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Biography
Tangerine Dream were
a German synthesizer trio that has quickly become one of my
favorite bands. The group is one of those bands that might
be slow to grow on you, but once they get under your skin you
find yourself listening to nothing but for a week or more at
a time. Tangerine Dream was one of the core Kraut Rock
groups at their inception. Their earlier albums were classic
ambient space music in the German tradition of the 70s.
Tangerine Dream and other groups like Ash Ra Tempel, Amon Duul
II, Faust, Can and Neu! separated themselves from the critical
disdain of the more traditional symphonic rock coming out of
England at the time. These bands had no such "pretensions"
of trying to combine classical music and rock, but in fact,
their ambitions were far greater. They wanted to completely
deconstruct the way the world approached and heard music, and
then build it back up again.
Tangerine Dream's
first album, Electronic Meditation, featured main man
Edgar Froese along with one Konrad Schlitzner and drummer Klaus
Shulze, who would go on to the seminal Ash Ra Tempel as well
as an illustrious solo career. The album is an embryonic
take on what the band were about to become, and has some brilliant
moments along with some meandering. TD's classic period
begins with the addition of Chris Franke on the second album,
the monstrous Alpha Centauri, a glorious textural ambient
album with just the right amount of coherent melody in their
spaced out soundscapes, and continues with Zeit and Atem.
Zeit saw the crystallization of the group's classic lineup
of Peter Baumann, Chris Franke and Edgar Froese. That
album, in particular, stretched the ideas of the early incarnation
to the limit, creating an enormous double album of monstrous,
slow moving sound, eliciting fairly extreme reactions from listeners
one way or another. The band's most universally well regarded
albums are their next two, Phaedra and Rubycon,
on which the band reinvented their sound into a more refined,
cohesive blend of melodic synth textures and cold pulsing rhythms.
The rest of their catalog is somewhat spotty, but all the albums
I have from the late 70s are quite good, in the basic style
of Phaedra and Rubycon, but with their own eccentricities.
After 1980 or so, the band supposedly ceased to become of any
real interest to a progressive rock fan as the lineup splintered
and Froese gradually submerged the group into dance, new Age
and pop territories, though I personally haven't ventured past
1979's Force Majeure quite yet. -
Greg Northrup [2000]
 Electronic
Meditation (1970)
An interesting
album that started the whole Tangerine Dream phenomenon.
The album is more of a historical reference due to the inclusion
of the legendary Klaus Schulze. Electronic Meditation
is for the most part is a extremely naive yet certainly ambitious
and experimental take on early Kraut Rock. I quite like
it, and it's easy to see the genius just bubbling below the
surface of this noisy and chaotic album. I've heard comments
along the lines "any garage band could have made this album",
which should provide some warning to the potential listener
of the initial impression this album tends to give.
Stately, floating
organ, wispy flutes and percussive rhythms go along with the
noisy guitar freak-outs, and the song structures often lapse
into realms of total meandering unimpressiveness. However,
the brilliant moments that are here, as on "Journey Through
a Burning Brain" and "Cold Smoke" illustrate a band with the
right idea, just in need of a little direction. Froese
would get it right the next time around with Alpha
Centauri. Not the place to start with Tangerine Dream,
as it's neither particularly representative or among the band's
great works, and even then avowed TD fans are still split over
its merits. -
Greg Northrup [March 2001]
Click
Here for Tracklist and Lineup Info
 Alpha
Centauri (1971)
For me,
this is where it's at as far as early Tangerine Dream goes.
Alpha Centauri is without a doubt a extraordinary album
of mind-bending cosmic excurisions, truly evocative and moving,
while treading forward with an unparalled experimental edge.
The music is cinematic and awe-inspiring, moving forward slowly,
with waves of flute and synthesizer floating on top of beds
of organ-drenched atmospheres. This is outer space music
for sure, and there is certainly nothing here vaguely resembling
conventional song structures. Even solid rhythmic ideas
are a rare commodity. For the most part, these are just
sounds, embellished with half-forgotten semblances of melody,
yet managing to hold the listener in their grasp throughout.
