Search - Tangerine Dream :: Booster-Live & Previously Unreleased Recordings

Nothing Like the 70's, but...

Edward N. Britto Jr. | Three Rivers, CA United States | 12/08/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"...the seventies were along time ago.



What I don't get is why what is actually on the disk is not just represented more honestly by the clever blurbs on the shiny packaging. Why not simply just state "...Hearkens back to the early sounds of...Hyperborea, Logos, and Tangram..." since these are actual album sources. Beware: This is not a collection of epic long plays here. Only one track, Bells of Accra, is an original long play (14:27).



Perhaps Eastgate would like to compare the smooth and atmospheric tracks Metaphor Part I and II to Phaedra and Rubycon. Ok, a stretch but fine. Those are fine ambient tracks from Thorsten Quaeshning, and I must say yes, it is good to get calming spaces back into Tangerine Dream music, but it does not bring me back to the-- spare of drums and spanning 20 or more minutes-- seventies Berlin sound. Why should it? Instead Metaphor I and II have a more updated sound, much like contemporaries such as the Medieval Pundits or Karsh Kale. It stands well enough on it's own without making the claim of hearkening back.



The good thing is that even though there is a lot of rehash here in this collection-- And buyers make no mistake in assuming otherwise--, it is really brilliant and engaging rehash at times. Big Sir And The Oranges From Hieronymus Bosch is brilliant, even though it is the backing track from a Madcap's Flaming Duty song (There are two MCFD tracks on Booster). The languid guitar intro to Big Sir is awesome, and even doubled! Far out! Hyper Sphinx, which borrows heavily from the classic album Hyperborea, is a dense and irresistible remix of Sphinx Lightening, thick and punchy and Lady Monk is a great use of the Le Parc track Zen Garden (an improvement really). Logos, remixed and taken from the 1980's live album of the same name, moves as though it is the theme for Tangerine Dream goes for an Island vacation, and Tangram, which is the best remix and from Johanes Schmoellings debut studio appearance is quite stellar and driving.



Perhaps the 'hearkening' comes into play with Bells of Accra, an excellent long play of 14:27. It has range and a focused drive that pulses and intensifies, but still it stands on its own without a link to the past to hold it back. If anything, I'm still feeling more Hyperborea here, though no actual samples of that classic album are used. Bells of Acra unfolds as though you were walking the straight line of a desert horizon. This track will fill the living room nicely for years to come.



The only other track that stands as a throwback is The Greek Mirror which I must admit really hits the mark as it patiently builds up shifting rhythms to ecstatic levels comparable to Phaedra or Rubycon. Unfortunately at seven minutes, it leaves me wanting more.



Other standout tracks are Ca Va - Ca Marche - Ca Ira Encore, and Sleeping Watches Snoring in Silence which are very colorful, rich with swimming arpeggios, and grounded with strong and defined minor key melodies.



There is plenty on the disk, some tracks ho-hum (mainly on disk 2) but most really quite good. My only reluctance in not giving it a full array of stars, is that Booster does not feel like an album. It is a collection of curiosities and in my opinion, to really hearken back to the glowing seventies, we would hear something absolutely fluid, pure that is, neither remixed, commingled, nor re affected. Imagine Metaphore I and II each clocking in @ 23:00 minutes and finishing what The Greek Mirror started. That would be hearkening back. If we further imagine, those two tracks would stand on their own with a focused melodic, rythmic, or lyrical theme, needing nothing but a date stamp and credit, no blurbs in the liner notes to authenticate it or explain its intention.



So Tangerine Dream got me again! I fell for it, bought it but managed to enjoy most of the content. I even like the packaging. I would not call it a return to their long play prime however. If I could give it 3 and a half stars though I would, for what really works on the disc is well over an hours worth of music.



"

Not one of their best, but...

Mac Attack | Warren, PA | 02/10/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Okay, so this is not all new material, but it's probably one of their best releases in awhile. I've been listening to TD for 30+ years and Phaedra, Rubycon or Force Majeure this is not, but it's one of their best since Underwater Sunlight in my opinion."

You will never hear electronic music again

Boris Vita, III | Liverpool | 10/10/2010

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Tangerine Dream, a band lost in time, then found by a small audience, gradually increasing their listening base to appeal to the mainstream, and then finally becoming a dated remnant of the drum machine 80's era.

They have gone back to recapture some of the "sounds" of their past. By "sounds" I mean exactly that. They have re-created some their original sounds that were used on earlier recordings and included these vintage sounds on some of these new recordings.

PLEASE GUYS, GET RID OF THE STUPID DRUM MACHINE!!!!!!! QUIT RUINING YOUR MUSIC!!!!!

Sorry about that, but you purists know what i'm talking about here. Edgar, you too, you know what i'm talking about buddy. There's just no way to really do it without the analogue modular equipment from the 70's and 80's. Thats where you need to start Edgar. You have to get that equipment back at all costs or else you will never be able to get your sound back. If I want to play rockabilly music, I can't do it with a digital amp and a see-through plastic guitar, I have to get the real stuff. I have to go out and find an old Gibson hollow body and an old tube amp. Yeah it costs money, but thats the only way.

The modular systems with the analogue sequencers and arpeggiators define the sound that Tangerine Dream created in the 70's and early 80's (and late 60's).

Thousands and thousands of pounds of gear, that nobody wants to carry around anymore or deal with. A complex system of wiring voltage controlled oscillators and sequencing notes in a way so unique that Tangerine Dream invented a style of music by using these systems. A beautiful unique sound that can only be achieved with such equipment. IT CAN'T BE FAKED EDGAR!!!! WE KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MODULAR AND DIGITAL!!! DIGITAL=FAKE, MODULAR=AUTHENTICITY.

Stop fooling people, and find your modular systems, they are out there, they can be rebuilt.

I have to say that some of the sounds on this release sound legit to an extent. That is to say, I don't believe they are using a modular setup but they have found some old analogue synths, like the Oberheim Matrix 12 and some sort of old ARP thing. Trust me, I can tell the difference between an ARP 2600 computer plug-in and the real thing, its not that hard.

It sounds like a start towards something better, but in reality I believe that one day in the not too distant future another band will appear out of the blue, a younger band that mysteriously finds Hyperborea hidden beneath the surface of the melting seas of Antartica, still sealed in shrinkwrap, and playable on an antique Techniques turntable, powered by -----. And they will call themselves "White Eagle", not knowing exactly why but liking the name nonetheless, and they will take stage names as their obsessions with the ancient forefathers of modern music haunt their 50th century invisible optic high school brainwave education. "Phaedra", "Rubyicon", and "Atem" have searched the barren wasteland for tools to create the modules they so desire and need to fulfill the void that has existed for thousands of years. What was once a dry burnt brown desert will now become a beautiful Green Desert once again, and modular analogue music will drift through the Stratosphere and Ricochet like a Cyclone through Alpha Centauri and as the analogue waves are heard through the optics, a standing ovation is seen and heard, and the band takes the stage once again for their final Encore.

Thank you and goodnight to all..."