Quick Album-by-Album Tour

Mars Polaris Valentine Wheels Tournado

Ambient Monkeys Dream Encores Quinoa

Sohoman Timesquare Transsiberia

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	Tangerine Dream International

Spanning three decades and remaining a driving influence in electronic music are not easy achievements, but this band has delivered time and again, expanding the boundaries of instrumental ambience.

Their sound has evolved over time, from drifting ethereal qualities, to cyclic sequencers, to newage sedateness, to the driving intensity the band now displays.

TANGERINE DREAM: Mars Polaris (CD on Tangerine Dream International)

Recorded as a tribute to the ill-fated Mars Polaris Lander, this 71-minute CD features a highly rhythmic and often energetic sonic portrait of this ambitious exploration mission and outer space in general.

Although the band is known primarily for its synthesizers, Tangerine Dream's instrumentation has always included powerful guitar and sinuous percussive tempos.

And although percussion remains a strong framework for their music, the band (now comprised of veteran Edgar Froese and his son Jerome) mark their real power with the electronics.

A splendid mixture of keyboard riffs and unworldly sounds, coalescing into sharp songs that invigorate the spirit and entrance the mind ... sometimes even stirring the feet with their rich rhythmic sense.

The melodies are vibrant with energy, driven by a vital sense of composition intended to awaken, not lull. A grandeur echoes within Tangerine Dream's music, melodies swell the soul until it explodes from the limits of one's fleshly vessel.

This album is an excellent example that invalidates most people's misconceptions regarding so-called "newage" music.

Although Tangerine Dream often work in pieces of epic length, the songs on this CD are restricted to shorter form, averaging six to ten minutes.

This results in a compression of the above-mentioned power, giving the tuneage a tighter flow that does not lose one's attention with any slow-build of cycles.

Instead, the pieces hit hard, grabbing listeners and catapulting them instantly into the adventure of outer space, drenching the void with a drama and tension that is as exhausting as it is inspiring.

RealAudio samples:

Pilots of the Ether Belt
Astrophobia

TANGERINE DREAM: Valentine Wheels (CD on Tangerine Dream International)

After hopping from label to label for nearly three decades, Tangerine Dream have finally established their own record label, a vehicle not only for their current endeavors, but one that affords listeners a glimpse into projects previously only experienced by ardent fans.

"Valentine Wheels" is a sonic document of the band's Shepherds Bush Empire concert of November 6, 1997.

For their 1997 world tour, Tangerine Dream expanded their line-up from Froese father and son, adding Emil Hachfeld and calling back ex-member Zlatko Perica.

At this London concert, the band bridged classic pieces ("Poland", "Warsaw in the Sun", "Dolphin Dance", "Stratosfear" [sample], "Le Parc" -- best known to American audiences as the theme from the Streethawk TV series -- and the always impressive "Betrayal" from their Sorcerer movie soundtrack) and more recent compositions ("Waterborne" [sample], "Sundance Kid" [sample], "Silver Scale", and "Beach Theme").

This 59-minute CD blends these musical eras together, often seamlessly, into an emotional flow that spans three decades of source material.

The music is dynamic, but rarely intrusive -- although it is difficult to ignore, especially when the guitar commences its eerie wail.

"Valentine Wheels" is full of incidents that steal the breath and thrill the audiophile.

RealAudio samples -

Stratosfear
Waterborne
Sundance Kid

TANGERINE DREAM: Tournado (CD on Tangerine Dream International)

Another document from the band's 1997 world tour, this album features the same live line-up as "Valentine Wheels" and a wholly different set of songs.

Here, the pieces are culled from more recent releases, featuring such songs as "220", "Firetongues" [sample], "Girls on Broadway", and "Lamb with Radar Eyes" [sample].

Those familiar with these songs might recall that the LP versions often lacked a sense of power or majesty, coming from a period in which the band lapsed into more sedate tuneage.

Here, though, we find these sedate pieces infused with incredible vigor and almost deafening sparkle. This live set breathes strength and brilliance into these songs, producing a 70-minute CD that demands attention and respect.

RealAudio samples -

Firetongues
Little Blond in the Park of Attractions
Lamb with Radar Eyes

TANGERINE DREAM: Ambient Monkeys (CD on Tangerine Dream International)

This release is another document from the band's 1997 world tour, but features yet another totally different example of music.

Here, you get a taste of the pre-concert taped ambient music played while the audiences prepared themselves to experience Tangerine Dream live. Do not be deceived by that description, for these pieces are far from minimal.

The music features many of the musical frequencies common to Tangerine Dream's signature sound, blending these keyboard tonalities with samples of environmental sounds such as waves, trains and animal screeches.

The result is often abstract, but rarely boring.

Although the melodic factor is sparse throughout this 45-minute release, rhythms emerge, but fleetingly -- a pity too, for several of the brief melodies are quite interesting and deserve further expansion.

RealAudio sample -

The Seventh Propeller of Silence

TANGERINE DREAM: Dream Encores (CD on Tangerine Dream International)

Here we have another example of live Tangerine Dream, but not a specific performance.

