Tangerine Dream Solo: 2nd Album

Sean Trane wrote: 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

Yes, Risky Business, a hit film for which they created wonderful music, as they did for Thief and The Keep.

That had less to do with Schmoelling's arrival and all to do with Froese's inking one deal after another because, obviously, electronic film scores were becoming the order of the day and they blew everyone away with their music for Thief (which bears Schmoelling's signature, and proudly).

Remember, TD were given synth prototypes to work with and were also involved in their production. Thanks to Chris Franke, they had the earliest Prophet-5 Rev2 and Jupiter-8 models, and those are two instruments that are lauded to this day for their unique sounds and architecture.

I think your disdain for post-'70s TD has less to do with Schmoelling and more to do with sounds and textures directly informed by technological advances. Yes, they sounded a bit more "rock" and less "space" but that by no means was a bad thing. Nobody could listen to, say, Hyperborea and exclaim "How far they've fallen!" since that's probably the most retro-sounding of the FFS albums.

P.S. I love Green Desert, and could care less how much of it was created in the '70s/'80s.

P.P.S. Tangerine Dream created two complete scores for Risky Business. The first was driven strongly by Rhodes piano and layered strings and was rejected by the director for lacking character. The new music they made under a time crunch shows what capable guys they were!

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.

Psychedelic Paul wrote: The Linda Spa Years - Tangerine Dream's best era by far!

^ of course I purchased the Pilots of Purple Twilight box set and not the earlier one!

1. Thorsten Quaeschning - The Munich Session 

Saperlipopette! wrote: 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?

I think you've missed the point of the discussion. It's not about unit sales, favorite line-ups (or which is better/best), it's about bias and unfairly denigrating the evolution of a band, not dissimilar to how certain Rush fans were put off by the changes in their approach in the '80s.

For the record, I've "embraced" Tangerine Dream extensively, for decades: I've owned multiple versions of every album, bought every remaster, collection (if it contained music I didn't already have) and most of the live albums (up to a point), and carefully approached solo albums beyond Froese's, Schulze's and Schmoelling's (and even Schulze has a number of albums that are forgettable, since he released so much of it). I consider everything they produced all the way up through their time with Private Music to be essential, for various reasons.

Rubycon, Stratosfear, Force Majeure, Exit and Le Parc are probably my top five studio albums (at this stage), and right there, you have three different line-ups, and each recording has a sound that sets it apart from the others. That's what Tangerine Dream were known and lauded for — up to a point.

verslibre wrote: Saperlipopette! wrote: 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? I think you've missed the point of the discussion. It's not about unit sales, favorite line-ups (or which is better/best), it's about bias and unfairly denigrating the evolution of a band, not dissimilar to how certain Rush fans were put off by the changes in their approach in the '80s. For the record, I've "embraced" Tangerine Dream extensively, for decades: I've owned multiple versions of every album, bought every remaster, collection (if it contained music I didn't already have) and most of the live albums (up to a point), and carefully approached solo albums beyond Froese's, Schulze's and Schmoelling's (and even Schulze has a number of albums that are forgettable, since he released so much of it). I consider everything they produced all the way up through their time with Private Music to be essential, for various reasons. Rubycon, Stratosfear, Force Majeure, Exit and Le Parc are probably my top five studio albums (at this stage), and right there, you have three different line-ups, and each recording has a sound that sets it apart from the others. That's what Tangerine Dream were known and lauded for — up to a point.

Sean Trane wrote: Roughly, Tangerine Dream & Alumni stopped being relevant around 79/80

Another dismissive statement grounded in bias. Please point out "how" they stopped being relevant around that time. If you don't like what they produced after 1980, that's totally different. (I know you don't like Edgar's guitar playing, you've told us.)

Please explain the constant touring, including the subsequent full-length North American tours of 1986, 1988 and 1992; the subsequent signings to Relativity, Private Music, and Miramar, before the formation of TDI; the continued arrangements with PPG, Roland, Sequential Circuits (etc.) well ahead of the instruments' retail street dates; the numerous original film scores they created that thrill me, but make you break out in night sweats.

Btw, while I think it's a rather patchy album, the first album for Private, Optical Race, moved around 150,000 units in the States (no idea what it sold in Europe, but it must've been more). The other albums for Private did nearly as well, and TD enjoyed healthy sales here under Miramar's banner, well into the '90s.

Edited by verslibre - January 17 2024 at 15:42

I believe one aspect of the relevance of TD in the eighties was their touring and success in communist eastern Europe at a time when there were very few Western musicians going there, if any at all. Of course being instrumental (and actually pretty socialist in interviews) helped with that. But still it was about the music in the first place, and many in the east got first acquainted with Schmoelling era TD.