Which Tangerine Dream album should I buy next? - Progressive Rock Music Forum

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Meltdowner View Drop Down

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Posted: August 30 2015 at 13:13

The Dark Elf wrote:

Buy the one without the vocals.

No love for Cyclone? Tongue

Guldbamsen View Drop Down

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Posted: August 30 2015 at 13:18

Cyclone is a far better album than what many folks allude to.
Perfect album to play at an ostridge safari.

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Posted: August 30 2015 at 13:20

Ricochet and Stratosfear. All the albums that were already mentioned in this thread are pretty good. But these two are my favs and they shouldn't be very hard to get into like their more experimental stuff.

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Posted: August 30 2015 at 13:23

Guldbamsen wrote:

Cyclone is a far better album than what many folks allude to.
Perfect album to play at an ostridge safari.

I agree, I consider it more a Space Rock album than Electronic though.

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Posted: August 30 2015 at 13:24

It's rocky allright (not the boxer).

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Posted: August 30 2015 at 16:03

Meltdowner wrote:

Guldbamsen wrote:

Cyclone is a far better album than what many folks allude to.
Perfect album to play at an ostridge safari.

I agree, I consider it more a Space Rock album than Electronic though.

cyclone is pretty good, but somewhat atypical. I LOVER "Mystic Runner missed by endless sender" or whatever it's called. Definitely space riock vs electronic, but so is Force Majeure kinda. Force is my favorite TD album by quite a margin. The title cut and "Cloyudburst Flight" are both top notch, the latter probably being my fave TD piece, starting quietly, building up to a violent peak and settling back at the end. Kinda like life LOL

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Posted: August 31 2015 at 01:39

Rando wrote:

On the side you might try Edgar Froese's "Metropolis" (Dbl Vinyl Lp)

^Just to clarify, he means Ages ("Metropolis" is the first piece on Side A).

I wouldn't recommend that particular album to a new listener, but the next two solo albums Edgar recorded, definitely: Stuntman (1979, my personal favorite) and Pinnacles (1983).

Eventually, of course, one should have them all.

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Posted: August 31 2015 at 03:21

This is a kind of band which first albums are best to begin with, I started with Electronic Meditation, then went through Zeit... I think all albums from pink years are worth buying. From virgin years my favourite are (random order)

Phaedra

Force Majeure

Stratosfear

Rubycon

Ricochet

Tangram

Encore

I think Cyclone is not so bad but I like these above much more. I don't know later albums, I listened to some but it was not the TD I like. Unhappy

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Posted: August 31 2015 at 03:54

melotron98 wrote:

This is a kind of band which first albums are best to begin with,

Too late for that anyway. And I'm glad I started with Stratosfear and not Electronic Meditation myself.

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Posted: August 31 2015 at 04:28

And I'm glad I started with Journey Through a Burning Brain... still one of my very fav TD's pieces. Big smile

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Posted: August 31 2015 at 05:32

This thread reminds me of the old (i.e., pre-sat nav) joke about a motorist who is lost in the sticks so stops and asks for directions to the big city from a country boy leaning on a farm gate. The lad thinks for a bit and then replies "Well, if I were going to the big city I wouldn't start from here..."¹

Because Tangerine Dream's discography is so vast and spans a 44 year period of several distinct eras (Pink, Virgin, Blue, Melrose, Seattle, Millennium, Eastgate and now Quantum) and a pretty wide variety of musical styles, where you start often determines where you go next.

This is why I asked Condor why he started where he did with "White Eagle" and "Exit" since they are at the tail-end of the Virgin years and mark a transition in musical style for the band. Unfortunately his reply didn't help me much but from this starting point I wouldn't jump straight into their early discography for example, or into any of their later material, in fact I would urge caution when approaching the Pink era as these Kosmische Musik albums are radically different to everything that came later.

So I would consider smaller steps either forward or back in time using the PA album ratings as a guide and only picking albums with higher ratings than the two he started with, such as "Underwater Sunlight" or "Force Majeure" to name but two, but the suggestions made by others are just as valid.

I'd also consider/recommend some of their live albums from those two eras as these show a slightly different side to the band (to my ears they are more organic and less sterile than their studio offerings) - "Poland - the Warsaw Concert" and "Ricochet" are highly rated for good reason. Most (but not all) live TD albums are unlike live albums from any other band in that they feature music that cannot be found on studio albums.

¹Of course the secondary punch-line to that joke is the motorists responds with "You are not very smart are you?" to which the country lad retorts "well, I ain't lost..."

Edited by Dean - August 31 2015 at 05:35

What?

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Posted: August 31 2015 at 09:28

It is exceedingly difficult trying to help people who won't help you help them.

