LIVEMILES

The other reviews have described well the musical contents of Livemiles. It is full of interesting rhythms and melodies, and a worthy addition to Tangerine Dream's catalog. It should be enjoyed by anyone interested in the group's 80's music, which has a more direct and tight approach, different from their 70s output of usually free form music with improvisational elements.

Now here is some information regarding other aspects of the album, specially its place in the history of Tangerine Dream (or TD).

Livemiles marks the end of an era for TD. It would be the last album with Chris Franke, who had been the group's core since 1971 with their second release, Alpha Centauri. The group's music had been seeing in the mid 80s signs of some loss in quality, despite largely good, solid releases such as Underwater Sunlight (1986) and Tyger (1987). Livemiles was then followed by the studio release Optical Race, also from 1988, but the first without Franke and, not surprisingly, a big disappointment. After this, the albums would usually have only one or two interesting tracks, specially during the most of 1990s, which could be described as the band's dark years.

So Livemiles can be considered the furthest limit of TD's classic period, in which every studio and live album is good, very good or a classic of its genre. Some fans consider this classic period only the so called Virgin years (when VIrgin was their label), 1974-1983; others would include the later years with Johannes Schmoelling, the predecessor of Paul Haslinger (1984-85). In my opinion, TD's classic period is the longest possible, from their first release, the rehearsal recording-turned-album Electronic Meditation (1970) until Livemiles (1988).

Livemiles isn't a proper live album, much if not all its music was taken from studio recordings. That doesn't mean the music is without quality. It's all original music, not heard in any other albums, like all TD's live albums that preceded this. The only piece not entirely original is an interesting take on Underwater Sunlight's Dolphin Dance, subtle, surprising and beautiful.

Livemiles's two lengthy tracks - originally two sides of a vinyl LP - have many different segments glued together, a practice common for TD heard in outstanding live albums such as Logos (1983), Pergamon (1980) and Ricochet (1975). It's hard to pick any favourites because the music flows very well and is always enjoyable. This isn't, however, TD at their best, so probably it's not recommendable for someone getting into TD.

Bottom line: a good, non-essential album: that's 3 stars.