An hour of pure joy!
Steve Benner | Lancaster, UK | 05/07/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
""Livemiles" presents two live 30-minute sets from Tangerine Dream concerts in 1986 and 1987. The first track, subtitled 'The Albuquerque Concert' was recorded during the band's US tour in summer '86, while the second ('The Berlin Concert') is taken from the concert that Tangerine Dream gave during the 750th Anniversary of the city of Berlin (still divided then, of course) on 1st August '87. This latter concert was, in fact, Chris Franke's last ever appearance with the group--he quit the band the next day--so this is something of a landmark recording in the history of Tangerine Dream, marking an end of their so-called Blue Years (and their releases on the Jive-Electro label).
The two sets played here are typical of Tangerine Dream in their heyday: large-scale works perfectly constructed and exquisitely executed, with superb use of power percussion programming, complex sequencer pulses, delightful sampler and synthesiser voicings and some lovely, mellifluous melodies weaving through it all. Everything blends to utter perfection, the tempos are constantly varied and there is not a single dull moment from start to finish. These must have been fabulous concerts to be at and this disc is a 'must have' for all TD fans.
Incidentally, about half of this album is included (in a slightly different version) on the 5 CD collection "Dream Roots Collection". That isn't enough, so even if you have that collection, you should have this disc too!"