reissue
OFTHe
MONTH
8/10
38 • uNCuT • juLY 2019
I
nrecentyears,TangerineDream
haveenjoyedsomethingofa raised
profile:Survive’smusicforthe
hugelypopularStrangerThings, for
example,leansheavilyontheever-
shiftingGermangroup’searly’80s
scores,andlastDecember’sinteractive
BlackMirrorepisode“Bandersnatch”atone
pointallowedtheviewertodecidewhetherthemain
characterpurchasedTangerineDream’sPhaedra
orIsaoTomita’sTheBermudaTriangle; yourchoice
determinedthesoundtrackfortheprotagonist’s
nightmarishmentalunravellinglateron.
Yetthisisn’ttheusualstoryofcultlegendsfinally
gettingtheirdues.TangerineDreamhavebeenfirmly
inthezeitgeistbefore:1974’sPhaedra, theirfirstLPfor
Virgin,soldimpressivelywell,breaching the UK Top
20.EdgarFroeseandhisgroup,
thenincludingChristopher
FrankeandPeterBaumann,
werealsoa significantlive
drawfromthattimeonwards,
performingrapturously
receivedgigsatprestigious
venuessuchasLondon’sRoyal
AlbertHallandLosAngeles’
GreekTheater.
Ofcourse,“strange”music
couldcertainlytroublethe
chartsinthe’70s,butit didn’t
comeanystrangerthan
Tangerine Dream. Using giant
Moogmodularsynths,massedMellotrons
completewiththeirowncustomtapes,
andallmannerofeffects,theywereoften
resolutelyun-rock.What’smore,everything
theyproducedfromtheirinceptionin 1967
toatleast 1977 wascompletelyimprovised,
whethertheywereinthestudiooronstage.A lot
ofthecapriciousmusicthatthisprocesscreated
is collectedhereinthe16CD+ 2 Blu-rayUltraDeluxe
Boxset,muchofit previouslyunreleased.(There’s
alsoa shorterversionavailablethatcomprisesjustthe
studioalbumsfrom1974-79,butthelargerreleaseis
theonetoexplore,if yourbudgetallows.)
It beginswithPhaedra, thefirsttimetheyuseda
sequencertocontroltheirskyscrapingsynthmodules.
Theside-longtitletrackthatdominatesthealbum
is still hugely powerful,pulsatingpatternsrisingin
pitchastheirMoogswarmup,
tobejoinedbyphasedsweeps
ofMellotronandotherworldly
noises.Theclosing“Sequent
C”is theopposite,meanwhile,
eerieandbeautifulandledby
Baumannonechoedflute.
Forthefirsttime,weget
toheartheimprovisations
fromVirgin’sManorstudio
thatdidn’tmakethefinalcut
forPhaedra. Mostly,it seems
Froeseandthebandselected
thealbumtrackswisely,but
there are still treats worth
j u LY 2 0 19
Take 266
1 NeiLYouNg+ STraYgaTorS(p42)
2 BoBDYLaN(p44)
3 morTgarSoN(p45)
4 primaLSCream(p48)
5 priNCe(p49)
Ta N g e r i N e D r e a m
inSearchofHades:TheVirgin
recordings 1973–1979
umC-VirgiN
Germany’s electronic sensations revisited.By Tom Pinnock
reIssues | comps | boxsets | lost recordInGs
VIRGIN ARCHIVE
