PHAEDRA 2005

I have to agree with Ricochet. This album is by far one of the worst albums ever made by Tangerine Dream. It is far, far worse than any new album that they could have made. This CD makes a complete mockery of the original Phaedra. It insults it in every way imaginable. This CD would only be acceptable if it were written in tribute by a group of teenagers on the home computers. It is THAT bad. It is as uninspired and amateurish an effort as one can imagine.

Just a few words on this. It happened to me to get through it on the radio and mistook it for a "MIDI" version of their timeless masterpiece. I could have done better with my computer and any VST instrument. It sounds just like listening to a baby trying to play in tune after "Phaedra". This would tell enough about the quality of this work... is it possible to give it a half star, please?!!!!

Forget the fanatics, this is a re-make of an overrated directionless album that far exceeds the original...it is a great modern album that is coherent, accessible and highly enjoyable. I'm glad Edgar Froese decided to go for fresher sounds instead of trying to do it like the amateurish mess that was the 1973 effort.

Sorry everyone; I'm going to just disagree with BOTH camps here.

As a Christian, my music collection is roughly divided into two halves: faith and non-faith. On the non-faith side, TD are my favourite group and the original Phaedra, which I first heard back in 1984 or 5, is my all-time favourite non-faith album. It has a transcendental, imaginative power second to none. The problem with comparing the original Phaedra to anything, especially a 'remake', is that Phaedra is one of THOSE kind of albums. The kind that when you hear it for the first time, often during an emotional and magical time in your life, e.g. newly started at university, first love affair, first or best experiences of being stoned etc., because it is so different and so transporting, it becomes embedded in your Psyche! As such, comparing this album with the original is a bit like comparing your much loved wife of 20 years with a pretty young girl you pass briefly in the street. The 'who is better' comparison is both meaningless and pointless. This album, being derived from a highly original original personal favourite, yet being different from it, cannot by definition be as good.

Having said that, I still like the new album very much. I would much rather listen to it than a lot of my other music. It gave me something new and refreshing yet strangely familiar to listen to. Now I have two Phaedra's to choose from!

Here is some detail on the tracks:

The title track is much shorter and totally different from the original, though even here layered in the mix are rhythms and sounds from the original. The old and the new rhythms together give the same transporting energy and momentum to the listener's imagination that I love so much in TD of this period, but less so and less far than the original Phaedra, or at least in a different direction. It's a cleaner, less dark and scary ride - the energy seems less psychological, more physical, more like Adrenaline than Acid. The mind expanding, haunting echoing otherworldliness of the intro that draws you relentlessly into that exhilarating rhythm is missing, as are the 'bad trip' climaxes.

The second track (Adorably Pretentious Title on The Limits of Credulity) is something of a cheat; it is mostly the original with a few synth washes and other touches added or substituted. On the negative this obscures or replaces some of the flourishes that gave the eerie marine flavour to the original track, but on the positive the newly added melancholic flute line at one of the climaxes of the track really gets you where it hurts and the new deep base line underlying adds a resonant depth.

The third track is Movement of a (re)Visionary. Like the second track, underneath it's mostly the original. However the additions and changes in this case give it a very different flavour. The TD signature non-melodic introduction has been changed, though is still as equally strange. The original main part of the track was a fusion of a kind of rhythmic beat suggestive of African tribal instruments, a high pitched eerie lilting and the growing intervention of the Hammond suggesting the climax of some perilous tribal ritual. The new main part has the addition of more synth washes and a kind of bizarre industrial rhythm reminiscent of a traumatic trip on a 60s train. This makes the track sound very different though no less engaging.

I seem to be alone in that the original fourth track, Sequent C, is very close to my heart. Everybody else seems to have hated it. So here's a pretentious self-indulgence alert! The original version's minimal sound, that of the single lonely melancholic flute layered round and around upon itself, echoing out desperately into the empty darkness, is anthemic for me. The original was always too short - you felt it should stretch on forever into infinity carrying your heart and soul with it. It was one of the most mournful sounds I have ever heard. The new version is longer. The sound is somehow older, as if it has travelled far, seen and done much since we last heard it. It has new richer echoes. It is less lonely, less vulnerable, stronger, but still mourning, still sad. Maybe I'm just projecting, but for me the original was the poor wretched adolescent lost, regretful and crying in the dark. Now we see the old man, looking back on the many roads he has travelled, to find himself just as alone once again but this time with his memories washing over him.

The fifth track Delfi is new. It is supposed to be 'in the spirit' of that era of TD; I think it gets a 5/10 for that, but it is a good enough track otherwise. It has some dance type beats there, but not so much so as to have you reaching for the anti-chav cannon. It is not as intense as a track from the original Phaedra. I am undecided whether it really belongs here at all. It fits with the style of the reworked title track, and as such is perhaps best seen as a further bridge to other things.

So in conclusion, good album this is, even if the original mighty Phaedra it aint. I'll carry on listening to it and the original.

I think that the biggest mistake from TD is to have called this album "Phaedra 2005".

Lots of devoted fans (hi Rico!) were absolutely devastated while they were listening to this album, trying to find out what was the relation with the great original. Actually, there isn't any, although... This is just something else.

This being said, the evolution of the band during the nineties and the naughties was such that this work is far from being poor. Once you have switched the original "Phaedra" button and listen to this one with a fresh and open mind, there is nothing wrong here actually.

Some upbeat electronic during the "remix" of the giant song, some excellent and ambient keys for "Mysterious". This one particularly sounds just splendid (as the original one to tell the truth).

As a whole, my opinion is that it is a good work but the major mistake was to recall one of their legendary albums from the seventies and therefore mislead their faithful fans. I just listen to it as if there no relation at all.

I rate this TD album with three stars. Bear in mind that it was probably a wrong marketing title? but the "new" track "Delphi" should please most of the TD fans from the middle seventies (for the first half) and other ones from the nineties (for the second half). At least I feel like this.