The contents of this 72-minute CD feature a collection of encore pieces spanning the band's live sets from 1986 to 1997, culled from concerts played all over the world.

Although a clever gimmick guaranteed to appeal to fans of Tangerine Dream, the real power of this release is found in the music itself.

Thrilling, energetic and emotional, these pieces are prime examples of the qualities that established the band's international fame as electronic musicians of considerable importance.

You will thrill to the heavenly melodies delivered via majestic synthesizers. You will be energized by lively E-perc that captures an inner rhythm and starts the head swaying and the foot tapping.

Your heart will soar with the emotional grandeur of the music -- for what is more grand or emotional than an epic encore at the end of a concert almost as physically draining for the audience as it was for the performers?

Included are two non-Tangerine Dream compositions: Lennon & McCartney's "Eleanor Rigby" and Hendrix's "Purple Haze".

The band's treatment of the Beatles' classic is gentle and sentimental -- up to the point where it explodes with an unexpected fury that is both reverent and sensational.

Their version of the Hendrix song borders on raucous, dominated by searing guitars and traditional drums.

RealAudio samples -

Thief Yang And The Tangram Seal
Rolling Down Cahuenga

TANGERINE DREAM: Quinoa (CD on Tangerine Dream International)

This 50-minute CD compiles tracks from previous rare releases available only to fan club members, adding ten minutes of new material.

You get a strong dose of domineering ambience here. Ambient with a beat, often quite a driving beat. Swimming electronics and blood-quickening melodics.

The title piece, a 28-minute opus [sample] originally released in 1992 as a limited 1,000-disc fan club pressing, is filled with breathtaking peaks and churning rhythm. Dueling sequences of epic quality vie for the listener's attention.

"Voxel Ux" [sample] was originally the prize for an online competition on Tangerine Dream's Internet page in 1996. Until now, only one copy of this song existed, so you can all rejoice that this melodic composition is finally commercially available. Revel to its lush piano and calming temperament...just in time for it to switch gears and roll into an ascendant heavenly grandeur, punctuated by imperious percussion.

"Lhasa" is the new piece, being the first movement from the band's proposed "Tibetan cycle" project. Here, the sonics are predominantly softer, more contemplative, with sweeping electronics and snowflake accents. Expect no ethnomusical strains, for the "Tibetan" flair here is clearly inspired by lofty heights of chilly portend.

RealAudio samples -

Voxel Ux
Quinoa

TANGERINE DREAM: Sohoman (CD on Tangerine Dream International)

This time, let's dip way back to Tangerine Dream's concert at the Regent Theatre in Sydney, Australia, on February 22, 1982. The band line-up was Edgar Froese, Chris Franke and Johannes Schmoelling.

During this period, the band's music was less percussive, comprising overlapping layers of keyboard-triggered sequenced electronics. Despite the absence of snappy percussives, the melodies were still fluid and dynamic, with surging tones conspiring to achieve a dreamy urgency.

Fast-paced movements wash over the audience, immersing the listeners in a thick pulse of inescapable sonic drama. That was what the Aussies got to experience -- and now so can you.

For 43 minutes, this CD takes you on an excursion of playful wave forms, cycles that revolve and build with sneaky evolutions. As the CD is labeled "Part One", we can only hope to be given the opportunity to enjoy more of this past performance in the future.

RealAudio samples -

Convention of the 24th
White Eagle
Logos Part One (Excerpt)

TANGERINE DREAM: Timesquare (Dream Mixes Volume 2) (CD on Tangerine Dream International)

Back in 1995, Tangerine Dream released a CD entitled "The Dream Mixes", wherein the band revisited tracks from albums of then-recent vintage.

"Timesquare" is labeled as "Dream Mixes Volume 2", but these remixes are so extreme as to elude recognition. Delivering high on the satisfaction chart, the music on this 58-minute CD is extremely uptempo and exciting.

RealAudio samples -

Jungle Jacula
Towards the Evening Star (blue gravity mix)

TANGERINE DREAM: Transsiberia (CD on Tangerine Dream International)

Here we have a soundtrack composed to accompany a film about the Russian express railway experience. (Okay, so this one has little to do with outer space, but it is a thrilling listen and thoroughly enjoyable -- a nice capper for this overview of recent Tangerine Dream releases.)

From its initial sonic outburst, the rhythms of railway travel are mimicked by the band, now back to just Edgar and Jerome Froese.

There are no train samples here, the duplication is achieved with melodic construction. Percussives softly create the hushed clank of metal wheels on tracks, while chattering keyboards mimic the vehicular sway. Add to these tasty subtleties the presence of intriguing melodics and driving riffs.

For 53 minutes, the music will transport you from your domicile, conjuring the illusion of foreign transportation through desolate panoramas. Guaranteed to immortalize railway travel as Kraftwerk memorialized the long-distance car trip with "Autobahn".

RealAudio samples -

Yaroslaw Station
Baikal Sunrise
Chingan Night