ALPHA CENTAURI

By the time of their second album, it has become obvious that Tangerine Dream were going away from the Krautrock influences and going with an extremely original and ambient direction, even if the music has not yet been perfected like such later albums as Phaedra and Rubycon. And with Klaus Schulze leaving the band in such an early age, it was time for new ideas to become full forced.

1.Sunrise in the Third System - I would have to say that this is one of the top cuts from the album. Edgar Froese hasn't forgotten about his Krautrock infleunces, as the experimental intro is always different from the rest. The song then turns into an almost droning keyboard effect, very ambient and would fit easily on a horror movie track. Odd sound effects shower the sound with an extremely different atmosphere than the first album. Changes are always accepted with this song. (9/10)

2.Fly And Collision Of Comas Sola - One of the more intense songs from the album. It reminds me of what Klaus Schulze was doing around the same time, as the easy keyboard progressions in the middle section of the song are hidden by the interesting space effects that seem to send anyone in the right mindset out to the Comas Sola. The song itself has a structure that seems to repeat itself in some ways, even if the intro is a bit out of the ordinary (so is Tangerine Dream, in general) and the outro turns into a bad trip full of cosmic drumming, guitar, space effects and flute melodies. An excellent song. (9.5/10)

3.Alpha Centauri - Tangerine Dream's first real trip to outer space. The song is a long experimentation into the space effects of their equipment and their studio techniques. After a long sequence of trippy sounds that send any person into an intense psychedelic mindstate, the flute melody seems to come up in an interesting way. The song is totally wierd, but does not compare to the first two tracks in it's consistency. (7.5/10)

Though the album has main flaws as immaturity, and searching for the right sound, the band were on the right track. Froese had found the right band members and would continue to make revolutionary music in the future with this line-up. I have to give it 4 stars because of the lack of consistency, but it's still worthwile to have in your collection.