Search - Tangerine Dream :: Ricochet

First live album and a great one

BENJAMIN MILER | Veneta, Oregon | 01/31/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Ricochet, released at the end of 1975 was Tangerine Dream's first ever live album and it's not like other live albums you might own where a group concentrates on the hits and fan favorites and maybe throw in a surprise or two. This was brand new material. Fresh on the heels of Rubycon (one of the highlights of electronic music, as far as I'm concerned), the band delivers yet another album certain not to disappoint. The music still concentrates on sequencers, relying heavily on rhythm, and it proves these guys were able to pull it off live. The album is basically one piece divided by part one and two (thanks to the album being originally released on vinyl). The Mellotron has been cut back a bit on this recording, but it's used some. The album is less atmospheric than Phaedra or Rubycon, but that shouldn't matter with the top quality material the band was presenting us. Listening to this album, I really can't help but think this had a huge impact on Radio Massacre International, a British trio that's released a ton of CDs in the past nearly 15 years (1995's Frozen North being their debut CD). Go listen to something like Emissaries (2005) and you'll hear a lot of Ricochet rubbing off on those guys (RMI are also big time Mellotron users and seems Edgar Froese in general rubbed off on them in regards to tron use, and I understand they actually bought Tangerine Dream's tron tape frame for their use).



Really, Ricochet is totally essential to your electronic collection, proving to everyone that the lineup of Edgar Froese, Chris Franke, and Peter Baumann is not only the finest lineups of TD, but probably electronic music's finest, period."

Trance-inducing elements all here

N. P. Stathoulopoulos | Brooklyn, NY | 06/19/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"
Another essential TD disc, this live album captures 'the sound' of this group in their classic mid-70s lineup...perhaps the quintessential TD sound.



This is two long tracks, but don't let that turn you away. If you like the soundtrack to Sorcerer, you will love what they're doing here. While Sorcerer has more tracks, shorter and succinct, Ricochet incorporates many of the same sounds and sequencers (remember that the Sorcerer music was scored while Friedkin was still filming in the jungle, hence the gap from this 1976 performance and the film's 1978 release). Amazing that this was performed with only three players, sounds well coordinated with cutting-edge equipment.



As others have noted, this is not a complete show. I believe this is taken from two separate shows, and there is some doctoring and dubbing. Of course, this was (and is) fairly common practice with live albums in order to release something of high quality that the band thought was representative of the live show, but purists want the uncut, undoctored stuff. The Bootleg box sets that appeared several years ago, along with the excellent Bootmoon series, helped quench that thirst. Still, this sounds excellent, it's very clear and without that muddiness present even on the studio albums.



A classic representation of those TD sequencers, absolutely relentless, along with a few industrial sounds thrown in (the ominous clunking midway through Part 2). This particular release has been around for some time, though am curious if they plan to re-release these classic albums, perhaps with bonus material. Highly recommended for electronic music fans."