THE OFFICIAL BOOTLEG SERIES VOLUME TWO

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-- The first review -- This 4-CD release containing two gigs (Paris, 1978 and East Berlin, 1980) has a big value of interest to collectors and dedicated fans of Tangerine Dream, while the more casual listeners may, especially at first, find it too difficult to swallow as a shapeless mass of improv-based music lacking the convenient guiding lights such as identifiable tracks or any divisions of 48-minute tracks into shorter segments. As usual for the Esoteric Recordings' releases, the box features also a booklet. Wouter Bessels summarizes the changes in the band's line-up which reflected to the musical direction as well, that occured within those years.

1978 saw the release of Cyclone, which is one of the most controversial TD albums. Steve Jolliffe added woodwinds and vocals that were at places very spooky. You either admire or hate the album, I guess. Edgar Froese himself didn't seem to have warm memories of the era. To me Cyclone is definitely one of the best TD albums ever; especially 'Bent Cold Sidewalk' is awesome, an excellent showcase for Jolliffe's highly original input. But as we know, TD's concert sets -- at least in the 70's -- were never made up of the studio album material.

Since Cyclone remained the only TD album featuring Jolliffe, the gig recorded in Palais de Congres, Paris, March 1978, is pretty unique. The line-up is Froese, Christoph Franke, Jolliffe and drummer Klaus Krieger (who appeared also on the next studio album Force Majeure, 1979). The more or less improvised music naturally lacks the tight or the more "song-structured" side of Cyclone. Nevertheless, this stuff, recognizable as Cyclone-related, is interesting and powerful, and often there's a forward-going "groove" thanks to Krieger's drums. Jolliffe doesn't use his throaty vocals very much, which is actually a blessing; the sections featuring his strange, semi-wordless shouting do sound a bit embarrassing. Sadly also flute is heard only here and there. For the multi-layered synths and their hypnotic repetitive patterns and arpeggios, this is pure Tangerine Dream.

The liner notes cite Froese's interview from 1980. To him the sold-out concerts in '78 were anesthetic. "There were no new directions, we were going backwards. And so right after the tour we split up." From Steve Jolliffe's point of view the interaction on stage worked well, but in London's Hammersmith Odeon there were serious communication problems between Froese and Jolliffe: the band leader tried to shout Jolliffe down which only made him to carry on even louder. "The audience thought it was part of the show and loved it. When we came off stage Edgar was livid and grabbed me by the collar shouting 'you do that again and I'll kick you off the stage'. That was the first sign that the end was near", Jolliffe recalls.

The new line-up, keys-only trio of Froese, Franke and Johannes Schmoelling, debuted with Tangram (1980). In January that year the trio performed two shows behind the wall in East Berlin. The difference between the two eras represented on this box set is notable. While the '78 stuff sounds more "far out" and unpredictable, and is more easily sensed as a live performance, the '80 material sounds much cleaner and more structured. Schmoelling told in a 2004 interview that "it took us about fifteen days of rehearsal. We had to come up with material at short notice. That's the reason why themes of Tangram are interweaved in the concert." The music is dominated by analogue sequencers over which the trio improvised on piano and synths.

The second show of East Berlin (the one heard here unabridged) was afterwards edited into 45 minutes (from 90 minutes) and partly replaced by studio recordings. The result was released as Quichotte (1980) and re-released six years later as Pergamon. That overlapping slightly reduces the novelty value of the East Berlin material in this box set. A die-hard fan may naturally welcome the opportunity for analytical side-by-side listenings. Anyway, at first this 4-CD set demands a lot of patience from the listener but also rewards it. Good but non-essential to any other listeners than the dedicated TD fans and collectors.