mellow for the first part, then we add more instruments for the second part, in a happy major key by the 70th minute. Then, by the 73rd minute, we reprise part 4. Then, for the last 5 minutes, we rerpise part 1 with new lyrics, with the last minute fading out.

 

There seems to be lots of one, two or even three-minute instrumental interludes with electric guitar jams. Anyway, the song is great, Dream Theater-style music, but only recommended for those who have the patience to listen to a 77-minute-long song. If you want to look for it, I've included the front cover of the CD packaging:

 

 

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