Those listeners hoping for more of the anthemic strains of "Chariots Of Fire"--or even of his collaborations with Jon Anderson--will be disappointed here. Released relatively early in his career (1975), Beaubourg sees Vangelis at his most insular and experimental. Where most of his peers (Rick Wakeman, Keith Emerson, Patrick Moraz) were content simply to use their synthesisers much as they would an electric organ, or as a handy substitute for other acoustic instruments (horns, strings, etc.), Vangelis was attempting--under the influence, admittedly, of various European antecedents--to devise a musical language appropriate to the qualities of that particular instrument. Divided into two parts, the album now serves as a kind of primer to the mid-1970s analogue synth, in all its wheezy glory. Much of it is beautiful--albeit in a listless, ambient sort of way--and a little of it irritating. Still, one for completists. --Andrew McGuire