-Basically just means that it is a lot easier trying to figure out what to recommend people, if they start out telling a little bit about themselves - maybe something that illustrates their tastes perchance?

"Yeah I started out in the underground polka milieu and then later when I was abducted by a circus and had a surfpunk band as roomies - with trombones - and thought you know that it sounded cool with small dogs whining in the back of it all. I realized how much beauty there was in horrible sounds and immediately started my love affair with the avantguarde noise zeuhl crowd"

"Ok then, what you probably are looking for" I says then "is the sweet motherload from Japan. You need some Ruins, Boredoms, Taj Mahal Travellers, Amygdala, Merzbow, Date Course Pentagon Royal Garden and if you're really up with it and together with the cool breezy PA nihilist freedom fighting banjo convention, then you really need some Omoide Hatoba!!".

Other possible benefits of online communication include fantastic pie recipes, Spanish lessons en route and my personal fave: free avocados in the men's room.

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octopus-4

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Posted: August 31 2015 at 09:54

dr wu23 wrote:

Nogbad_The_Bad wrote:

Depends what you want, if it's more stuff like White Eagle & Exit I'm not sure I can help. If you want what would be considered their classic Berlin School stuff go for

Phaedra

Ricochet

Stratosfear

Rubycon

If you want their earlier more experiment psyche drone stuff

Zeit

Atem

^ this...those are all excellent choices by Nogbad.

Exactly the essential...

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octopus-4

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Posted: August 31 2015 at 09:57

Guldbamsen wrote:

It is exceedingly difficult trying to help people who won't help you help them.

Other possible benefits of online communication include fantastic pie recipes, Spanish lessons en route and my personal fave: free avocados in the men's room.

Taj Mahal Travellers looks very similar to Zeit for me.

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Posted: August 31 2015 at 10:10

I agree Luca.....and then again there is something uniquely Taj Mahal Travellers about Taj Mahal Travellers that you just don't get anywhere else. Some kind of magic mix of Terry Riley, Stockhausen and an ethereal take on Faust.

Edited by Guldbamsen - August 31 2015 at 10:10

“The Guide says there is an art to flying or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.”

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verslibre

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Posted: August 31 2015 at 14:21

Dean wrote:

To I would consider smaller steps either forward or back in time using the PA album ratings as a guide and only picking albums with higher ratings than the two he started with, such as "Underwater Sunlight" or "Force Majeure" to name but two, but the suggestions made by others are just as valid.

^Yep. Since I like multiple eras by the band (but loathe most of the albums largely influenced by Jerome), when someone tells me what they've heard (and presumably what they like), I emphasize the recordings by the same line-ups. He likes Hyperborea, so I'd never tell him to check out Electronic Meditation or The Dream Mixes.

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Posted: September 04 2015 at 11:34

verslibre wrote:

condor wrote:

I have White Eagle and Exit as well as the track Mysterious Semblance at the Strand of Nightmares. Any help would be gratefully appreciated.

Exit is one of my favorite TD albums (it happened to be my introduction to them 30 years ago). That and White Eagle were recorded by the Franke, Froese, Schmoelling line-up.

I'm not sure how large your budget is, but at the very least you want the other albums by the same line-up. The ones I would acquire first: Tangram, Thief, Wavelength, Poland.

Pergamon – Live at Palast der Republik (1980) — the first studio live album

Tangram (1980) — the first FFS studio recording

Thief (1981) — an essential album, the first FFS original soundtrack, with a sound very close to Exit as it more or less utilizes the same sonic palette

Logos – Live at the Dominion (1982) — second FFS live album, some of the music turned up on the band's soundtrack of The Keep

Hyperborea (1983)

Wavelength (1983) — a brilliant score with fantastic sounds and a unique remix of "Remote Viewing" from Exit, called "Sunset Drive"; this was released last year as a remaster with restored artwork, new liner notes and much improved sound

Poland – The Warsaw Concert (rec. 1983, rel. 1984) — hands down, one of the greatest live albums of all time — four original suites of awe-inspiring music with melodies to spare, and some of the best sequences they ever laid down

Le Parc (1985) — more contemporary sounding but just as compositionally integral as its predecessors — also the final recording by the FFS line-up (Johannes Schmoelling left, to be replaced by Paul Haslinger on 1986's Underwater Sunlight, another classic TD album)

You mentioned you also like "Mysterious Semblance at the Strand of Nightmares," so naturally you need the entirety of Phaedra, the title suite of which is among TD's most famous excursions.

I'm going to assume you'll be swallowed whole by the immersive brilliance that is Tangerine Dream, and you'll eventually want three other great studio albums of the '70s: Rubycon (1975), Stratosfear (1976), and Force Majeure, which ranks highly with man non-TD fans as well. All of these can be readily listened to in HD on YouTube.

says it all pretty much