ENCORE (LIVE 1977)

This album was my first Tangerine Dream purchase, and as such, still remains one of my favorites. The four tracks originally had each taken up an album side on the vinyl version, and on the CD remain intact. Unfortunately, the 1994 Virgin CD is plagued by sloppy sound.

With the length of the pieces (all are over sixteen minutes, the longest almost twenty), Tangerine Dream is able to stretch out their ideas, and actually so some jamming. The first three pieces begin with some washes or sounds to set the tone of the piece, and eventually their way into a hypnotic rhythmic section, where Edgar Froese, Chris Franke and Peter Baumann weave their synthesizers arond each other.

Coldwater Canyon features a nice Froese guitar solo, which the additional liner notes in the CD desribes as falling somewhere between Hendrix and Page (I wouldn't go that far, but the solo fits the music).

The last piece, Desert Dream is more amorphous, beginning and ending with some excellent piano work, and between that containing a soundscape of eerie synth washes and noises.

This is still a very entertaining album.