SOLO 1974 - 1979

In 1995 I found a used copy of Solo 1974-1979. This was at a time I was just starting to dive into the TD and solo Froese catalog (Stratosfear was my first purchase, in August 1994). For solo Edgar Froese, I only had Aqua and Epsilon in Malaysian Pale (actually spelled "Ypsilon", because my copy is the German LP pressing, the international version was spelled "Epsilon"). So I wanted to hear what his other albums were like. Well, this being 1995 no one will realize how much he totally messed about with the reissues when he got them on Eastgate, by partially rerecording those albums. Here on this compilation, he adds on new parts to some of the old material, like on Macula Transfer and Ages. And I notice that quite a bit. For example, "PA 701", he adds on some early digital PPG synthesizers that the original clearly did not have, so that buried a lot of the sequencers (so I didn't realize how much this sounded like a blueprint for "Thru Metamorphic Rocks" off Force Majeure until just recently when I finally purchased the original LP to Macula Transfer). The two Stuntman tracks were left completely alone, probably because they still sounded pretty modern by 1982 standards, even if it dates from 1979. I'm not familiar with Ages (wasn't a high priority on my list due to mixed reactions), but "Tropic of Capricorn" here was an excerpt and "remixed" (that is, adding on new stuff). "Epsilon in Malaysian Pale" can only be an excerpt since the album only consisted of two side-length cuts, luckily the mix was left along, sounds exactly as you would hear on the original LP. "NGC 891" originally came from Aqua, although really, this should have been called "NGC 891 '82" as it's a total brand new rerecording of, which is completely pointless, it sounds much more modern and updated, naturally, with all those polyphonic synths, but totally lacks that wonderful spacy psychedelic vibe I came to love of the original (the original was much longer, features that Dummy Head gimmick for the sounds of jets, the sequenced notes, the trippy synth sound effects). I don't know how to recommend this, but since many of the songs had new stuff added on, it gives these songs a different dimension from the original, but I don't think they're exactly improvements, but doesn't make them worse. Aside from the sole Aqua song being totally rerecorded from top to bottom. Not bad, but you should get his other solo albums too.