PHAEDRA

Tangerine Dream is a band you kinda have to know to understand the legacy of electronic music, and the impact it has had in the modern day culture. I think if groups like Kraftwerk segmented the legacy of electronic dance music to the public, Tangerine Dream segmented the legacy of ambient electronic music. Tangerine Dream's legacy cannot go understated, with them popularizing ambient music, and the German 'kosmische musik' scene to a wider public, much thanks to their signing on Virgin in 1974. I do really like the music of Tangerine Dream (though with how many releases they have it kinda becomes a bit much to walk around in). With that being said, most, myself included, consider their 70s output, more over their Virgin records output, to be some of the best ambient music out there. Personally I prefer their more krautrock and spatial fixes on their Ohr records releases, but what they put out on Virgin is also quite amazing with stuff like Rubycon, Stratosfear, and Force Majeure, some of which contain some of my favorite pieces of TD stuff. However, one Virgin record release that I have disliked for a long time happens to be a fan favorite among many, that being Phaedra Now the keyword here is 'disliked', past tense. Now, after I had relistened to it again, I realized that I was quite missing out on this pretty beautiful ambient working from the band.

I think most, if not all songs on here have a distinct beauty found within the seams, and personally I feel like it is all within the synths. The synths found here, while clearly not in a mainstream or technical peak they hold, still feel like they create a lot of beauty and space within the record, glistening through spacey ambient textures that are as beautiful as they are mysterious. I think it is best showcased in the last song of Sequent 'C'. Despite this song's short length, it contains a ton of beautiful and introspective moods and textures, all utilizing this combination of atmospheric synths and flutes to create this feeling of sadness, and mystery.

You know, for some reason I feel like this type of music and sound TD is going for here kinda reminds me of this recent indie horror game called Signalis. I didn't play the game, I simply just watched a review of it, but I feel like that game, its world, its story, and just the whole atmosphere it contains seems to just fit hand to hand next to Tangerine Dream's brand of ambient music, though I guess since it is a horror game it'd fit a bit more with TD's Ohr stuff since that era's music is a lot darker. The guys who worked on the game are also German, similar to Tangerine Dream themselves. I guess German art really likes sci-fi and space a lot, but I digress.

I think, now, this album is really great, but still after listening to it I still have problems. I think my main issue here is that this album feels like it is in a weird middle half between albums like Zeit and Atem with stuff like Rubycon and Stratosfear, being this weird mashup of the dark TD sounds with the lighter and space driven TD music, and I think that is kinda why I didn't like this album for my first go around as it just never quite stuck well with me, or felt fully realized. It's kinda like Genesis' And Then There Were Three, being this bridge record between Genesis' more pastoral prog days with their 80s pop rock hits, creating this weird mishmash of the two. Phaedra in an extent is like that to me, being this, albeit good, but weird mishmash between the ambient TD and the dark TD.

I am also not that huge on the tracks of Phaedra, and Movements Of A Visionary. Now I think they are pretty good tracks, but if you asked me a few days ago I would probably brush them aside, since then, and even a little still now, they contain quite a bit of muddy filler to get through in my opinion, and they feel like a lot of waiting just to get to those bigger moments, which I wouldn't mind unless they keep those wait times a bit more interesting and coherent with the rest of the music. I think ambient music works best when you make things coherent, and make things fit well within each other. These tracks feel as if they have a bit less to go around for me, and it, sadly, made me not appreciate this album as much as I probably should've.

I think my new appreciation for Phaedra can get me a more open mind to most if not all electronic music genres, and it clearly proves itself to be a great electronic album to enjoy. However, those two tracks do kinda bore me a bit, and it is still in that weird middle divide between the old TD and the one we know today. This is a strange and great record, but still, I am not that big of a fan of it as other people are.