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verslibre 
Forum Senior Member 
Joined: July 01 2004 Location: CA Status: Offline Points: 17055 |
 Posted: November 27 2014 at 14:53 |
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These are surprisingly good! Thanks for posting them. Btw, is that Edgar playing guitar on "Crash" or is it Zlatko/Gerald/Thorsten? |
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Aussie-Byrd-Brother
Special Collaborator 
Honorary Collaborator Joined: October 12 2011 Location: Melb, Australia Status: Offline Points: 7951 |
Posted: November 27 2014 at 16:34 |
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Your guess is as good as mine, Verlibre! So many of their modern albums list the music as `perfomed by Tangerine Dream', even though the actual songs get more specific writing credits. Very vague on specific details, and quite frustrating!
To add to the confusion here, the `Sorcerer 2014' CD set does those things as well, but doesn't list the violin/cello player Hoshiko (who appears on at least two or three of the pieces), and despite there being none of the sax/percussion elements from the previous few years, there's a picture of the back cover of the previous line-up with the two other women!  Glad you liked those tracks! |
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moshkito
Forum Senior Member
Joined: January 04 2007 Location: Grok City Status: Offline Points: 17487 |
Posted: November 30 2014 at 17:47 |
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Hi,
I hope this makes it to DVD ... I miss it all already and I saw TD 4 times!
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Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
www.pedrosena.com |
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Guldbamsen
Special Collaborator
Retired Admin Joined: January 22 2009 Location: Magic Theatre Status: Offline Points: 23104 |
Posted: December 04 2014 at 06:26 |
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While it's undeniably TD and about 10 times better than what most modern Berlin School ripoff acts are dishing out, I still think it sounds like something I've heard before over the last 20 years. Nothing new under the sun.
Yes I know, I'm a hard man to please   It would be a fair bit easier for Froese and co if they hadn't already released soooo many albums, but they have -and when the sound and feel of the music 99% of the time is knitted in with the classic 80s 90s TD melodic synth work, it gets harder and harder to distinguish between eras, albums and tracks....at least it is for this puppy.Sorry Kangaroo, I know you dig this and why shouldn't you? I guess I'm too picky... |
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“The Guide says there is an art to flying or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.”
- Douglas Adams |
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verslibre
Forum Senior Member
Joined: July 01 2004 Location: CA Status: Offline Points: 17055 |
Posted: December 04 2014 at 13:15 |
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Most TD after Chris Franke's departure in '87 seems to suffer for lack of compositional diversity. More chances were taken in '70-'87 but particularly on albums like Force Majeure, Tangram, Exit, White Eagle (etcetera) where individual sections within longer pieces/suites were so varied yet seamless. Merge the edge they had back then to the sounds of the day, which IMO were the best they ever employed (especially when Johannes was in there), and TD essentially becomes their own hardest act to follow. And yes, none of the rip-off acts have ever been able to approximate the goodness found on any of the albums above, nor the concurrent live albums, though Arc's Fracture is one superb elaboration on the Rubycon sound.
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Guldbamsen
Special Collaborator
Retired Admin Joined: January 22 2009 Location: Magic Theatre Status: Offline Points: 23104 |
Posted: December 04 2014 at 13:56 |
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I know a few other people who prefer that period of TD, and while Force Majeure is one of my absolute faves of theirs, it's still the early years that I prefer. Stuff like Alpha Centauri, Rubycon, Atem and Ricochet is where it's at for me. I do like Exit and Tangram, but the darkness and intangible nature of their earlier music seem to have vanished in favour of the more melodic and does indeed also come across a lot easier on the ears.
Haven't heard that Arc album, but a few Berlin School resurrection releases that really connects with me. Steve Moore's Light Echoes from 2012 is certainly one of them. Another would be Free System Project's Pointless Reminder. Again, nothing new under the sun, but the music is just so damn effective! With modern TD I feel they can do anything. Heck Froese practically influenced most of the styles he's been incorporating into the mix since the start of the 80s, so his palette should be big enough to branch out beyond the norm.....I just feel that he doesn't. Maybe he's too caught up in it to see or hear or feel it. I'm not sure, but as I've said oh so many times before, the man needs a break or something new to inspire him. I know he gets all these ideas from ancient civilisations and old myths, but if those ideas don't receive an equally fresh and perhaps most importantly DISTINCT sound of their own, it then very quickly turns into this perpetual synth soup with little if anything remotely unique about it.....and that is a shame I feel, especially when talking about one of the greatest wizards behind the keys. Edited by Guldbamsen - December 04 2014 at 13:57 |
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“The Guide says there is an art to flying or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.”