"Sunrise in the
Third System" is truly evocative, as the powerful organ rings
in the opening of the album. "Fly and Collision of Comas
Sola" could be my favorite track, gradually building up to a
percussive climax, while the closing title epic furthers the
themese already introduced, though by this point the album gets
a tad repetitive, and one may need to take a break from concentrated
listening. Overall, Alpha Centauri is a tour-de-force
of utterly beautiful cosmic music, experimental and engaging
without falling into the drawn-out traps and over ambitiousness
that the next album, Zeit, would struggle with.
- Greg Northrup
[March 2001]
Click
Here for Tracklist and Lineup Info
 Zeit
(1971)
Zeit
is perhaps the
ultimate expression of outer-space ambiance, on the other
hand it could also be considered a dreadful bore.
It all depends on one's state of mind. The album features
the crystallization of TD's core lineup of Baumann, Froese
and Franke and the creation of what many see as Tangerine
Dream's magnum opus. Zeit is a double album
of eerie, ambient soundscapes, truly evoking the far reaches
of space. Initial listens might give the impression
that absolutely nothing is going on, just cellos or synthesizers
droning endlessly. Further listening should reveal
that there is indeed something going on, it's just
happening veeerrryy sloooooooowwwlyy. This album takes
more patience than I possess to sit through in it's entirety,
and even any one of the songs is a pretty big demand on
my undivided attention. Still, this album is meant
as late-night zone out music, and it took some effort to
separate this, and TD's other albums, from the way I usually
listen to music.
It's hard
to say whether any songs stand out over any others, at this
point they all sound fairly similar, and even though I've
listened to Zeit quite a bit, I'm still not completely
familiar with all of its ins and outs. I think both
Alpha Centauri and Atem are more condensed
and listenable versions of some of the basic ideas, and
better starting points for getting into early Tangerine
Dream. If you found those boring, don't even touch
Zeit. If you liked 'em, Zeit could be
considered the pinnacle of that style.
- Greg Northrup [March 2001]
Click
Here for Tracklist and Lineup Info
 Phaedra
(1974)
Phaedra
marks the beginning
of Tangerine Dream's most celebrated phase of existence.
This album and its companion piece, the awesome Rubycon,
were the recordings that really pushed electronic music
forward into a viable commercial entity, scoring huge hits
while still retaining an uncompromising experimental edge.
The new direction was marked by incorporating a more cohesive
and satisfying rhythmic edge via spellbinding keyboard sequences
that gurgle beneath the layers of sound. More distinctive
melodic textures also appear throughout, and Tangerine Dream
makes full use of all kinds of synthesizer technology to
explore truly mystic and cosmic soundscapes. Phaedra
is much more engaging and immediately enjoyable than
any of it's predecessors.
The title-track
is by far the most enjoyable, perhaps the greatest single
Tangerine Dream piece. This song just rules, and has
all the hallmarks of the new direction put to perfect use.
The rest of the album lets down a bit from it's opening
masterpiece, but isn't bad. "Mysterious Semblance..."
is a solo Froese piece that makes excellent use of haunting
mellotron, while "Sequent C" is a short, albeit brilliant
closer. This album or Rubycon are probably
the best place to start exploring Tangerine Dream's fascinating
music, much more accessible to a traditional prog fan than
their earlier, even more experimental explorations on albums
like Zeit and Alpha Centauri.
- Greg Northrup [March 2001]
 Rubycon
(1975)
Rubycon
is without a doubt
my favorite Tangerine Dream album, and probably one of the
finest examples of electronic and keyboard textures being
put to emotional use to date. The album continues
in the same vein as Phaedra but in my opinion is
just a tad more consistent throughout. I felt that
TD's exploration of rhythmic sequencing was brilliant on
that album, and they're utilized even more throughout Rubycon.
This is utterly intense ambient space music that drifts
from dreamy and relaxing into passages of complete nightmare.
The more cohesive and engaging melodic themes make Rubycon
by far the most effective Tangerine Dream album.
