THE PRIVATE MUSIC OF TANGERINE DREAM

Having listened to this the morning (not for the first time) I thought I would do a quick review.First thing to note that this compilation is only taken from about 4-5 albums that were released on the Private Music label during the late eighties and early nineties. Private Music was set up by ex Tangerine Dream member Peter Baumann so it was quite natural for them to team up again. However little of the music from this period has the experimental qualities you would associate with Baumann era TD and instead you are 'treated' to fairly polished but generally uninspired middle of the road electro music. Not very interesting at all. There is one gem amongst the mediocrity in the powerfull guitar driven 'Three Bikes In The Sky' which compares well with Force Majeure era TD but alas its only 6 minutes long. Overall this is an album that chugs away without making any great impression. For a supposed 'best of' its very derpressing in fact.

Already in the public domain

The title of this album does should not be taken to mean that the music here is some sort of raiding of the Tangerine Dream archives to discover a host of lost gems. The word "private" is simply a reference to the record label to which the band were signed when the recordings which make up this compilation were made.

The Private label was actually owned by former Tang Peter Baumann, the recordings made during this period in the band's history (from 1988-1990) being referred to as the Melrose years. While "Melrose" was the name of one of the albums recorded at this time, the name actually stems from the Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles location of the label's premises.

By this time, Tangerine Dream were effectively a duo of Edgar Froese and Paul Haslinger, Chris Franke having left the group. The band released three studio albums during this phase of their career, "Optical Race", "Lily on the beach", and "Melrose". They also recorded a further film sound track "Miracle mile". Tracks from all these albums are included on this compilation, along with two further unreleased numbers. These new numbers are perhaps what makes this compilation worthwhile, as they were recorded in 1992 by the Froese father and son duo, and are otherwise unavailable. The tracks themselves are very much standard Tangerine Dream fare by the way, do not expect anything radically new or different from them.

These tracks from the Melrose years albums represent a decent cross section of Tangerine Dreams work at that time. While being nowhere near as dynamic or innovative as their pioneering early work, there is still an energy in the upbeat nature of most of the tracks which saves these recordings from simply being dismissed as new age style. Among the more interesting tracks is "Long island sunset" from "Lily on the beach", the first time the band used a saxophone on a track. The "Melrose" album itself is significant in the band's history as it was the first full album by Tangerine Dream with Jerome Froese in the line up. He did play on one track on "Lily on the beach", but that is omitted from this compilation. "Melrose" thus featured the one album only line up of Jerome Froese, Edgar Froese and Paul Haslinger.

In all, a decent summary of the Melrose Years of Tangerine Dream. Those years were hardly the band's most exciting phase, but this is an enjoyable listen nevertheless.