Search - Tangerine Dream :: Dream Encores

A very interesting curiosum of an album

Steve Benner | 01/19/2002

(3 out of 5 stars)

""Dream Encores" is one of the four concert CDs that were dating from 1997. Actually, it's a concert compilation of material ranging anywhere from 1986 to 1997. This release is interesting from a few points of view. First of all, only the actual encores found its way to this album, which means that the CD is a curiosum, one of its kind. I never heard of any band, electronic or otherwise, which would decide to publish their encores, and encores only. Well, if in a concert the band plays numbers from their studio albums - and most rock and roll (largely defined) bands do just that - then such collection would be a little ridiculous, since there would be nothing that would distinguish a regular live album from encores! With Tangerine Dream, it's a bit different. In the distant past, the proper Tangerine Dream didn't really play encores, since their live performances consisted of one continuous improvisation! Later, with the 1980s and the advent of short form in their musical heritage, things changed, since their compositions steadily started to resemble regular melodies. "Dream Encores" as a collection offers us if not exactly rarities, then curiosities, at least to some extent. Some of the featured tracks do not appear elsewhere, which is an innovation with respect to their practices in the 90s. What can I say - too many of recent albums feature the same material, mangled over and over. Sadly, this also concerns this album, thus I admit I have mixed emotions. At least here the idea is clear - these are encores. Sounds fine to me. The most interesting pieces on this long album are the covers of other artists' famous numbers. If you have listened to TD long enough, but are not a complete maniac, you will be surprised with what awaits you here. Well, the third track on "Dream Encores" is 'Eleanor Rigby' composed by no one else but The Beatles themselves. While no big fan of the latter, I admit that the Froeses did a decent job of electronizing the classic. Compared with other attempts at the same (see Artur Lason's electronic cover of 'Eleanor Rigby' with some vocal parts recorded a capella!), it sounds good. On another CD, the recent compilation of rarities, "Ancient Dreams", they included a cover of The Animals' 'House of the Rising Sun', which is also decent enough to be pleasurable. Another cover on "Dream Encores" is 'Purple Haze' by Jimi Hendrix. Froese senior and guest musician Zlatko Perica cut the mustard with this rock and roll classic, and it's much fun, really, considering that Edgar's style of playing always diverged from the usual, more often than not unrecognizably muted by synthesizers. What else do we have here? Well, the second half of the album contains one classic composition, 'Dominion', which was a favorite encore back in 1982, in the age of sterile, clean music most of the band's followers are very fond of. Yes, this version from 1986 does not differ much from the original one featured on Logos of 1982. So what? It's too good to walk over, and it's always nice to listen to. That can't be said about the other two older tracks, though - 'The Midnight Trail' from "Optical Race" of 1988 and 'Rolling Down Cahuenga' from "Melrose" of 1990. They are almost identical to the studio versions, and compared to 'Dominion', they seem a little bland. For me, as for many fans, any concert recording from the years 1988-1991 is worth listening to, because in those years, the band didn't release a single concert album. Well, that's because it would hve been identical to the studio albums! they just replayed stuff from playback, I guess. If you are looking for a good album with more of these, buy "Ancient Dreams", where you will find a self-cover of 'Phaedra', entitled 'Phaedra of Nottingham'. It's superior to what you find here. The rest of the album is not too special, although 'Fort Worth Runaway One' (the CD sleeve contains a typo!) is different from their output of the recent years, as hard as it is to believe. Not terribly engaging, but different enough, which I would like to emphasize, since many of their studio tracks are indistinguishable from one another. 'Order of the Ginger Guild' is a speedy techno track (yes, I know, these are hard times for us), but again better than their studio albums. Omitting the forgettable 'Oriental Haze', 'Story of the Brave', 'Catwalk' and 'Towards the Evening Star' (see my review of "Tournado"), let me focus on a long, remaining track, 'Thief Yang and the Tangram Seal'. Much in the spirit of order of the 'Ginger Guild', namely in the spirit of techno, it's another self-cover of their own old material, "Tangram" from 1980, and "Thief" from 1980. Although these albums were recorded in the same year, the former belongs to a completely different, Classic Era than the latter, which started The Hyperborean Era. I could wrinkle my nose at the sacrilege of using old pearls to create techno dance songs, as I did in many reviews, but really, considering that this is an encore, and that "Dream Encores" was accompanied by a regular, shallow live release of "Tournado", I think that all things considered, this is really fun. At least Jerome Froese tried to prepare something for a change - for the end of the gig. Perhaps to wake everyone up and thus give a hint that they should finally wake up and go home?"