TANGERINE DREAM
In Search of Hades: The Virgin Recordings 1973 – 1979 uMC
TERRIFYING SUMMONINGS OF SCI-FITINGED COSMIC HORROR.
Visionary electronic meditations in a definitive box.
To say Tangerine Dream’s output is big is to understate how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. With over 100 studio and live albums prospective listeners can be forgiven for feeling overwhelmed. This 18-disc box (16 CDs and two Blu-rays) aims to be the definitive collection of their most successful and well-loved era.
After four albums fusing nascent krautrock with fledgling synthesizer technology, 1973’s seminal meisterwerk Phaedra garnered commercial and critical acclaim. Championed by John Peel, the avant-garde album charted at Number 15 in the UK and heralded a run of groundbreaking releases on Virgin. Phaedra, Rubycon (with a must-hear extended 15-minute intro), Ricochet, Stratosfear, Encore, Cyclone and Force Majeure have been remastered from the original tapes by Ben Wiseman.
Steven Wilson has created new mixes where multitracks were available: for Ricochet, two tracks from Phaedra and the previously unreleased soundtrack to the play Oedipus Tyrannus. Wilson has mixed these for hi-resolution stereo and 5.1 on the Blu-rays. All of the above is reason enough for newbies to dive in. The real gold for acolytes lies in the treasure trove of unreleased material.
As well as Tyrannus there are two CDs of outtakes from the Phaedra sessions and three full concerts including their UK premiere on June 16, 1974. During this period Edgar Froese, Christopher Franke and Peter Baumann improvised sets so these essentially comprise another six CDs of ‘new’ music. The legendary BBC Radio 1 recording of the Albert Hall gig from the 1975 Ricochet tour was previously available in 2003’s Bootleg Box Vol. 1 but here it’s newly remixed from original tapes and prepended by John Peel’s enthusiastic introduction.
The music itself is dark and exploratory, perfectly captured by Rupert Lloyd’s cover art. Tyrannus and the live shows are terrifying summonings of sci-fi-tinged cosmic horror with bass sequencers pulsing like a doomed spaceship’s engine room. From 1978 onwards, a more traditionally prog sound emerged incorporating drums and occasional vocals; single edits and hard-to-find cuts from this era have been liberated from long-deleted collections and appear as bonus tracks on their parent studio album. For visual content there’s a 68-page book, the 1976 Coventry Cathedral transmission for OGWT, a 45-minute documentary and performance for German TV.
Purists may prefer the original vinyl where analogue synths were faithfully captured, but the digital sheen applied to these classic albums sounds modern, highlighting the impact the Virgin-era Tangerine Dream had on electronica to come.