The album
is composed of two long tracks, both of which are utterly
fascinating from start to finish. "Part One" starts off
with enchanting soundscapes tthat build into trance-like
sequencer rhythms at the seven minute mark that build with
stunning intensity for the rest of the track. Foreboding
melodic keyboard themes are layered upon each other, along
with haunting mellotron passages. "Part Two" opens
in much the same free form way as the first, with menacing
choir effects atop a beatless sound collage before the piece
finally releases into an intense, amorphous sequencer rhythm
that changes dynamically throughout the track, occaisonally
falling out completely beneath waves of synthesizer and
mellotron. This is a great place to start exploring
Tangerine Dream, an incredible display of the potential
power of electronic music. -
Greg Northrup [March 2001]
Click
Here for Tracklist and Lineup Info
 Ricochet
(1975)
Today was
a Ricochet kind of day. A fall afternoon in
New York City, with a frozen-tinged air blowing fallen,
dried leaves across cement and cold concrete. Crowds
of people lurching about their daily activities, bundled
up, fighting back the penetrating autumn air. All
sound is muted; the only aural companion to this walk are
the subtle, majestic electronic soundscapes of atmosphere-peddlers
Tangerine Dream, pouring through my headphones. The
sun fades, outlining dark clouds sitting in contrast to
the crystal, icy blue sky. Subways choke with people,
buses screech, passing cars reconfigure the fallen leaves,
the incoherent babble of a homeless man is completely obscured
by towering synthesizer themes and mind-bending sequencer
rhythms. It's one of those surreal moments that sits
independent of time and without context, rendering one nothing
more than an observer of the triviality and hopelessness
of the human condition. It's the type of thing that
tends to happen when you listen to too much Tangerine Dream.
Ricochet
is in many ways one of the group's most profoundly satisfying
albums. Sitting within the band's most revered middle
period, the album retains a stylistic similarity with masterpieces
like Phaedra and Rubycon. Although a
live album, Ricochet isn't merely a rehash of previously
recorded pieces. Marking the beginning of a tradition
in Tangerine Dream live recordings, the album is in essence
a full composition in its own right. The group takes
their new compositions and occasionally throws in a theme
or rhythm from one of the previous albums, and often offers
slight improvisations over the top of them. The result
is supremely effective. As always based around the
synthesizer work of the band's core trio, though some guitar
(especially in the cosmic main theme of Part One) and sparse
percussive elements are found as well. Gorgeous, cold
and beautiful, the album is a clearly essential purchase
for any devotee of Tangerine Dream's classic 70s work. -
Greg Northrup [November 2001]
 Stratosfear
(1976)
The
follow-up to the classic Rubycon sees the band shift
their direction slightly once again, apparently not wanting
to create yet another album in the vein of Phaedra and
Rubycon. Stratosfear is a slight step
down from those albums, and sees the band streamline their
sound further, exhibiting less reliance on free-form weightlessness
and a more conventionally melodic side. More organic
instruments like guitar, piano and flute are added, but
don't make especially noticeable entrances. Some have
commented that the album was sort of the beginning of the
end for TD, foreshadowing their descent into electro-pop
mediocrity. I still think this album is pretty awesome
though, and despite not being as grim or intense as Rubycon,
still a extraordinary display of progressive electronics.
The title
track is amazing, and definitely the high point of the album.
Unbelievable, dramatic melodies atop a stunning energetic
electronic backdrop. "3 AM at the Border..." exhibits
a mellower side of the group, making dramatic use of mellotron.
Overall, the album is Tangerine Dream's most accessible
to this point, very easy to get into and to follow, and
full of compelling melodies. Still, it lacks the otherwordly
menace of previous albums, though devotees of Phaedra
and Rubycon would be well-advised to pick this
one up as well.
- Greg Northrup [March 2001]
Click
Here for Tracklist and Lineup Info
 Force
Majeure (1979)
Another
extremely solid album from Tangerine Dream, though it's
definitely the most streamlined and traditionally "rock"
album I own by them. By this point in the band's career,
Peter Baumann had left, so the group was down to the duo
of Franke and Froese, in addition to studio drummer Klaus
Krieger. The addition of drums and guitar give Force
Majeure an even more traditional and streamlined approach
than previous albums like Stratosfear.
While
still being all instrumental, the group here sounds like
a smoothed-out mixture of Pink Floyd and maybe Kraftwerk.
Still, while not being the most original album, I still
enjoy it quite a bit, and find myself playing it often.
Fans of symphonic progressive rock will definitely find
this an easy album to get into, but it's honestly not very
representative of the classic Tangerine Dream sound.
This album is often considered the last gasp of a brilliant
group whose level of quality would significantly plummet
in the coming decade, though to be fair, I haven't ventured
into their 80s material yet myself. Highly enjoyable
for what it is, but doesn't quite live up to TD's groundbreaking
former works.
- Greg Northrup [March 2001]
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