1979: Peter Baumann - Trans Harmonic Nights -  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_n7qxqc53H8Ms6oXLgkN7MBfW-uZrJMibA" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_n7qxqc53H8Ms6oXLgkN7MBfW-uZrJMibA

 1975: Edgar Froese - Epsilon in Malaysian Pale -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPeW7KNEPSw" rel="nofollow -  1994: Paul Haslinger - Future Primitive -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPmy2xWsui0" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPmy2xWsui0

(The only album I have heard from this selection) 

You'd have to be a serious Tangerine Dream fan to have listened to all of Iris Camaa's albums, although she sounds more like Lady Gaga than Tangerine Dream. 

Baumann and Hoenig have veered Casio electronic-box pop 

Schmoelling is embarrassingly pedantic and pedestrian

This fight is (as expected) between the two masters, Edgar & Klaus

Joliffe & Schnitzler are battling for a distant third. 

.

I like Peter Baumann's two albums from the late 1970's, but he's about to take a New Wave downward trajectory steeper than a downhill skier during the 1980's. 

I've listened to both his albums PP had on offer before making my comments, and was definitely not impressed. Once JS came in the band, TD was never the same again (despite reassessing positively Tangram of late). He seemed to drag them down.  I'm not enthralled by Franke's solo works either, BTW, and he was in TD for many more years than almost everyone else than Edgar.

It's clear that none of the TD alumni had the brilliance of the group in its halcyon and heyday  periods and even Klaus & Edgar won't hold in the long run (that means beyond the 70's).

I guess it's much to do with the changing times & technology. 

Epsilon in Malaysian Pale sounds like my dream album come true whenever I read about it, but never while I'm actually listening. Cyborg is 1970's Klaus Schulze and I love all of his ten first albums. So he obviously get's my vote.

-there's a handful of albums in this poll I've never heard, and never gonna give a listen. Life's too short.

Saperlipopette! wrote: Cyborg is 1970's Klaus Schulze and I love all of his ten first albums. So he obviously get's my vote.

Guess I should add that I got to know this first with the added 50 minute long and absolutely incredible But Beautiful bonus track. A 1977 live-recording with no real connection to the rest of the album. A full album in length in itself, and I've honestly listened to that more often than the actual album.

Schulze recounts in an interview "It was included in the re-release to give the "harsh avantgarde sounds of Cyborg a more 'beautiful' conclusion"

For those who don't know it already, I think it's up there with his mid to late-seventies studio releases/classics. But Beautiful would have been one of my favorite live albums*, was it ever released as one:

*I could have said the same thing about the full 51 minute long version of Sense (recorded in 1976) from ...Live... - originally released as a 31 minute edit in 1980, reissued in it's full version in 2007.

Regarding Sean Trane's comment I obviously disagree and enjoy the 1980-1985 period of TD a lot (somewhat resurrected for Stranger Things don't you know). Schmoelling certainly brought in a different approach but I absolutely love Logos Live and Poland for instance and Exit is one of their best alongside Tangram. The idea that he dragged them down in non existent. Of course you may prefer the 70's version of the band and that is understandable but my entry to the band was via the early 80's albums when music was collectively jumping itself off a cliff. I like a lot of instrumental music from the 80's though inc Vangelis, Jarre and a lot of the New Age stuff. I'm funny like that!

That's allowed, but only because it's you 

Yeah, Logos & Poland have their moments as well (on top of Tangram), but overall, their music appears quite diluted compared to Cherokee Lake or Ricochet. 

Even their movie soundtracks involvements during the Schmoelling era seemed much lamer (but more numerous, though) and their choice of films also seemed lame (I mean Risky Business   .) 

My fave 80's TD album is Green Desert 

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As for JMJ, I must say he loses me after the awesome Oxygène and the great Equinoxe albums. His 80's stuff is sooooo lame in comparison (IMHO, of course)

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BTW, if you're not familiar with Schulze's music, the next few to be featured in this serie of polls are actually awesome, with Timewind being my fave. Even his porno film soundtracks of the late 70's are better (IMHO) than 80's TD & solo.

