Tangerine Dream Appreciation Thread

Actually, I'll get the ball rolling with a really lovely and subtle piece from one of their recent albums, `Chandra - The Phantom Ferry: part 2', the opening track:

You know, Tom, I first heard TDream in a doctors surgery! I was having this laser treatment on my face, and as I was getting prepared, I saw a small stereo on a bookshelf in his studio, with the CD of `Phaedra' sitting next to it! I asked the Doctor about it (at this stage, I only knew OF Tangerine Dream), and he asked did I want to hear it during the procedure. I said `Ok', thinking it would be some peaceful New Age album!

Anyway, as he was working away with this laser, causing me great discomfort, I had to wear these goggles to protect my eyes, and they started fogging up (essentially blinding me while I was wearing them), and I honestly found the music really quite terrifying and mysterious! Very suffocating! Anyway, it took me years to give them another try, but...well, worked out better the next time around!

Strange, it doesn't sound nearly as dark and unsettling these days as it seemed back then to me!

What was the last album of theirs you would have got on vinyl, Tom? Probably `Optical Race'?

Yes, Sam, not the `laser show' I had in mind when thinking of Tangerine Dream!

Cursed `Hyperborea'! That and `White Eagle' are two I don't have either on LP or CD! I keep having to spin the Youtube clips! I will get them, I'm just after the specific Virgin reissue editions of those two. Ebay will be my friend

OK, I picked a random TDream CD for the drive home, thoughts on this one:



QUINOA (1992, but really 1998), described as the following:

"Quinoa was released first in 1992 as a limited edition of 1,000 copies and sent as a gift to the members of the then discontinued official TD International Fan Club (TDIFC) only. Thus, this release became a very rare collector's item. The last CDs which had remained in TD's stock had been sold during TD's German tour in 1997 for 50 DM each. The CD featured one single composition of nearly half an hour, its title originating from a kind of grain which was a essential part of the meals of the Incas in South America.

In June 1998, TD re-released this album on their then new label TDI, including two bonus tracks: `Voxel Ux' had originally been composed for a website competition on TD's official internet homepage in 1996. There had been just one single CD-R released for the winner of this competition only. `Lhasa' was described to be the first movement from a so-called 'Tibetan Cycle', containing six other movements which were unreleased so far. Two years later TD released the cycle in form of the album `The Seven Letters From Tibet', `Lhasa' was extended by an opening of some four minutes and became the fifth composition of the cycle, being re-titled `The Blue Pearl'. "

******

It seems fairly well received by many TD fans (although I've noticed RichardH's 1 star review on the Archives here! ), some even seemed to consider it a kind of modern `Tangram'! That's definitely being waaaaaaay too generous, but it's a pleasant and easy undemanding listen. Most sections are simply nice and breezy (and it's cool to hear 90's TD offering lengthy longer tracks), but there's a stretch in the middle of the title track that's bombarded with badly dated 90's programmed drums (No doubt Jerome's doing?! ). The final track is a fancy classical-inspired piece, rather grand.

A mostly worthy if still kind of forgettable 90's `TDream release I suppose.

Cheers for the thread, Aussie ! 

I walked into a record store, saw the Stratosfear cover, listened in the discotique booth and bought it. Heck I must have been 13. Realized now that TD were giants around then and their sound unique. Popol Vuh and Ash Ra Tempel came much later but Klaus Schulze was always in the frame as far as german music goes. Still cant understand Faust

Edited by Chris S - February 05 2015 at 10:24

In high school, when I was first handed a tape that contained a few tracks by Tangerine Dream, I only knew the name via the film The Keep, and I recall that the music had indeed been pretty cool. At the time, I had no idea that a band that recorded this sort of music, let alone the genre, existed. My mind was about to be blown wide open like a flimsy door in the path of a...cyclone.

Edited by verslibre - February 05 2015 at 19:25

My earliest recollection of them was hearing Force Majeure on the Friday Rock Show and although I didn't buy the album it stuck with me and eventually I bought it on cassette and first played it in a multi storey car park on my car stereo. WOOOSSH BANG KAPOW!!! Ok I know that sounds like that old Batman series but I would struggle to explain the impact it had on me. Never heard anything else like it.

richardh wrote: As I've mentioned before I am very fond of the 1979-1985 era of TD. Even the oft overlooked album Le Parc has some gems like Yellowstone Park and LA Streethawk.

^ Great photo!

Edited by AEProgman - February 06 2015 at 14:00

verslibre wrote: AEProgman wrote: I have not ventured into anything past the Le Parc album, so I am not familiar with any of the latest stuff.  Anyone got any suggestions of the later stuff to start with...say late 90s on?   You need Underwater Sunlight (1986), Optical Race (1988), and Miracle Mile (1989) at the very least, before you move past the '80s.

Perfect choices, Verslibre. Definitely check those three out especially, Jim, and the `Firestarter' soundtrack from the early 80's is pretty special as well.

(Or is it `Firewalker'?! Mental blank! I know one of them is a Chuck Norris movie...so not that one!

Verslibre, I'm pretty sure (for what it's worth?) a bluray of the movie `Miracle Mile' is due in the next few months, not sure if it's actually been officialy announced yet. I just recall a post on one of the Facebook pages for a label I buy blurays of.