GREEN DESERT

Green Desert is presented as a lost Tangerine Dream album from 1973 - a followup to Atem which was canned once the band got the deal with Virgin Records and the opportunity (and budget) to record Phaedra. However, Dream fans hoping to get a long-forgotten album in the style of Tangerine Dream's early Krautrock style should be warned that Edgar Froese spruced up the recordings with a substantial amount of newly-recorded overdubs in 1984.

This may well have been necessary to get them up to a presentable standard - we can't know for certain but I wouldn't be surprised if the old tapes were deteriorated or weren't entirely finished. However, Froese opts to perform these overdubs in a style more consistent with Tangerine Dream's approach in the mid-1980s, using modern equipment. Consequently, any historically illuminating aspects this album may have had are completely obscured under a heap of 80s synths and tinny drum sounds.

Had the overdubs been recorded using period-appropriate equipment, this album would have at least been interesting to Tangerine Dream collectors simply as an illustration of the evolution from Atem to Phaedra. But the fact is, they weren't, and as a result the end product falls between two stools, neither being an accurate representation of the group's 1970s work nor in keeping with what they were doing in the 1980s.

Taken on its own terms, it's perfectly pleasant enough, but to really appreciate it you need to get away from the "lost album" assumptions; certainly, if you come to it expecting something akin to Atem/Phaedra you'll likely be disappointed, though there are flashes of that approach detectable deep in the mix. I previously rated this one quite harshly, but on reflection that's really due to the somewhat misleading promotion around it rather than the content itself.