I love Klaus Schulze's two porno film soundtracks. 

A mind boggling limited edition 50 CD box set.  

There is one currently on e-bay for £1,285.82 plus £77.36 postage! 

I don't own any CD albums by Klaus Schulze, but I do have the Edgar Froese Virgin Years 4-CD box set, which was roughly £1,275 cheaper than the Klaus Schulze box set. 

Those sporting a Salvatore Dali-esque artworks are a real must-own if you ask me. 

I'm not sure I would call it disdain , as much as a sense of: why did the continue?

Maybe it also has to do with the newer generation of instruments (the digital ones, I guess) they use, so don't get me wrong I'm not really blaming it on Schmoelling... It was more the zeitgeist.

I dislike even more what they call The Blue Years, though.

They were +/- flawless until Force Majeure Tangram, but it really gets hyper-boring (Hyperboredea ) and not just for me: the ratings plunge (check it out in our DB, but aldo on RYM or Gnosis 2000)

Think that all you like, but of course no one agrees with you

verslibre wrote: Sean Trane wrote: the ratings plunge (check it out in our DB, but aldo on RYM or Gnosis 2000) Then there's the myriad '80s TD fans not on this site, nor RYM/Gnosis.

In general I think they were still pushing the boundaries up to Tyger. That's admittedly a bit of a mixed bag but London is a great track for my money. Underwater Sunlight has a good rating on PA at 3.69 and can be overlooked but is the best of the short lived Haslinger years (also I love the track Three Bikes In The Sky from Melrose). I also firmly believe that Le Parc is well underrated, from a creative standpoint it's a real achievement IMO.

Later on I enjoy a lot of the 00's albums including all the Booster series which I own in it's entirety apart from one pesky disc. Purgatorio for me is magnificient and the later dusted off Kyoto (a random Froese and Schmoelling recording from 1984) are good late entries. Finnegan's Wake and Views From A Red Train are also decent imo.

verslibre wrote: Btw, all of the albums released by Virgin and Relativity have been reissued many times, and have been the focus of multiple box sets/collections.

I know, I checked. But Their 1970's Virgin years have generally been reissued at least twice as many times (or more) than the following albums. Entering the 1990's we've gone from countless resissues of Phaedra and Rubycon etc.. to an average of two or three. Thanks to John Peel introducing a British audience and Richard Branson to Atem the year before, from 1974 to 1980 all their albums reached the UK top forty... all three UK gold and silver albums are from the mid-1970's. And UK was (and probably is) an important nation for music - meaning "the whole world" noticed them. The surprise success of Phaedra made Tangerine Dream... well not a household name but highly visible.

-I'm stating obvious facts. You're favorite TD era's isn't their most popular, best selling etc... Critics + general consensus agrees that the 1970's was their best and most influential era. Only selected 1970's albums is ever considered for any kind of "albums you must hear before you die" - or best... anything. Why is that hard to accept? So you're in a minority among fans and listeners. It happens to genuine music fans all the time. Why not embrace it?

Ok, your avatar shows how important the Froese gang is important to you, but you have to be a little discerning as to the band's overall career. 

I totally agree with Lipopette here.

Roughly, Tangerine Dream & Alumni stopped being relevant around 79/80, and no fanboyism (not an attack, BTW ) should overlook that. Schmoelling came around that time and was unable to change the downward slope, but it's not his fault. Not even Mick Jagger joining up would've reversed TD's fortunes.

Maybe the band is still touring successfully (despite Edgar's death), but it's mainly living  on its legacy - despite the addition of a violinist and ventures to do something else to get out of their own frame.

^Yep.

verslibre wrote: I think you've missed the point of the discussion

Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. You come across as defensive and somewhat "in denial". I hit you in the head with factual stuff based on your reaction to Sean's dismissal of albums or eras that you love. When I wrote "embrace it" - I obviously knew you've already embraced Tangerine Dream extensively long ago. "Everyone" here knows that. I meant embrace the fact that you represent a minority in regards to having favorites not shared by the majority - and that they are generally less treasured, less essential/important than most of TD's classic, 1970's releases.