The last couple days have seen some major Tangerine Dream action. No, that’s not some crazy sex act that’s illegal in 20 states(21 I think). It’s also not a foreign film starring…someone foreign. No, Tangerine Dream is a electronic prog band from Germany that’s been taking us on cosmic journeys since the late 60s. In the late 70s they had a bit of a career renaissance when they began scoring films(Sorcerer, Risky Business, Legend, Firestarter, and Near Dark were highlights.) For me, I will always remember them for the Firestarter soundtrack. As a kid that really stood out in my memory. I think the movie would’ve suffered had it not been for their ominous synth collages. It would’ve been like Halloween being scored by Howard Shore instead of John Carpenter himself.
I started listening to Tangerine Dream as an adult only a few years ago. I bought Tangerine Dream’s Tangram on a whim. Well, I found a used copy for a $1, so that was my whim. But I’m so glad I did as it’s become my go to album when I need some spacey soundscapes to fill my home when I don’t feel like banging my head or feeling all melancholy. Over the summer I bought Stratosfear from the local antique(junk)store. I think I paid $4 for it. It was in great shape, so it seemed like a deal. When I got it home and spun it I wasn’t really inspired to keep listening. Something just wasn’t clicking for me. Sunday I decided to throw it on and give it another go. Man, I’m glad I did as I’m loving this record. It’s a little more sparse than Tangram. It’s darker, too. There’s something ominous about this album that reminds me of those static-y bits you hear on Boards of Canada’s albums. Those parts where there’s a whistle of a synth covered in noise as you can make out a distant voice. It’s eerie and cool all at once. Listening to Stratosfear I get the feeling of Italian cinema on side one. Side two sounds like the score for an erotic sci fi fantasy film. A chromed-out flying anti-gravity ship being flown by a martian queen with exposed breasts(as in three exposed breasts) rush through the violet broken sky as lasers whoosh by our hero’s head. His skin-tight silver suit shows graying chest hair and the emblem of Kahtar hanging from a hemp string which he was given by a young slave girl named Gnomi Ochk Nine.
At least that’s what comes to my mind anyways. So enjoy your evening. I shall enjoy mine. There’s planets to save and martian nipples to cover.
Side note, as I listened to side one this evening my son commented, “Boy, whoever is playing that flute is really good.” Eat your heart out, Ian Anderson.
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That’s some dream, you’re having there!
I can listen to them myself, but I wouldn’t know where to start. Are they more cerebral? Dreamy? Is there a good album for me to start with, a person currently with more simplistic tastes?
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More dreamy than cerebral in my opinion. Give Tangram, or the Sorcerer soundtrack a shot. Good places to begin the journey. Rubycon would be a logical next step after those.
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BTW, Earthless is awesome. It takes too much effort right now (it’s where I am in life) but it’s really good!
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Aren’t they?? They’re blowing me away at the moment.
They’ll be waiting for you when it’s not so much effort.
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i-am 69yr elderly.. avoided electronic music as an acoustic snob… remember when Bob Dylan was snubbed for using an electric guitar.? i could not avoid TangDream for an apophenic reason… now twenty years later I have about 50 cd’s, some collector 33-1/3’ds “albums” like you found… if my research is correct — Edgar Froese was born on my mothers bday June 6th, same year I was 1944 and my granduncle’s name was Edgar… there are some musical chord-sequential passages in “Livemiles” 1 and 2 that hit such goosebumps as I was driving, listening loudly with car as head-phones that it brought tears to my eyes… i-am absolutely thrive on 90% of their music… the early old, middle years, pink/blue years and modern… i-am shitty-pissed I cannot tell Edgar personally how much pleasure and cosmic appreciation he has involuted down into my wretched life…
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This is wonderful. Thanks for sharing! “Cosmic appreciation” is a great saying, and one Mr. Froese would certainly love. I’m still relatively beginning my Tangerine Dream journey. I hope they affect me half as much as they have affected you.
And I do remember Dylan getting heckled for going electric. Think of what we would’ve missed had he not plugged in.
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Phaedra was the best ‘old’ LP I bought last year – just amazingly good. Their earlier Krautrock stuff is good too, ‘Zeit’ is like listening to an amped-up lava lamp (in a good way).
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I’ve heard Zeitgeist is good stuff. I just bought Force Majeure and Cyclone today for $5 a piece.
Time to celebrate the raising of the debt ceiling in style!
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Praise be!
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And I meant Zeit. Damn auto correct, don’t tell me what I meant!
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