- Douglas Adams |
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Aussie-Byrd-Brother
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator Joined: October 12 2011 Location: Melb, Australia Status: Offline Points: 7951 |
Posted: December 04 2014 at 18:35 |
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Sorry they didn't do much for you, David! I know you have a liking for a particular sort of era/sound/production!
Although I totally agree about a...sameyness (if that's even a real word?! ) to much of the modern Tangerine Dream albums, and yes, there are a TON of them, I do find that repeated listens reveals plenty of imaginative themes and ideas. It's very easy with so many albums to play one once, not hear much on it to instantly impress, then discard it right away. But I take the time to listen to one particular album of theirs over and over to really learn the compositions, and in some ways, I find it baffling that Edgar and Co are full of so many different ideas. I guess not all those ideas are to everyone's tastes, but I suppose I still find him a little more inspired than other older progressive related artists?Hmmm, I'm sure I had a point in there somewhere!
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verslibre
Forum Senior Member
Joined: July 01 2004 Location: CA Status: Offline Points: 17055 |
Posted: December 05 2014 at 11:57 |
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After the Schmoelling era, I love the Baumann era. Both trios created irrefutably sublime works. The funny thing is that one of my all-time favorite TD albums (was my #1 for many years), Force Majeure, is the duo of Froese and Franke with Klaus Krieger on drums, held over from the unique quartet formation of F/F/K with flute/voice man Steve Jolliffe (he himself being a former TD member). Or you can call them a trio, since there are three. Force Majeure is an incredibly diverse album in TD's discography. It's the third and final album in what I call their "progressive rock" phase that started with Stratosfear. These albums have so much guitar (and some bass) and keyboard sounds that are not synthesizers — plus real drums — that they're keyboard-based prog, they're not "electronic" albums per se. (That phase was re-ignited with the assimilation of wunderkind Johannes Schmoelling on Quichotte aka Pergamon.) Heck, there's even a section of "Force Majeure" that reminds me of Neu! With Stuntman released the same year in 1979, Edgar was in top form as composer/melodist/instrumentalist. And we even got another sequenzer tour-de-force in "Thru Metamorphic Rock" (following the first few minutes with Ed's crafty guitar solo that Michael Mann used for Thief). I do love Alpha Centauri, Green Desert, Phaedra and Rubycon. The spectral sound of those albums was something TD did best. As we know, many emulators, but too few who could really match it. With the Schmoelling era, their synthesizer sound technology peaked and so did the quality of their sounds. The only time the compositions and sounds seems to lack a little something was on Hyperborea. "Sphinx Lightning" sounds unfinished. "Cinnamon Road" is a nice ditty but nothing spectacular. The standout is the beautiful title piece, which is probably one of the best things TD ever recorded.
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Guldbamsen
Special Collaborator
Retired Admin Joined: January 22 2009 Location: Magic Theatre Status: Offline Points: 23104 |
Posted: December 05 2014 at 12:18 |
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Force Majeure is the only real space rock album they did imo....maybe that's why I love it so dearly. Through Metamorphic Rocks is still one of my alltime faves. Love the sound of that broken cabinet and the fact that they decided to run with it and keep it on the album. That's balls!
I do like Hyperborea and that title track indeed is mesmerising. S'got a "shimmery" quality to it that I really dig. I don't remember which famous musician once uttered this, but I am also very partial to the 'silences' in music. The room you leave open to breathe. I think that is another way of relegating the kind of "feel" that I think went missing up through the 80s and 90s with TD. I guess it got swapped for the exploration of the new synths and as you rightly point out: the compositions. Again, it's down to taste  |
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“The Guide says there is an art to flying or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.”
