Tangerine Dream

jonathan_armstrong, Feb 02, 2004

Not much you can say about these guys - absolutely seminal, although they always seem to get overlooked in every "electronica history/retrospective" sorta thing Ive ever read. They did get namechecked in LFOs classic "What Is House?" at one point though: "The pioneers of the hypnotic groove: Brian Eno, Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode and the Yellow Magic Orchestra."

Its been said youre either an early TD person or a late TD person. Personally, I cant imagine most electronic fans being into their post 1980-stuff; some of the early 1980s material consists of some interesting ambient analog synthscapes but by the mid 1980s its pretty much new age schlock in the realm of Vangelis or Jarre. Of course, theres people who love Jarre and think this is just noodling drug music. Go figure.

The five most essential TD albums are, IMHO: Zeit, Phaedra, Rubycon, Ricochet, and Stratosfear. Alpha Centauri is certainly interesting too, but not for just casual listening... start with the early stuff, which is extremely dark abstract material and not strictly electronic, and move into _Pheadra_ and _Rubycon_, which are more "purist" electronic albums. Ricochet and Stratosfear start to contain some more progressive rock elements.

What makes this music so impressive, and so timeless, is the sheer craftsmanship on the part of the members. When listening to this, I still cant help but think that the majority of todays laptop-produced electronica will wither in self-deserved obscurity the moment it is produced. Hell, Edgar Froese invented half of the synths for the TD project, and then just gave away the technology since he didnt care about making a buck on it.

Was the above review useful to you? Yes  No  (report)