No Excuse
Chromefreak | 04/06/2006
(1 out of 5 stars)
"No, Edgar, it's not necessary to toy with a miniature masterpiece. The original is one of the most beautiful mellotron-dominated albums you'll ever hear. This "redux" version is pointless and, even worse, offensive to the very spirit of creation itself. What the hell were you thinking, Edgar?"
Masterpiece; explanation for all the negative reviews
A. Chtcherbatchenko | Redmond, WA USA | 04/29/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I have seen a few negative reviews for this album, and I believe they are posted in wrong place.
There are two versions of Epsilon in Malaysian Pale. This page is about the original 1975 recording, by Edgar Froese. There is also 2007 remake, by Edgar W. Froese. You can tell the original from the remake by cover and by spelling of the artist name.
All negative reviews are for the 2007 remake, and they don't really belong here.
The bad news is that the CD of the original version is extremely hard to find as of 2008, and if you are in such luck to spot it on auction somewhere, it will be very expensive (the LPs are still in abundance though). The result is that most people buy the CD not knowing that it is actually a remake of the original work.
The original Epsilon in Malaysian Pale (1975), represented by this page, is a masterpiece. It is, by all standards, one of the finest pieces of mellotron music ever produced. It is a result of Tangerine Dream founder solo work when TD was at its artistic best.
If you love Tangerine Dream's Phaedra or Rubycon, you must give a listen to this album and I guarantee you will admire it."
THE version of this CD to buy
snowleopard | Oregon | 01/07/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The other reviewers did a fine job of pointing out how wonderful and timeless this CD is, so I don't need to repeat that. But there is something important I must add:
There are two versions of this CD. THIS is, by far, the version to buy. This is the original version, and a fine recording. The other version doesn't improve on the sound quality much at all, but instead Froese felt the need to "augment" the tracks by adding new sounds to them. This worked marginally well on his re-mixing and re-cording of older tuns on his CD "Beyond the Storm" but here it's nothing short of a disaster. The new sounds stick out like a sore thumb, and are distracting to say the least.
So yes, buy this CD, it's from a magical, wonderful time in the history of electronic music. Frose at his ambient pinnacle."