- Douglas Adams |
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verslibre
Forum Senior Member
Joined: July 01 2004 Location: CA Status: Offline Points: 17055 |
Posted: December 05 2014 at 12:49 |
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Once Schmoelling left is when the idea of "overpopulating" compositions with all sorts of sounds/FX started simmering, IMO. There were sonics to spare with Johannes, but they knew when to build up and break down. The last sections of "Tangram Set 2" and the cerebral space of "Remote Viewing," for example. The second-to-last part of "Tangram Set 2" isn't unlike something Vangelis would have done on Blade Runner. Schmoelling was the right man to complete the band. Underwater Sunlight is the last album that sports the qualities I loved their music for: the wistful if not somber melodies juxtaposed with jubilance, the sense of mystery, etc. Even if that album ushered in a penchant for All Things Digital (and sampled guitar, not real), the compositions were superb. Two albums later, Optical Race got some of it right but in hindsight comes off half-assed. Good tracks: "Marakesh," "Mothers of Rain," "Cat Scan," "Sungate," (most of) "The Midnight Trail." The rest was disposable. Then came Lily on the Beach with a few flashes of the TD I knew, but with Melrose, I knew something was...wrong.
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Guldbamsen
Special Collaborator
Retired Admin Joined: January 22 2009 Location: Magic Theatre Status: Offline Points: 23104 |
Posted: December 05 2014 at 13:07 |
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Funny how we hear music differently. I mean that in a good way. The manner in which you talk about Tangram makes me think of Atem ...but I know where you're coming from and I can detect what you're hinting at in the music. The few albums I really dig with the new sound that came with Tangram and Exit are actually two live releases. Quichotte and Logos. That may have something to do with both of them having one foot planted in the TD of old with loooong brooding pieces where those 'silences' are allowed to breathe if you will. Together with the highly melodic discourse of the surrounding piano, keys and synthesisers it just kinda works for me. Then again, all this talk of TD in the early 80s makes me want to revisit the hell out of Exit, Tangram, Hyperborea, White Eagle and Underwater Sunlight. Gotta say, Underwater Sunlight is an album I haven't heard in years. I remember it having some of the most horrendous sounding synths I'd ever heard in my life
I might feel differently today though(I actually might - some of the stuff I'm digging at the moment is so incredibly far removed from my younger self's musical inclinations that it simply defies belief. I certainly wouldn't have believed you if you told me at 25 that I'd been majorly into space disco at 32). |
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“The Guide says there is an art to flying or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.”
- Douglas Adams |
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verslibre
Forum Senior Member
Joined: July 01 2004 Location: CA Status: Offline Points: 17055 |
Posted: December 05 2014 at 14:25 |
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Quichotte aka Pergamon is stellar. JS' first 'official' appearance, with that beautiful piano arrangement. Parts of the album were remixed for Wavelength, while some of Logos reappears on The Keep. Just about anything done while Johannes was in the band is golden, IMO. I just have an issue with certain elements of Hyperborea which I think could have been better. Firestarter is essentially an original TD album. It's loaded with music found nowhere else.
Exit is sublime from beginning to end, IMO. In fact, something I don't usually do is listen to all these albums we're talking about in sequence, which I was doing yesterday, save for White Eagle. I hadn't done that in a LONG time. I think I'm going to put on Stratosfear pretty soon.
The sounds are starkly digital. Compared to the analog gear they wielded up through '83, it's night and day. The integrity of the compositions overcome this, though.
Would you believe me if I told you I knew a guy 20+ years ago who listened to TD and nothing else? I tried to throw some Mark Shreeve at him, but if it wasn't TD or a TD alumnus, he wasn't interested. One thing we can all agree on: Tangerine Dream will certainly never produce anything of this sort again. |
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Aussie-Byrd-Brother
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator Joined: October 12 2011 Location: Melb, Australia Status: Offline Points: 7951 |
Posted: December 07 2014 at 07:32 |
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Any Aussie prog fans (Are they many who visit the Archives?!
) who attended the Melbourne shows, you now have a nice way to remember the shows (so throw away those bootlegs!  ).Coming January 15th, an official 3 CD set will be released with both the entire Melbourne Town Hall show, with an additional CD comprised of material from the two `Sorcerer' live shows! More details here: https://www.ssl-id.de/edgarfroese.de/shop/products.php?p=01e06e Edited by Aussie-Byrd-Brother - December 07 2014 at 07:32 |
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Tangerine Dream, ACMI Theatre Melbourne 20-11-2014
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Guldbamsen wrote:
It would be a fair bit easier for Froese and co if they hadn't already released soooo many albums, but they have -and when the sound and feel of the music 99% of the time is knitted in with the classic 80s 90s TD melodic synth work, it gets harder and harder to distinguish between eras, albums and tracks....at least it is for this puppy.